Japan

COVID-19 led to global automotive sales plummeting by 16% in 2020, as lockdowns curtailed business and consumer activity. Passenger vehicle sales will, however, recover and grow by 28% over 2020-2025. Shared mobility was also squeezed, with gross ...

After seeing negligible retail current value increases during most of the review period, home and garden turned to stronger growth in 2020, due to the impact of COVID-19. All categories saw better performances than in any other year of the review ...

After already seeing solid current value growth for most of the review period, in 2020 homewares saw a dynamic sales increase. After the emergence of COVID-19 in the country, the government encouraged home seclusion to prevent the spread of the ...

After seeing slow and steady current value growth for most of the review period, in 2020 gardening saw a strong increase in its rate of growth, with a double-digit increase. Home seclusion due to COVID-19 led to rising demand amongst relatively ...

Home improvement saw only insignificant movements in its current value sales during the review period, in most years either remaining static or seeing a slight decline. However, this changed in 2020 due to the impact of COVID-19, with the category ...

Home furnishings remained by far the biggest category within home and garden in 2020, accounting for nearly two thirds of value sales in this year. Although seeing slower growth than all other home and garden categories, overall home furnishings saw ...

After persistently strong sales growth over the historic period, childrenswear saw a retail value decline in 2020 in Asia Pacific, as Coronavirus (COVID-19) hit the region. However, as children continued to outgrow their clothing and with parents ...

The COVID-19 crisis had a severe negative impact on sales of colour cosmetics in 2020 as a wide range of factors related to the pandemic adversely affected the category’s performance. The lack of social contact resulting from consumers confining ...

The COVID-19 crisis saw a shift in demand from premium beauty and personal care products to the mass segment. This was due in part to the fact that department stores and beauty specialist retailers, key channels for the premium segment, are not ...

Men’s grooming saw the COVID-19 crisis exert a varying influence across product categories in 2020. The reduction in social contact, as people stayed at home to avoid exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and shifted to remote working while leisure venues...

Skincare products were less affected by the COVID-19 crisis than other areas of beauty and personal care in 2020. The lack of social contact resulting from home seclusion and the shift to remote working had less of an impact than in categories such ...

In 2020, high-priced and leisure-orientated brands, such as Shiseido’s Anessa and Kanebo’s Allie, which offer strong UV protection, were hit hard by Japanese consumers remaining at home in order to avoid exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus – and ...

The essential status of oral care meant that demand proved resilient during the COVID-19 crisis, with the increase in consumers’ hygiene-consciousness due to the pandemic also supporting demand. Indeed, the rise in awareness of hygiene and health ...

Hygiene-awareness was already on the rise amongst Japanese consumers as a result of the long flu season that lasted from 2019 into 2020 before it was further bolstered by concerns about infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. As a ...

2020 saw baby and child-specific products adversely affected by both the long-term trend of Japan’s continuous decline in birth rate and the direct impact of the COVID-19 crisis on consumer behaviour. Japan is going through a significant population ...

The COVID-19 crisis had a negative impact on demand for depilatories as consumers had fewer opportunities for social contact either at work or in leisure scenarios and, therefore, took a more relaxed approach to beauty and personal care regimens, ...

The COVID-19 crisis had a less marked impact on hair care than other beauty and personal care categories, such as colour cosmetics and sun care, with demand remaining relatively stable. This resulted largely from the fact that hair care products are ...

In recent years, Japanese consumers have become increasingly aware of sumehara, which translates as “smell harassment”. Prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, this was driving up sales of deodorants despite the fact that the category had reached a fair ...

The COVID-19 crisis led to a consumer shift from premium beauty and personal care products to mass products for daily use. This resulted in part from restrictions on the operations of department stores and beauty specialist retailers, including store...

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, premium beauty and personal care products had been witnessing an upward trend, with the rise in inbound tourism, the expanded range of high- value-added product line-ups and strong sales of anti-ageing products driving...