From Things to Experiences, and to 'Shin' (Heart/Body/Faith): The New Affluence Emerging in Japanese Consumption
Consumption reflects the form of affluence in each era.
What people spend their time on, what they pay for, and what they place in their lives reveal the shortages and interests of that time.
In an era when goods were scarce, owning things was synonymous with affluence.
After passing through an era where experiences were sought after, today, consumption aimed at centering oneself and maintaining relationships with others, nature, and works of art is spreading.
1. Changes in Affluence Reflected in Consumption
From the post-war period through the era of high economic growth, Japanese consumption moved toward fulfilling daily life.
Refrigerators, washing machines, televisions, automobiles, and housing made life more convenient and raised the standard of living.
Acquiring goods directly translated into a sense of affluence.
Eventually, as goods became widespread, the focus of consumption shifted to experiences.
Travel, live concerts, watching sports, theme parks, dining out, camping, and lessons expanded the pleasures of life.
The core of affluence shifted from owning products to having the time to experience them.
And in the modern day, there are increasing situations where goods and experiences alone cannot fully satisfy one's sense of life.
People have begun to spend their time and money on things that center their mind and body, things they consider more important than themselves, and objects they can believe in.
Such consumption is what we call 'Shin' consumption.
2. The 'Self' Told Through Ownership and Experience
At the heart of goods-based consumption was the affluence of ownership.
Home appliances, cars, and housing made life convenient, while brand-name goods and luxury cars indicated social status.
It was an era where what you owned spoke to your lifestyle.
Goods are visible to others.
Therefore, owning them was an act of satisfying oneself, but at the same time, an act of showing oneself to the outside world.
Alongside convenience and comfort, the desire to be recognized was also added to it.
In experience-based consumption, the display of affluence shifted from ownership to experience.
Where you went, what you saw, who you spent time with, and what kind of time you experienced began to indicate your lifestyle.
Travel photos, records of live concert venues, and time spent at trendy shops became materials to demonstrate one's fulfillment.
If goods-based consumption showed the 'self that owns,' experience-based consumption showed the 'self that experiences.'
Both were forms of affluence suited to their times, but there was always the gaze of others involved.
Consumption became an act of explaining oneself at the same time as it was an act of fulfilling one's life.
3. 'Shin' Consumption Balances the Self and the Outside
'Shin' consumption is consumption that centers one's mind and body and directs the heart toward things one can believe in.
It also includes loosening a state that has become too self-centered.
The 'Shin' here includes the meanings of heart (shin), body (shin), and faith/trust (shin).
In modern consumption, fulfilling the heart, centering the body, and moving toward objects of faith are becoming included within the same act.
Specific examples include 'oshi-katsu' (supporting a favorite idol/character), saunas, yoga, hot springs, walking, fragrances, reading, music, visiting shrines and temples, and nature experiences.
Choosing products from trusted makers is also included in this trend.
These have parts that are bought as goods and parts that are enjoyed as experiences.
However, at the center is not the ownership or the experience itself, but the feeling that one's inner self is being centered by it.
The 'outside' here includes not only human relationships but also idols, works of art, nature, places, and habits.
It also includes places where consciousness returns, such as bodily sensations.
In 'Shin' consumption, one is centering their own state through a relationship with the object.
What people who go to saunas are gaining goes beyond the use of bathing facilities.
Through temperature, sweat, breathing, cold baths, and rest, they are returning their consciousness, which had been focused on the head, back to the body.
Those who choose fragrances are also incorporating into their lives not just incense or aroma as products, but time where the air in the room and their own mood are brought into balance.
In 'Shin' consumption, lowering one's tension is valued more than making oneself look big.
In that sense, 'Shin' consumption is not consumption whose main purpose is to gain approval.
It is shifting from consumption to show oneself to the outside, to consumption that restores the balance between oneself and the outside.
4. Free Choice Has Made the 'Self' a Burden
In modern times, the choices available for consumption have expanded significantly.
What we wear, where we go, what we eat, and who we support have become materials that define our individuality.
Free choice has also become a means of expressing oneself.
Individualism, introduced from the West, treated people as individual subjects preceding their family, community, or company.
Choosing one's own life has been a significant change for Japanese people since the modern era.
On the other hand, in a society where you choose for yourself, there are more opportunities to define yourself through what you have chosen.
Social media has extended this structure into our daily lives.
What we own, where we go, what we choose, and even what we say have become visible to others.
Consumption has become both a free choice and a burden of constantly having to explain oneself.
5. 'Oshi-katsu' (Supporting a Favorite) Points in a Direction Other Than Approval
The characteristics of Japanese-style 'Shin' consumption are clearly reflected in 'Oshi-katsu'.
Buying merchandise, going to concerts, watching streams, following works, celebrating birthdays, and supporting activities so they continue.
Looking at the surface, it contains many elements of material consumption and experiential consumption.
At the heart of 'Oshi-katsu' lies a direction of the heart that is different from the desire to make oneself look bigger.
There is a difference in the direction of the heart between spending money to stand out and spending money in the hope that the 'Oshi's' activities will continue.
There, it becomes more important that the 'Oshi' is seen, talked about, and continues, rather than enhancing one's own value.
Comparison and competition also arise in 'Oshi-katsu'.
The amount of merchandise, the number of times one has been to a venue, and the length of time one has been a fan sometimes create a hierarchy.
Even so, at the center is the orientation of 'I want to watch my Oshi' and 'I want to support my Oshi' rather than the feeling of 'I want to be seen'.
Here, there is a movement of the heart that moves away from approval.
Instead of putting forward a self that wants to be approved, one directs their heart toward an object they consider more important than themselves.
Because that object exists, schedules are created in daily life, a place for one's feelings is created, and a lasting meaning is born within life.
The reason why 'Oshi-katsu' is spreading in modern times cannot be explained solely by the diversification of entertainment.
In a society where we must constantly talk about ourselves, being able to place something other than oneself at the center creates time away from self-evaluation.
The time spent watching one's 'Oshi' is also time spent moving away from how one is seen and aligning one's heart with the existence of another.
In 'Oshi-katsu', it is necessary to watch over the subject's activities, support them, and engage while maintaining a distance.
There is a sense of moderation there to ensure the subject is not used as a tool for one's own approval.
This moderation connects 'Oshi-katsu' from mere self-expression to harmony with others.
6. The Act of 'Totonou' (Regulating/Refining) Returns from the Evaluated Self to the Body
Saunas, yoga, walking, hot springs, scents, and nature experiences are also in the same flow.
These are often talked about as acts for health or beauty, but in modern times, they also have meaning as acts of moving away from the evaluated self and returning to bodily sensations.
When attention is directed toward sweat, breathing, temperature, posture, stride, and how fatigue fades, people move slightly away from the consciousness of how they are seen by others.
Nature experiences have the same effect.
When under the mountains, sea, rivers, forests, or sky, people find it easy to move away from the need to constantly explain themselves.
Because nature does not evaluate people, the sensation of being there comes to the fore rather than achievements or how one presents oneself.
Regaining bodily sensations is also about knowing one's own limits.
By knowing fatigue, tension, breathing, sleepiness, and the slowness of recovery, it becomes difficult for people to push themselves excessively.
Knowing one's own limits becomes a starting point for balancing with others and the environment.
If 'Oshi-katsu' is an act of directing the heart toward an object other than oneself, the act of regulating the body is an act of returning from the evaluated self to bodily sensations.
Both loosen the state of being too self-centered.
'Shin' consumption lowers the tension of approval competition from both the direction of the heart and the sensations of the body.
7. The Sense of Faith in Life Returns in a Changed Form
Japanese-style 'Shin' (belief/spirit) consumption reflects a sense that has long remained in the lives of Japanese people, now appearing in a transformed form.
For Japanese people, faith has often been expressed more as a way of living than as a set of doctrines.
Clasping hands at a shrine, visiting a shrine for the first time in the new year, carrying an amulet, and cherishing seasonal events, ancestors, and nature.
These have continued as part of the rituals of daily life.
Within this, there was a sense of turning one's heart toward something greater than oneself.
While people live by their own strength, they are also supported by things like nature, ancestors, places, seasons, connections, and luck.
That sense has been maintained more as an act within life than as a philosophy expressed in words.
Modernization and individualism liberated people from the community.
In that process, the sense of being supported by family, community, and company also faded.
At the same time, the habit of turning one's heart toward something greater than oneself became less visible in daily life.
Contemporary 'Shin' consumption can be read as the return of that sense in a different form.
Turning one's heart toward an 'oshi' (favored idol/character), returning to the world of a work of art, placing oneself in nature, visiting shrines and temples, burning incense, and conditioning the body.
While these are modern forms of consumption and habits, they are also acts that loosen the state of trying to support oneself solely on one's own.
The sense of faith in daily life was also an attitude of not placing oneself too much at the center of the world.
Fearing nature, remembering ancestors, aligning with the seasons, and cherishing places were also ways of placing oneself within relationships with others and the environment.
Modern 'Shin' consumption is reclaiming that attitude through 'oshi', the body, nature, works of art, and habits.
'Oshi-katsu' (supporting one's favorite) is symbolic because it places an object one considers more important than oneself near the center of life.
That object takes on modern forms, such as entertainers, writers, characters, athletes, works of art, or streamers.
However, in the sense that one turns their heart toward it, supports it, wishes for its continued activity, and is supported in daily life by its existence, it is connected to the sense of faith that has long existed in life.
Japanese-style 'Shin' consumption can be read as the sense of faith that remained in life shifting to a different vessel.
The power of the family, community, company, temples/shrines, and annual events that once served as vessels has weakened, and that sense is shifting toward 'oshi', the body, nature, works of art, and habits.
After an individualism that kept placing the self at the center, people are once again beginning to seek harmony with things outside of themselves.
Conclusion
The affluence of 'Mono' (product) consumption was the affluence of possession.
The affluence of 'Koto' (experience) consumption was the affluence of experiencing.
The affluence of 'Shin' (belief/spirit) consumption is the affluence of loosening the state of having placed oneself too much at the center, and regaining balance with others, nature, works of art, and the body.
'Oshi-katsu', acts of conditioning oneself, and immersion in nature, scents, or works of art, while taking different forms, are all moving toward harmony rather than validation.
There, it becomes more important to condition oneself within relationships with others and the environment than to make oneself look strong.
The flow from 'Mono' to 'Koto', and then to 'Shin', is a transition from the affluence of showing oneself to the affluence of conditioning the relationship between oneself and others.
The new affluence appearing in Japanese-style consumption lies in being able to live in harmony with others, nature, and the body, rather than in being validated.