As we know, Japanese nomikai often have a lot of ritual and social tension, especially when it’s with colleagues: where you sit is important to your rank in the office, and of course you have to be nice to your boss, pour his drink, and generally show lots of 遠慮 (enryo or “consideration”).

One way to get around this but still enjoy drinking in groups is to go online. Apparently net nomikai are gaining in popularity, according to reports by J-Cast and others. All you need is a web cam, Skype and a pair of headphones and mic. There is no boss, no seating arrangements — and even no geographical limitations! Obviously it’s a lot cheaper than boozing in an izakaya too, which might appeal to the recession-minded younger drinkers who can’t rely on company expenses.

Some might argue that drinking in front of a camera, even though at home, is not private enough. The same Kobe newspaper reported that single customers going to sing and drink in private karaoke booths (ヒトカラ or “solo karaoke”) are increasing.

Drinking alone sounds a bit, well, lonely, right? Not necessarily. It can become a whole product concept. Suntory in fact last year ran a campaign promoting its 3% low alcohol Chu-Hi Horoyoi (”tipsy”) as a drink for the young consumers to enjoy just by him or herself. It also started a community site to encourage people to go online and interact with each other. Horoyoi.com, did not, though, use a web cam, but instead provided you with a drinking avatar and customizable profile: importantly, drinking through a web campaign like this became a way simultaneously both to express and re-make yourself.

Scheduled to end on March 15, the site has only been a moderate success (70,000 registered users, 60% of whom are in their twenties). Suntory is hoping to keep building up word-of-mouth marketing through collecting tweets on a new Horoyoi site, Horotter.com. Though it doesn’t start till March 9, you can already see similarities. Again you get a cheerful avatar, through whom you post your tweets about Horoyoi drinking.

Actually nomikai-related tweeting has already been taking off too, it seems. Check out the tag #twinomi for what’s happening now.

While we can’t find any numbers to support this “boom”, it is interesting to see how drink companies are working with online and viral resources to try to generate young consumer- and recession-friendly trends.

Back in December, Ameba, a Japanese blog service with seven million users, launched a free new micro-blogging service for its members, Ameba Now (Ameba なう). Just like tweeting, you have 140 characters to tell the world what you are doing, and can also upload images.

Significantly, though, Ameba has integrated its trademark cute emoji into the messages that users can post. Given that Twitter doesn’t have this function so beloved by Japanese users, could it give Ameba Now the edge over its American rival? It was also launched first as a mobile site, then onto PCs a few days after. (Twitter did not have a mobile version until a year after its launch.) Ameba Now, like Ameba itself, has attracted a good contingent of popular Japanese geinoujin and celebrities (below is the account for model Yuka Hiura), bringing with them fans and publicity.

February 24 saw the news that there had been a million unique users on Ameba Now in January alone, and that 54% of them were female. Twitter is said to have 4.7 million users, so it probably won’t lose much sleep just yet. However, the balance of tweeters in Japan is weighted towards male users, with 64% of the share. The number of visits in January per person was not dissimilar either: 3.3 (Ameba Now) versus 3.9 (Twitter), though users were on Twitter for much longer (a total of over 25 minutes versus just under 7 minutes for Ameba Now).

Before we reject Twitter as a foreign upstart and past its prime, let’s remember there is more to these micro-blogging services than just celebrities or personal messages.

The Nikkei Marketing Journal reported recently about sushi chain restaurants using Twitter to harness word-of-mouth marketing and build up their consumer base. At the beginning of February Sushi Tokoro Saisho had a promotion rewarding customers who tweeted their visit to the restaurant, with the discount calculated at one yen off per Twitter follower (i.e. a 100 JPY [US$1.1] discount if you have 100 followers). Apparently this led to over 1000 tweets about the restaurant.

Toy store Sugorokuya also did a similar campaign from late January to early February, and saw the number of customers visiting increase by 30-40%.

Twitter may not have the emoji or the female users, but for marketing it is perhaps still winning this minor micro-blog war.

All you do is sit down and let the camera scan your face. The terminal then gives you tailored recommendations. Pressing a few buttons on the touch-screen paints make-up onto your image in realtime, allowing you to see the results instantly. You also try out make-up that is currently making waves, along with printing out before and after photos with product information for you to go make the purchase of whichever colors caught your eye the most.

We’ve spent several months researching all about the emerging technology that will change our modes of transport, as well as the consumer trends, community shifts, and lifestyle changes. Along the way we’ve encountered power-generating floors, Shibuya fashion gurus taking to the farms, and surprisingly green vending machines. While often unique to Japan, these new movements provide limitless possibilities for inspiring innovation around the world.

The new Japanese government has promised a bold twenty-five percent reduction in emissions by 2020, and will no doubt introduce regulations and legislation designed to achieve this target. However, our research has told us that the real success happens through consumer and industry interaction, that the biggest innovation is in harnessing the power of the consumer for creating real change.

There’s arguably no better country than Japan for brand-to-consumer interactions.

Our 75+ slide report is packed full of original images and on-site local examples with analysis and numbers. Even if you’re not a researcher or marketer, there’s a lot to be learned from the pioneering developments happening in Japan that will likely have implications for your own business.

You can read more about the report on our special Eco Report page, where it is available worldwide in digital form.