Cultural and structural issues affecting Japanese tourist shopping behaviour

This paper identifies and examines the various cultural issues that affect Japanese tourist shopping. The paper looks beyond the concept of omiyage and at some of the deeper issues that influence Japanese shopping patterns. Apart from looking at cultural issues that influence the tourist, the paper also examines the tripartite relationship between the tourist, tour operators and retailers that service the overseas Japanese tour market. Finally the paper proposes a model to explain how these relationships interact to influence Japanese tourist shopping behaviour.