amazing, the spillover from chinese demand for hongkong consumer goods seems to be overflowing into japan.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-01/china-s-new-killer-app-a-princess-a-pea-and-a-way-around-japan
The app with the fairy tale name, called Wandou in Chinese, uses about 50 professional shoppers in Japan to procure everything from toilet-seat covers to toothpaste for consumers over in China. For Chen, it’s a way of getting safe and reliable everyday items without having to leave her home or the country, and shipping is free for orders over 300 yuan ($45).
Chinese have been flocking to Japan for electronics, luxury and consumer goods for years, perceiving them to be better and more luxurious than what they can buy at home. Five million Chinese tourists shelled out 1.4 trillion yen ($13.7 billion) there last year, a 154 percent increase from 2014, Japan’s tourism agency says.
Amazon Inc. recently added Chinese language to its Japanese website, lowered the cost of shipping to China and enabled shoppers in China to pay with local currency in response to demand for goods ranging from health and personal care products to cosmetics, Amazon Japan President Jasper Cheung said in a July 27 interview.
Wandou users can make purchases from among more than 3,000 items -- from Lion Corp. toothpaste and Kao Corp. sanitary pad to Calbee Inc.’s potato snacks -- stocked in a 20,000 square-foot warehouse near Tokyo’s Haneda airport. Orders are shipped to China through the company’s own logistics system.
“I want to use made-in-Japan products even if they cost me extra money since I’m scared of Chinese goods,” said Chen. “There are a lot of people like me. Whenever I get good stuff delivered from Japan and introduce them to my friends, they want to buy them right away.”
