Be it in the past or now, Japan is an attractive market for toys. Throughout the 1980s, the entire retail market in Japan grew 94% due to the strength of Japan’s economy and the increase in consumer spending. In 1991, the Japan’s toy market was worth Y932 billion (SGD $10.4 billion), increase by 2.9% (SGD $0.29 billion) from the previous year. As the expanded economy in Japan led to an increase in the national income, this causes a shift in the demand curve as the consumer's demand for goods is constrained by their income. As shown in Figure 1 below, the demand curve for toys shift outward from dd1 to dd2 due to the increase in income. This is because the toy consumers are high income earners with high purchasing powers, allowing them to buy …show more content…
In Japan, the family units are smaller and the country has a declining birthrate. The falling birthrate is due to the Japanese culture that marriage is a prerequisite for having children and since the average cost of a Japanese wedding is about ¥3.2m (SGD $40,000), this causes them to avoid marriage. Furthermore, the private companies in Japan discouraged women that have children to return to their previous jobs through their actions that include forcing them to take low-paid irregular or part-time jobs (The Economist, 2010). Moreover, the employment rates of the women in Japan have increased because of the expansion of employment opportunities. Henceforth, they postpone their marriage to later ages to pursue their career. Therefore, with a small family size; it allows them to focus their spending on fewer children. With a larger budget to spend on toys as there are fewer mouths to feed, enabled families to spend more on expensive toys for their children and …show more content…
As there are at least 6,000 small toy stores selling similar toy products and so consumers are indifferent as to whom they buy from. In addition, toy stores have no barriers to entry, implying that the toy stores are completely mobile to enter a market freely. This is because opening up a toy store in Japan require low start-up cost and small land area due to the laws and regulation against big stores. In addition, many toy stores are small so they only employ one or two staff, requiring low unskilled labor. Furthermore, toy stores in Japan are generally opened by people above 60 years of age, therefore, requires no entrepreneur skills to
Perhaps the first thing one must consider is why there are increasing numbers of poor women having children out of wedlock. One explanation of this concept that Edin and Kefalas use is that the poor women view raising their own child as a sense of accomplishment. For instance, they explain “in the social world inhabited by poor women, a baby born into such conditions represents an opportunity to prove one 's worth.” (11.3). Essentially, the women of a low social class view their children as an opportunity for success. It represents a sense of hope and fulfillment that the mother feels when she has a child. Also, interestingly enough, women of a poor class viewed “marriage as a luxury” (11.2). There are also reasons that involve a sense of fear in control. For instance, Edin and Kefalas explain that “poor women do not want to marry until they are set… a young mother often fears marriage will mean a loss of control” (13.3). Essentially, a poor women who has a child
finally the opportune moment for individuals to build a stable family that previous decades of depression, war, and domestic conflicts had restricted. We see that this decade began with a considerable drop in divorce rates and rise in marriage rates, which is often assumed as the result of changed attitudes and values. However, this situation cannot be only just attributed to women’s
. G. Toys is a leading supplier of high quality dolls that are manufactured in two plants within Illinois, one in Chicago, one in Springfield. These dolls are sold in retailors throughout the United States and have an established, loyal customer base due to their high quality and popularity (Campbell & Kulp, 2004). In the last few years, due to rising production costs, their most popular doll, Geoffrey, has seen a decrease in profit margin. In this evaluation we plan to address G.G. Toys existing cost system and offer recommendations on whether management should change the costing system in both the Chicago and Springfield plant. We will calculate the costs of the Geoffrey doll, the specialty branded doll #106 and the cradles using the cost
Market is dominated by large players like Best Buy, Toys “R” Us, Gap, Sports Authority, etc
...olden times, women were bound ‘only’ to do the domestic work, whereas men were entitled to do the foreign work. But now time has evolved, and women are indulging more in the professional arena. The pursuance time of the career and that to starting a family conflicts. Women have their priorities of pursuing their career first to acquire financial stability similarly like men and then settling down in the institution of marriage. Some women delay marriage and parenting because some of them are single girl child or are sister siblings so they have their own household and family responsibilities to look after. So they want to ensure a quality life for their parents and themselves. But there is a ‘ticking clock’ that places an additional burden on those wrestling with some important life decisions one of them being the most essential – the right time to have children.
This paper is aim to have a quick analysis of current competitive position of Build-A-Bear Workshop in the toy industry and challenges it faces, and to provide Build-A-Bear Workshop with some short-term and long-term recommendations to continue its success in toy industry. This paper mainly apply Porter’s five forces analysis, external environment analysis, financial analysis and value chain analysis.
With all the different economic opportunities, it is no wonder some Americans see procreation as a supplemental source of monetary income. During the twentieth century, we propagated the American Dream and placed pressure on Americans to settle down and start families. Prior to the twentieth century, many couples would have children, who would often then become labor assets; children would tend the fields or do various jobs around the home to save the family money by avoiding outsourcing. As the population grew, the laws of supply and demand triggered a need for new technology; this technology made it easier to sustain the population but also made the need for the extra children obsolete. This did not stop Americans from breeding.
In the article, “A Small Town in Japan Doubles it’s Fertility Rate,” the author talks about why the fertility rates in the small town of Nagicho are increasing, and the effects that it has had on the town. The author explains the reasoning behind what has happened to make the fertility rates grow, in relation to why it is necessary. The author uses a woman that lives in the town to better convey why the fertility rates are growing, stating that she will receive rewards such as a “celebratory gift, of ¥300,000 ($3,530) for having a child,” and “¥90,000 a year for each child she has in school.” This article conveys the events that take place in order to increase a certain populations fertility rates, and the positive and negative outcomes that
... in the toy industry is to make toy safety the number one priority and to fulfill the customers’ needs.
First, the lifestyle of the Japanese is very different to that of Americans. Whereas people in America generally spend lots of time with their families, the people of Japan typically only see each other at certain times such as meals or weekends. This is due to a heavy focus on business and work life, especially since seniority at a company determines your wages and potential for promotion (Huen 2). As part of the seniority aspect of work, many women are reluctant to have children as it forces them to take time away from work in order to have a baby and to raise the child. According to Huen, “The Japanese employment system thus offers workers something close to permanent job security if they are patient about advancement, with predictable pay increases, company housing and several kinds of fringe benefits, all in return for workers’ loyalty and commitment to the company”. This system causes many women not to want children until their careers are well on the way to becoming ...
Marriage in Japan Why people get married? There would be many reasons; to save money, to escape from loneliness, to have a better life, and so on. But in most case people marry for love. Though it is almost always true, a married life is different between in the western culture and in Japan. A marriage in modern western culture is based on mutuality and companionship. In Western there is a tendency to be independent. Most college graduates live apart from their family and find an apartment near the working place. They have learned how to ¡°survive¡± in single and marriage is an optional. However, a person in Japan who graduates from a college and has a job still lives with one¡¯s family until one gets married, which means one keeps the parent-child relationship. Therefore it is hard for a Japanese man to learn to be independent. After he gets married, he now relies on his bride for having foods, doing laundry, and many other things. Takeo Doi explains it with the term of amae that means the seeking or causing of oneself to be loved, nurtured, and indulged. He says it is an active attempt to make oneself into a passive love object. One reason why a man continues depending on someone else is that he has been witnessed what his parents have been done and now he considers himself as a head of his own family. In case of woman, it is difficult to keep her job after the marriage, because she needs to take care of her child, which is considered to be a wife¡¯s job. She has to do everything else except making money for the family, which makes her dependent on her husband who has the economic power. However in western culture, it is natural for both partners to have their own jobs and to be responsible for every single household job after marriage. Until recently it has been true in Japan but now it is changing. More women have their jobs rather than prepare to be a bride after the graduate. They don¡¯t need to get married if they don¡¯t want to. It has also become common not to have many children and some couples don¡¯t have a child at all. A younger bride could decide to divorce her husband if she wants to because she has a chance to get an economic independence easily nowadays.
Another cause to confirm the recent increase in divorce rates is stress in modern living. Many people, who live in globalisation, have considerable pressures to earn money. It can be obviously seen that the stress has occurred since they are children. For instance, in Thailand, students generally want to go to famous school so that they take advantage to go to well-known universities. Studying in celebrated universities mostly causes having a good opportunity to find a job or earn a lot of money. This circumstance not only happens in Thailand, but also occurs in many countries. Some people are laid off from their companies; consequently the stress occurs in their family, which leads to divorce. Some families can earn money, but inadequate for covering their expenses, therefore it is easy to think about divorce. Nevertheless, the rates of unemployment trend to continually increase as a result the divorce rates can also rise.
Wham, bang, hay-ya! Those were probably the kinds of sounds you might have heard if you passed by my room as a child. All of those greatly preformed sound effects came from none other than myself, unless I had a friends help who was of course only allowed to be the villain in whichever toys we were playing. I guess this interests me now because I can realize as an adult just how much watching certain shows, having certain toys, and playing certain games have had a part in shaping the person I am today.
As a consultant for Toys, Inc., I have been called in for my advice by the company’s president, Marybeth Corbella; on which of the two proposed options would be best for the company and for the customers as well. Toys, Inc. is a 20-year-old company that produces toys and board games, our company has a reputation built on quality and innovation. Although we have been the market leader in our field, the sales have become stagnant in recent years, and sales have begun to decline when comparing them to the sales in the past. With the company’s managers attributing the decline of sales on the economy, the company was forced to reduce production costs and layoffs in the design and product development departments; this action will hopefully increase