Category: What’s New

by Philbert Ono

The Japanese camera industry’s struggles have gotten worse with the pandemic in 2020. The coronavirus resulting in stay-at-home requests, travel bans, and the cancellation of events (including the Tokyo 2020 Olympics) give people fewer reasons to take pictures and fewer reasons to buy a new camera. Worldwide camera sales for Jan. to May 2020 is only 50.4% of sales in the same period in 2019.

With the prominence of smartphones, all camera makers have been facing shrinking sales of digital cameras. In 2010, worldwide camera sales peaked at 121.46 million units. In 2019, it shrank to one-eighth the peak with only 15.21 million units.

Even Nikon and Canon are seeing much lower sales in 2020 than ever before. Nikon saw red ink for the first time, for the year ending in March 2020. Sales of its D-SLRs and lenses are not doing well. Although Nikon has greatly trimmed its workforce at its factories in Thailand and Laos, it still expects the red ink to continue until 2021. Their new Nikon D6 flagship D-SLR introduced in May 2020 won’t be enough to put them in the black.

Experts say that Nikon and Canon were late in the game in the mirrorless camera market. Fearing that mirrorless cameras would eat into their D-SLR camera sales, they delayed entering the full-frame mirrorless camera market until 2018 when mirrorless camera sales in Japan already exceeded D-SLR sales. Sony had already marketed the world’s first full-frame mirrorless camera “α7” in 2013.

Sony continues to lead the mirrorless camera market. In 2019, Sony sold 1.65 million mirrorless cameras in Japan, Canon 940,000, and Nikon only 280,000 units.

Sony had no fears about mirrorless cameras affecting DSL-R sales since it had no D-SLRs. So it just took the mirrorless camera ball and ran with it all by itself. It has been an amazing run (for the money too). Congratulations to Sony.

Of course, Canon is not standing idly by. It now has the EOS R5 that came out in July 2020. It has been well received as a full-frame mirrorless camera featuring 8K video. The specs exceed Sony’s α9.

Although Sony and Canon have diverse product lines to maintain profitability, Nikon remains on shaky ground. Hopefully, it will survive. A camera industry without Nikon is almost unthinkable.

We have already seen too many mid-tier camera companies disappear or downsize. Ricoh reduced its camera division (which had earlier merged with Pentax) in 2017, and Casio totally withdrew from the compact camera business in May 2018.

The latest shock came on June 24, 2020 when Olympus Corporation announced that it would sell off its historic camera division (founded in 1936) to Japan Industrial Partners, a Japanese investment fund. The final contract will be signed in Sept. 2020 and the sale will be completed by the end of 2020. Olympus will continue as a medical equipment maker.

Another shock was Asahi Camera, one of Japan’s longtime leading camera magazines, ceasing publication with its July 2020 issue. After 94 years in print, this venerable monthly magazine has retired due to declining readership and ad revenue.

Also, in recent years, many authorized camera repair centers in Japan have closed. The major camera makers now have repair centers only in Tokyo or only in the largest cities. People in other areas will need to use mail-in repair services.

As someone who has witnessed the rise and continuing fall of digital cameras, I find all this really sad. But it only reflects the ever-changing times. On the bright side, photography continues to be a massively popular and important activity and photos are essential in our daily lives. More people than ever before are making money from photography. And anybody can take pictures. We’ve come a long, long way since the first camera was brought into Japan.

Source: https://toyokeizai.net/articles/-/364518

by Philbert Ono

In 1922, Torii Shoten (鳥井商店), the forerunner of Osaka-based beverage maker Suntory, made this poster to promote its “Akadama Port Wine” in Japan. Dubbed “Japan’s first nude poster,” it became an instant sensation.

It has become one of Japan’s most iconic and classic images. Any book about Japan’s advertising history or photographic history would include this historical poster. The nascent start of the “sex sells” concept in Japan. Needless to say, thanks to this poster, they sold a lot of this wine.

The poster was also very controversial during a very conservative period in Japan. The “nude” model was Emiko Matsushima (松島栄美子), a stage actress. A young woman posing like this was unthinkable and taboo in those days, and she was subject to police questioning for obscenity and other public harassment. She was even disowned by her siblings and all her relatives. Poor girl.

Emiko was the prima donna of a musical troupe (赤玉楽劇座) created specifically to promote Akadama Port Wine. The troupe went around Japan for a year to entertain wine retailers and customers. She was originally from Tokyo and worked as a stage actress before her famous gig.

Afterward, she moved back to Tokyo, married an NHK employee before World War II, had a son, and lived out her final years quietly in an apartment in Takadanobaba, Tokyo. Shortly before she died in 1983 at age 90, her nephew took a picture (below) of her posing with her famous poster at home.

Emiko Matsushima in 1983 with the famous 1922 poster of herself. Source: Sankei

Not much is known about the process of making this iconic shot. Torii reasoned that no matter how good a product was, it would be no use if people didn’t know about it. And so apparently he was in favor of a sensational PR campaign.

The photographer was KATAOKA Toshiro (片岡敏郎) who worked in the company’s PR department. Kataoka was already well-known in the advertising business as exceptionally talented, progressive, and innovative. He was the one who formed the musical troupe to promote the Akadama Port Wine.

He rented a photo studio in Osaka for a total of six days in May 1922 and took many shots of Emiko starting with her dressed in a kimono. Then he posed her in her underclothing, and eventually topless. Kataoka took about 50 to 60 shots per pose.

The final poster was made in a sepia tone with only the red wine standing out in color. The poster later won 1st place at a world poster contest held in Germany.

Akadama Port Wine displayed at the Yamazaki Whisky Museum in Osaka.

Suntory was founded in 1899 as an imported wine shop named Torii Shoten (鳥井商店) in Osaka by Shinjiro Torii (鳥井 信治郎). It mainly sold Spanish wines, but they didn’t sell well in Japan. So Torii produced his own sweet wine named “Akadama Port Wine” in 1907 (still sold today as “Akadama Sweet Wine”).

Akadama Port Wine was the first product made by Suntory. “Akadama” means “red ball” in reference to the sun (like on the Japanese flag). Helped by this nude poster, Akadama Port Wine sold well in Japan and Torii used the profits to try and make whisky. And the rest is history. Suntory now makes just about anything you can drink besides alcoholic beverages. Soft drinks, coffee, and even mineral water.

The company was renamed Kotobukiya in 1921, and then “Suntory” in 1963 after its main whisky. The name “Suntory” comes from “Sun” and the founder’s name “Torii.” The “Sun” comes from the “Akadama” red sun.

If you are in Kyoto or Osaka, I highly recommend taking a tour (only ¥1,000) of the Suntory Yamazaki Distillery, a short train ride from JR Kyoto Station. Reservations are required. The distillery also has a museum, whisky-tasting bar, and gift shop. Great for whisky fans.

Tour inside Suntory Yamazaki Distillery.