The Trend Lab. survey shows that beginning of the My Number (individual identification) system is the highest interest topics (236 answers) in 2016, followed by Rio de Janeiro Olympic and Paralympic (162 answers) and liberalization of electricity retail (153 answers).
As far as leisure or travel is concerned, open of Hokkaido Shinkansen, anniversary events for popular theme parks, a new national holiday ‘Yama no hi’ on August 11 and new resort trains are in the top 10.
Top 10 highlight topics among intended 500 20 to 60 years old males and females for the survey:
1. Beginning of the My Number system (236 answers)
2. Rio de Janeiro Olympic and Paralympic (162 answers)
3. Liberalization of electricity retail (153 answers)
4. Open of Hokkaido Shinkansen (116 answers)
5. Anniversary events for popular theme parks (114 answers)
6. Right of voting to 18 years old or older (108 answers)
7. Summit in Ise Shima (95 answers)
8. A new national holiday ‘Yama no hi’ on August 11 (78 answers)
9. NHK drama ‘Sanadamaru’ on air (60 answers)
10. A new resort trains (48 answers)
10. Start of demonstration tests for robot taxi (48 answers)
Trend Lab. also announced that booms for vacation rental (minpaku in Japanese), remote island foods and VR contents are expected to come in 2016. Vacation rental is booming because the new sharing economy is expected to be a strong solution for shortage of hotels for inbound travelers, if the rule is eased nationwide, according to Trend Lab.
VR devices, such as PlayStation VR or Oculus Rift will possibly be more enjoyable at home in 2016, and VR contents may be used more frequently in events or entertainments, Trend Lab. says.
The followings are forecasted booms in 2016 by category:
Food: remote island foods
Health: evolutionary low salt
Beauty: wheat grass
Leisure: vacation rental platform
Work: student-shitting
In the meantime, the survey on consumer confidence in 2016 finds that a share of ‘no change from 2015’ was 51%, followed by 36% of ‘lower’ and 13% of ‘higher.’
In Japanese
