Japanese Luxury Consumption : Enjoy the freedom but follow the rules

Abstract: This study seeks to understand the underlying cultural and social concepts for the extensive luxury consumption in Japan. With Japan currently being the biggest market for prestige brands from the West, this study suggests a reinterpretation of existing "Western" consumer theories taking into account aspects of Confucian tradition and looks at how these cultural orientations shape the practice of prestige brand consumption in Japan. This involves building a prestige-seeking consumer behaviour framework where existing theories of conspicuous consumption, distinction and signification as well as the self-concept theory are reviewed and integrated in a Confucian culture model. Based on an inductive approach, interviews were conducted with prestige brand consumers in Tokyo and suggested that the importation of Western goods does not imply that purchase reasons are the same and that the same products fulfil the same social functions. Thus, a fine-tuning of existing Western consumption theories is required and suggested in this paper.