The Cultural Marketer || 'Tachiyomi' Culture in Japan
‘Tachiyomi’ in Japanese translates to ‘standing reading’.
This term came about because of the widely accepted practice in Japanese culture to stand and read magazines or books inside of the many bookstores one can find across Japan. These bookstores are usually located at busy train stations and/or close to coffee shops, where people are in between meetings with friends and colleagues, which meant the bookstores became a natural place for them to pick up a random book or magazine and read as they waited.
Having spent a year living in Osaka during my university years, this was a common practice for me as well; with 10-15 minutes to kill in between meeting up with friends for coffee or dinner, I would gravitate towards an empty spot amongst the bookshelves brimming with the latest fashion magazines, manga, or even novels (when I felt like challenging my language skills).
Coming to terms with this practice but not wanting to have all of their books flipped through, bookstores started designing books and magazines labeled ‘Mihon’ (ie. samples) for people who engage in ‘tachiyomi’. It’s not surprising for there to be 5-10 readers gathered around a single shelf leafing through the latest magazines. While a practice like this would be frowned upon in North America where I’m from, it’s natural for the Japanese to stand there and read for 10-15 minutes, sometimes even 30 minutes at a time(!)
This adds an interesting twist to circulation number for magazines in Japan, as one magazine may very well be read by an exponential number of readers who do not actually end up purchasing the magazine. Knowing this Japanese cultural practice, how would you leverage this ‘passerby’ reader as a brand advertising in the magazine?
Maybe you could…
Run a card insert inside the magazine that encourages people to visit a website for a special promotion
If I owned cafes located near such bookstores, maybe I would approach the bookstores and pay them for pop-up signage on their bookshelves with a special ‘tachiyomi’ offer, knowing that most ‘tachiyomi’ readers are on their way to a coffee meetup and would appreciate a suggested cafe spot.
Most ‘tachiyomi’ readers may potentially want to buy the book or magazine they are reading, but commuting in Japan is mostly on trains, and walking around for the rest of the day isn’t the most convenient thing to do, so maybe the solution is to have a QR code they could scan to purchase the reading material electronically or to have it delivered via the convenient, same-day delivery service Takkyubin (宅急便), which means ‘shipping/fast delivery at home’.
These are just some opportunities brands could use to tailor their location marketing strategy execution. We hope this inspired you to think more about how to cater to the cultural differences within your target audience markets!