Culture and luxury in Japan.

The website of the market research firm JapanConsuming (Tokyo) displayed a posting on February 5, 2007, which suggested that the Japanese consumer appetite for foreign luxury goods-particularly French-is based on the strong cultural identity Japanese consumers possess. This deep Japanese cultural identity sets up the Japanese consumer to identify with products and services that echo their own cultural identity.

The posting is based on an interview with the head of a French brand association that represents 68 luxury French brands in Japan.

The posting cited an undated HSBC study that said 45 percent of all world luxury goods were purchased by Japanese consumers. JapanConsuming estimates the Japanese imported luxury goods market at 20 percent to 30 percent of the world luxury goods market. Citing a 2003 study from the Saison Research Institute (Tokyo) the posting said that 94 percent of women in Tokyo owned at least one piece of a premiere French luggage brand, and 51 percent bought from a famous French perfume/fashion house.