Array of items from GS Home Products.

With European brands and high-end domestic suppliers to the fore, Interior Lifestyle 2009 took a huge array of interior products to the Tokyo Big Sight from 3 to 5 June. The emphasis was on style, quality and presentation.

Notable trends included new tech materials, especially in the table and kitchenware sector; the enhancement and expansion of fluid and ergonomic design; plenty of bright new colours and a growing sophistication among "environmentally friendly" products.

Hong Kong companies were well represented at the fair, which attracted a total of 26,220 visitors, down slightly from 27,390 in 2008.

Product categories included table, kitchen and housewares; home textiles; gift items; design and style; and general interior products such as furniture, lighting and interior plants.

There were 630 exhibitors (down from 652 in 2008), one-third coming from overseas, making Interior Lifestyle one of the more international trade fairs in traditionally conservative Japan.

Award winning pepper mills.

Colourful scouring pads.

Eleven suppliers (up from nine in 2008) either hailed from Hong Kong or were at the fair in collaboration with a Hong Kong company. Breaking with the tradition of physical proximity to Asian national pavilions, one Hong Kong exhibitor was ensconced in the German Pavilion, another in the "Euro Style" section, and a third in the "Design Perspective" area. Others displayed in the fair's main exhibition space.

Allerhand, a Hong Kong family lifestyle bag supplier, was present. Allerhand manufactures on the Chinese mainland and Vietnam, and has offices in Germany and Hong Kong.

"I'm very pleased with my experience in Hong Kong," said Stefanie Jung, Managing Director. "It's been good for Allerhand, as it's very easy for foreigners to set up and run a company."

Jung: Hong Kong a pleasing experience.

In Japan, Allerhand has one major distributor and about five wholesalers. "Because we are so close to Japan," says Jung, "we can service our new Japanese customers very quickly. We have a large warehouse in Hong Kong, and we can get goods to Japan in one week."

Jung says Allerhand's quality and German engineering helped open doors in Japan. "Our bags, from the outside, have bright colours and look sophisticated. But when you open the product you find the inside has as many well-made sub compartments. Our slogan is 'inside function, outside style'." She characterises the Japanese market as "very different, requiring patience, a properly-organised set-up and the motivation to provide security and safety for the customer."

Allerhand products are sold in some of Japan's top retailers, from the prestigious Isetan department store to stationery shops and outdoor stores. Prices for the Allerhand Flexi-shopper bag are in the range of US$60 to US$100 retail. Larger bags range from US$240.

Price points are vital

Shiono: looking for quality.

Visiting a Japanese trade fair for the first time was Hong Kong's Winley Industries (Far East) Ltd, which sells bone china (48% bone), and also offers a lower price, so-called "new bone" synthetic line.

"The quality is okay," said buyer Hiroyuki Shiono of ITD Ltd, who was in the booth. "The price is very good, and especially in the last couple of years, a low price is also important."

"Japanese say that they're looking for a cheaper price," commented Winley's Mabel Leung wryly, "but compared to Europeans or North Americans, they can still pay a little more!"

Some of the crockery on offer was high-end, handcrafted and with prices for a single dish starting at over US$100. These booths tended to attract small, independent retailers. But how many sales are these sort of specialty shops, once very common in Japan, actually making these days? Pointing to the economic downturn, suppliers suggested independent retailers' order quantities are now becoming so small that they're impractical.

Overall, buyers gravitated to booths featuring reasonably priced products with strong contemporary or retro design, new tech materials or distinctive colours.

High design for eggcup.

Robot clocks.

Examples included everything from bags to drink containers, egg cups, robot clocks and dishwashing gloves. In many cases, displays promoted design awards the products had garnered, or technical characteristics of new materials.

Tactile materials in a difficult market

Many new materials also appeal to the tactile sense, and there were plenty of popular "hands-on" displays inviting visitors to reach out and touch slippers, mops and scouring pads.

Feel the softness.

Bear power.

There were other ways to bring people to a booth. GS Home Products, with offices in Japan and Hong Kong, appealed to buyers with a pretty model in a red apron, smiling and chopping tomatoes with the company's new US$12 fruit and vegetable peeler.

European design held sway, with French style evidenced even on Chinese mainland-made handbags. But there were some notable exceptions.

One company that returned to Interior Lifestyle was Hong Kong's Inhesion, which improbably brought together German-made glassware with its licensed Australian artist, Christopher Vine. A Vine mug gift set sells for US$15. And they sell well, according to agent Hiroshi Ishiyama of ITSNET Corp, Inhesion's exclusive Japanese agent.

Ishiyama: good sales for mug set.

"We sold 100,000 of these mugs last year," said Ishiyama, "and we had less than 2% [of poor] quality. So we're happy with the quality control from the Hong Kong side. As far as next year's sales and the Japanese economy, we'll have to see, about half our sales have been in department stores, but the developing situation at Japanese department stores is bad."

The ongoing eco-friendly message was delivered throughout the fair, with Hong Kong exhibitor Moneray International Ltd promoting reduced energy consumption as an environment-saving measure as well as a solution so consumers could lower energy bills.

Moneray has been doing business in Japan for 20 years, and this time was showing two new eco-products.

One was a 24-channel timer which regulates the usage of electrical products to certain times of the day. The other was a monitoring meter that displays how much electricity is being used by each appliance in the home, the cost of that energy, and how much carbon monoxide is being (indirectly) emitted by using these appliances.

Kwok (right) and team.

Managing Director Joe Kwok explained: "this technology can increase awareness - for example, when people use an electric car, they think it's eco-friendly - but the power is coming from power plants, and those plants are themselves damaging the environment. We have developed the technology to monitor this effectively, technology that can be used in the home, or can be integrated into appliances by manufacturers."

Continued Kwok: "even in this economic downturn, [Japanese buyers are] still looking for the same quality, they will never sacrifice quality for cost. That's the challenge we are facing, and to meet the challenge we have to continue to design better products."

Bins from FEMC.

Hong Kong's FEMC had a line of step-on garbage bins with a difference - the lid, which in most other garbage cans simply falls down when the foot pedal is released, here floats dreamily back into position. They call the dampening effect a "soft-close pedal bin", and they have a patent for it. "Our engineers designed it, it's quiet, colourful and environmentally good, and we think it will be popular here," said FEMC's YF Cheung.

The bin came in fun colours and featured a stainless steel and polypropylene plastic design, with the price at US$13.

"I think the most important thing in Japan is service," says Cheung, who has been doing business in Japan for 30 years. "This is what they expect, and any companies hoping to be successful in Japan should know that this is what they have to do."

from special correspondent Monty DiPietro, Tokyo