Hello again from Japan, where the Disney film Lady and the Tramp is known as Wanwan Monogatari or “The Tale of Woof Woof.”
Structurally, Japanese is very different from English, with many elements that don’t exist in Western languages. One of the first a student of Japanese encounters are the grammatical particles, which “flag” parts of a sentence in interesting ways. First is wa, the subject marker, which indicates the subject of a sentence, e.g. Watashi wa America-jin desu (“as for me, I’m American”). Note: this is unrelated to the wa that means harmony. There’s a flag for the object of a sentence, conveniently pronounced o, and particles used like prepositions in English, like ni, which can be used like “in” “at” or “to.” One useful particle is no, the “glue-like element” (to use the words of my old SDSU teacher) that joins two nouns to show ownership or relationship, e.g. Keiko no kuruma (“Keiko’s car”). Some of these grammatical particles go on the ends of sentences, like ka (which makes the sentence a question) or yo (which adds emphasis to the sentence). One particle that’s well-known to anime fans is ne, which can mean “isn’t it?” or “aren’t you?” and is used to add a level of cuteness in feminine speech.
The concept of how company brands work is a little different in Japan, and it’s common to see companies selling things that may surprise you0. All the major beer makers also have beverage bottling businesses, and sell various kinds of bottled teas. Coca-Cola Japan has even gone the other way, offering a low-alcohol beer as a Coca-Cola branded product. Yamaha makes motorcycles, pianos…and our IP router, which threw me for a loop when I noticed it. Sony also has its hands in many businesses, with Sony Online Bank, a line of high-end make-up, and Sony Life Insurance — they are also the licensor for all Thomas the Tank Engine toys in Japan. Other interesting businesses in Japan are Panahome, the construction company operated by Panasonic and Kanebo, famous for make-up, chewing gum and the little sake bottle miniatures we have on the site. I never cease to be amazed at Japan.
Another interesting Japanese twist on branding is “WiLL,” a kind of super-brand hatched by department store Daiei. The idea was to create a line of unrelated products which are all sold under the brand name “WiLL” with the same orange logo. There’s a line of WiLL make-up products, and some interesting WiLL-branded electronics, including a stylish refrigerator. The most recognizable WiLL product is the WiLL Cypha, made by Toyota, one of the most original — or bizarre-looking — cars on the roads in Japan.
