Image addiction
The world is full of people who like to impress others by investing in brand images, but I am under the impression, that the Japanese are particularly susceptible to brand addiction. In combination with their “fashion mania” this creates sometimes rather peculiar situations.
If one is not careful, this carry the risk of rendering the person involved to be ridiculed, depending on the involved meaning of those brands.
For example, many people boast of driving a foreign car, among which Volkswagen = VW is very popular. However, probably only very few Japanese know that “Volkswagen” means literally “a car for the little man”. Hitler brought them on the market, so that ordinary (= NOT wealthy) people can afford owning a car. How about telling people boasting about his/her “Volkswagen”, that he or she is proudly driving “a car for the little wo/man”.
The same applies to BMW cars. The owners are sooo proud of their glittering foreign luxury car, but possibly nobody here in Japan knows that “BMW” stands for Bayrische Motorenwerke – which would translate into something like “rural Bavarian engine plant”. I think it would sound silly, if someone said: “I am driving rural Bavarian engine plant car”. Well, be my guest.
Totally unrelated to cars, similar things apply to musical instruments. I know a Japanese manufacturer of guitars (Mr. Imai). My brother and two German friends are using his guitars. He told me, he personally took his instruments to Japanese music shops, who refused his guitars, although they acknowledged their outstanding quality. Reason for turning him down was: ‘he is not famous’.
Taking the same instruments to European or American shops, the people were ecstatic and bought them IMMEDIATELY.
By clinging so desperately to brand images or (questionable!) reputations the Japanese people throw obstacles in their own way and loosing sight of more important things.
