Aid to Those Sent to Work in U.S. : Firm Introduces Japanese to Shopping by Catalogue

Many Japanese housewives living in the United States have not warmed up to one of the most convenient methods for buying things in this country--catalogue shopping.

For them, the process of ordering merchandise in English, from reading product descriptions to conversing with American salespeople over the telephone is a nuisance.

This frustration motivated a New York-based Japanese business to launch the first Japanese-language catalogue in the United States.

Representing Dynamix Corp., a market research company established in April, 1986, 37-year-old entrepreneur Yasuhisa Iida and his seven colleagues introduced the 32-page, four-color catalogue last November. The catalogue is targeted at the 250,000 Japanese residents in the United States.

The service accepts shopping orders by mail and telephone, in Japanese--a great relief for Japanese families sent to work in the United States before they could perfect their English, said Iida, the firms’s executive vice president.

The new catalogue lists nearly 300 products, ranging from typical American consumer products to items that can be obtained only at Japanese stores. In response to customers’ greater need for the latter type of products, made-in-Japan items represent 80% of the catalogue’s entire listing, Iida said.

Clothing Popular

Sukiyaki pots, bath preparations and face rollers are among the most popular items.

Clothing also ranked among the popular items among Japanese residents, Iida said, explaining that it is very difficult for them to find U.S.-made clothing that is fitted for their bodies.

With an increasing Japanese business activity in the United States, more Japanese are beginning to settle in rural areas, a factor contributing to a rise in their reliance on companies such as Dynamix for securing Japanese products.

Iida said most of the Japanese living in the United States, especially housewives, feel uncomfortable about many aspects of their American life, stemming from their lack of language skills.

Can’t Buy Tofu

They do not know how to cope with the rush of shopping catalogues sent from many American stores to their homes every day. They do not know what kind of products are available from the catalogues, how to order them, how to lodge complaints and how to return undesired products. Each task requires a minimum skill of English language, Iida said.

In an extreme case, he said, there are some Japanese who even have trouble buying a piece of tofu--Japanese bean curd. They may have been transferred to the United States from Japan’s most rural areas where English is rarely used.

The new venture uses a membership plan, requiring customers to pay an annual fee of $15 to receive four catalogues a year and $50 worth of gift coupons. Already, 13,000 have joined the plan.

Orders in the first month of distribution have been well ahead of expectations, Iida said, forecasting annual sales to exceed an originally projected $4 million.

The company has enjoyed a 15% response rate from a mailing of the catalogue sent to 40,000 Japanese households in the United States--much higher than an average rate of 2% to 3% normally seen in the mail-order business.