The Japan Productivity Center for Socio-Economic Development (Mr. Tsuneaki Taniguchi, President) published "White Paper of Leisure 2008: The Era of Selective Investment." This white paper is the only publication that covers the actual leisure activities in Japan in comprehensive and chronological way both from the perspective of demand and supply sides. This is 32nd of the paper, which is published since 1977. The summary of the paper is as follows:

1.Casual outdoor activities and indoor leisure gaining ground

Partly due to improved consumer spending in 2007, many industry sub-sectors saw increase of traffic as compared to 2006.

Outdoor activities as visiting renewed "Zoo, botanical gardens, aquarium, museums" (increase of 3.4 million visitors compared to previous year) and "TV games" for which new hardware as Wii was available (increase of 0.7 million players compared to previous year) led the increase in activities.

On the other hand, sub-sectors as "Domestic trip" or "Homecoming trip," which requires long distance travel, had difficulty increasing traffic. "Lottery," which saw substantial increase in participants lately, recorded decline of 3.7 million compared to last year.

Table 1. Top 20 Leisure sub-sectors 2006-2007

2.The trend of leisure related industry and market: Market size is 74 trillion Yen and in positive trend except for the gambling market

The size of leisure related industry in 2007 was 74.537 trillion Yen, or 5.8% smaller than in 2006. The difference is mostly due to the decline in the huge pachinko market and most other markets were at the same level.

In sports related market (+0.5% compared to 2006), golf courses and practice ranges were popular. This may be because of health awareness campaign of the government.

In hobby & creation market (-2.2% compared to 2006), single reflector lens digital cameras and full high-vision specification, large-sized LCD TVs sold well.

In entertainment market (-8.5% compared to 2006), the tighter regulation of pachinko-slot machines resulted in 4.5 trillion Yen dip of pachinko market. While TV games continued to do well, game arcades had a tough time.

In tourism and recreational market (+1.0% compared to 2006), hotels and membership resort clubs did well. Domestic travel decreased slightly as well as international travel, although the latter's market increased nominally due to fuel surcharge income. Auto sales increased in export market but stagnated in domestic market.

Table 2. Change of Leisure Market

3.Special report

The market of "new leisure" is about 10 trillion Yen

A questionnaire survey about 25 "new leisure" hot-growth businesses such as recreational use of mobile phone and hot bath facilities resulted in the estimated figure of 10.43 trillion Yen as the size of this market. Also, including people with willingness to utilize these businesses, the "potential market" was estimated at 12 trillion Yen, indicating more room for growth in this area.

The era of "selective investment"

The spot survey of 91 types of leisure activities revealed that the types of leisure activities enjoyed by one person per year decreased from 17.8 types to 14.5 types. There was noticeable trend among teens in particular that they enjoy only limited types of leisure. Lack of diverse experience in leisure during young ages could result in slow activities down the road and should be taken as a threat to the industry as a whole.

During the same period, 90% of the leisure types lost ratio of participation but 60% of leisure types saw increase in the number of annual average participation. This clearly indicates that popular leisure will get more attention while unpopular leisure will get less attention, resulting in "selective investment" to leisure. The industry will have to strategically develop needs to cope with this kind of change in customer taste.

Table 3. Estimated Size of "New Leisure" Market