In my previous visit to Tokyo, I had the opportunity to visit Toyota Mega Web in Odaiba, – a Look, Ride, Feel Car Theme Park – where I could see all of the new car models that Toyota makes, and also some other attractions like E-com rides and history museum. Last weekend, I went to Yokohama near Tokyo, and this time I had the chance to visit the new Tressa Indoor Shopping mall opened by Toyota. You may have heard of car showrooms, auto malls, car museums and theme parks built around automobiles – but this concept of car showroom mall is completely new. Toyota has opened this new shopping mall with the objective of selling and promoting its cars especially to young Japanese.
Young people in the United States want to have computers in their cars, but the Japanese young people want just computers instead of cars. As per a recent study undertaken by The Nikkei, most Japanese people in their 20’s did not want a car, even if it were given to them free. Many young Japanese even did not find the idea of riding a fancy sports car or going for a drive on a date very appealing. Rising gas prices, parking fees of around to $400 per month for city dwellers, and frequent traffic jams in big cities – all discourage car ownership. In addition, Japan’s public transportation system including subways and bullet trains are so economical and efficient that a large percentage of city dwellers hardly use a car. As a result, new car sales in Japan have dropped to 5.3 million vehicles – the lowest in last 27 years.

Japanese car makers like Toyota are finding that selling cars through showrooms and regular TV commercials have virtually no effect on the young people. So, Toyota has taken this move to open an auto mall in an area which is frequented mostly by young people – to capture the attention of Japanese young buyers, and boost car sales. Toyota’s new car mall in Yokohama has about 220 specialty stores, arcade game center, gym, nail salon, and restaurants as you would see in any other mall. However, one major difference is that one can find many Toyota vehicles and dealerships littering in the corridors and walkways. The shopping carts in this mall are also designed to look like cars. Toyota is also showing off its high-tech MOBIRO robots, which play musical instruments, apart from showcasing its latest new cars.
A car used to symbolize a dream for the Japanese. At one time, Japanese people used to work hard to buy a car. These days, however, nobody is thinking that buying a new car is cool anymore. With this new venture of opening a car shopping mall, Toyota may be onto a good thing . Usually shopping malls are a haven for young people, and Toyota is hoping to influence young buyers by setting up malls in locations popular with young people.
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