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On the first day of 2024, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake suddenly struck the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan , triggering a 5-meter tsunami. The coastline rose to form a new coast with a span of about 90 kilometers, affecting many neighboring countries and attracting widespread attention. It is understood that this is the first time in six years that Japan has experienced an earthquake with a magnitude of 7 or above since the Hokkaido earthquake in 2018. According to Japan's Large-Scale Disaster Reconstruction Act, on January 19, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida issued a document designating the Noto Peninsula earthquake as an "emergency disaster." Affected by this strong earthquake, the Japanese people's awareness of disaster prevention has reached an unprecedented high, giving rise to a new wave of stockpiling: not only have the sales of emergency food and disaster prevention supplies in offline supermarkets skyrocketed, but many disaster prevention supplies have also appeared on the best-selling lists of major e-commerce platforms. "Portable toilets" have become the hottest item in Japan today, as they can provide convenient sanitary facilities during disaster relief and meet the health and survival needs of disaster victims. According to a report by CCTV Finance on January 18, since the strong earthquake, sales of related products in disaster prevention supplies stores in many places in Japan have surged. Among them, sales of portable toilets have increased six times compared with the same period in 2023. At the same time, it is learned that in the "Home Improvement and Gardening" category of Amazon Japan, a portable toilet has topped the Best Seller list. The product has sold more than 5,000 units in the past 30 days and has received 503 reviews in total. ▲ The picture comes from Amazon Japan It is worth noting that among the top 20 products in this category, half are disaster prevention-related products, five of which are portable toilets. Their sales in the past 30 days have exceeded 2,000, and the unit price is mostly above 6,000 yen (about RMB 291). Generally speaking, according to Musk's theory of needs, survival needs are the most basic needs, including food, water, gas, sleep, etc., but "excretion needs" as one of the survival needs are often overlooked. In Japan, a country with a "neurotic sensitivity" to going to the toilet, the explosion of portable toilets at this time is not difficult to predict. However, it is learned that because Japanese consumers are more loyal to local brands, most of the portable toilets currently sold on Amazon Japan are made in Japan. Therefore, although the business opportunities for "portable toilets" still exist, sellers on the Japanese site who sell non-local brands still need to think long-term if they want to develop this category. In addition to "portable toilets", the explosive sales of other disaster prevention products in Japan cannot be underestimated. According to a report by CCTV Finance on January 18, many areas in the earthquake-stricken Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan have not yet resumed normal life and are facing difficulties such as water and power outages and shortages of supplies. This has led to an unprecedented rise in the awareness of stockpiling disaster prevention supplies among the Japanese people, who already have a high level of disaster prevention awareness. Recently, the manager of a disaster prevention supplies store in downtown Tokyo, Japan, said that after the strong earthquake, the store's overall sales reached five times that of the same period in the past. In addition to portable toilets, the sales of other disaster prevention supplies also doubled: water storage containers increased by four times, flashlights increased by three times, and anti-vibration devices for fixing furniture, simple helmets, disaster prevention food, etc. were even out of stock. On the Best Seller list of the "Food" category on Amazon Japan, the top five products are all edible natural water, with sales of over 1,000 in the past 30 days and over 10,000 reviews. Stockpiling water resources has long been a basic task for the Japanese people. ▲ The picture comes from Amazon Japan As we all know, Japan is a country prone to natural disasters due to its active crust at the junction of the Eurasian Plate and the Pacific Plate. The Japanese people generally have a high awareness of disaster prevention. Therefore, unlike the nuclear radiation detectors that exploded in sales in August last year due to Japan's discharge of nuclear wastewater, Japan's disaster prevention products are always on the best-selling list, with a considerable market size. The market size of disaster prevention food alone has exceeded 1.47 billion yuan. However, for Chinese cross-border sellers, due to frequent earthquakes, Japanese local brands have already mastered the research on disaster prevention foods and disaster prevention supplies with Japanese characteristics (such as the "portable toilets" mentioned above). If cross-border sellers want to seize the business opportunity of Japanese disaster prevention supplies, they also need to find breakthroughs in other categories in which China has advantages, such as portable power supplies. According to a report by The Insight Partners, the global portable power market will grow at an average annual rate of 4.9%, from US$211 million in 2021 to US$296 million in 2029, with 90% of the market share occupied by Chinese companies. According to reports from many Japanese media, in recent years, as the "eruption of Mount Fuji" has become a hot topic on Japanese social media, the sales of disaster prevention products have increased year by year. Among them, Chinese portable power supplies with "disaster prevention + outdoor" attributes have been welcomed by Japanese consumers, and sales and prices have continued to rise. Many industry insiders admit that China's research on other disaster prevention products may not be deeper than Japan's, but my country's portable power supply market is huge, and as one of the main reserve materials for emergency prevention, it also has the opportunity to achieve explosive sales in Japan. Of course, the rush to buy disaster prevention supplies triggered by the strong earthquake has not yet subsided. Cross-border sellers can also continue to dig deeper into other categories based on recent sales changes in related markets and find other products that have the potential to achieve explosive sales. What do you think about this? Welcome to discuss in the comment area~
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