[kennyroo]

It's interesting that this is only happening now, after Japan has suffered through a decade-long recession. Did an entire generation grow up with different values, or did the down economy change consumer behavior over a long period of time to reach this point? Or both?

Mapping this to the US, the transition from spending to saving and from bling to value orientation seems to be happening very quickly. Wonder if it will last.

[bprater]

Great question, hopefully our Hackers in Japan can give us some insight. It'll be interesting to see if the US will begin to parallel this change.