Japan’s Reservation-Only Society: The Pros and Cons of Prioritizing Efficiency at All Costs
Late October. Supermarkets routinely display posters announcing, “Now Accepting Reservations for Osechi New Year’s Dishes.” But this sales campaign had actually begun back in August, in the height of summer, when we were still wiping sweat from our brows in short sleeves. In recent years, this seemingly bizarre sight has increasingly become the norm.
Osechi dishes were traditionally prepared at home to welcome the New Year, and were an annual custom that evoked the feeling of year’s end. However, with the rise of nuclear families and dual-income households, more families are now buying osechi from restaurants, department stores, convenience stores, and other retailers. And the reservation campaigns are starting earlier every year.
The mystery behind the dramatic shift to earlier Osechi sales
For example, Aeon announced that it began accepting early reservations for some of its osechi products for New Year 2027 through its dedicated website and other channels on August 1. Reservations then opened gradually at approximately 3,000 stores nationwide from September 1. Customers who booked between September 1 and November 27 were also eligible for a 5% discount off the listed price.
In its announcement, the company noted: “In recent years, choosing osechi has become an event in which families gather during the Obon holiday and summer vacation to discuss how they will spend the year-end and New Year holidays.” Early reservations last August generated approximately 2.5 times the sales of the previous year, showing that the trend of choosing osechi during the summer is clearly gaining momentum.
What is astonishing is the speed of this change. According to an Aeon announcement dated September 26, 2013, reservations for osechi were scheduled to open on October 1. In just over a decade, the start of the sales campaign has shifted dramatically from autumn to summer. Commenting on this trend, Ryō Hirose, senior associate researcher at the NLI Research Institute, says:
“Osechi reservations don’t just make people think about a New Year that hasn’t arrived yet. They also require people to decide during the summer how they will spend that New Year.”
Travel arrangements, which once meant lining up at station ticket counters, can now be completed with a single smartphone. Our lives have certainly become more convenient, but could this overly elaborate system actually be making things more difficult for us?
The number of products and services that consumers can no longer access unless they book in advance has surged in recent years. Admission tickets for events and theme parks, for example, are increasingly available only through dedicated apps.
For example, Sanrio Puroland, an indoor theme park in Tama City, Tokyo, where visitors can meet Sanrio characters, requires both an advance visit reservation and a passport ticket for admission. If spaces are available, visitors can still make a reservation on the day itself, but anyone who has not completed the visit reservation process will be turned away.“Reservations are supported as a way to reduce waiting times and avoid problems on the day, allowing people to use their time more efficiently. Sellers reduce the uncertainty of being left with unsold products, while buyers reduce the uncertainty of being unable to obtain what they want. Reservations make the future easier to predict for both sides.” (Hirose, hereafter)
Certainly, reservations are a rational choice for businesses, with significant benefits in reducing waste. However, when reservation systems become too widespread, they can actually make things less convenient.
“Now that online reservations are available, people who suddenly want to use a service on the spot may find themselves unable to do so. Reservations are spreading even to things that never required them before.”
Instead of walking around a station at a travel destination looking for an available coin locker, people now reserve one in advance on their smartphones. It may seem like a smart solution, but when someone suddenly wants to store their luggage, every locker may already be booked. This is a classic case of the system defeating its own purpose.
Junichi Nakatani, associate professor in the Department of Business Administration at Kanto Gakuen University and an expert in marketing strategies, analyzes the consumer psychology behind this trend:
“In recent years, we’ve become a society where people make reservations for practically everything. With the spread of the internet, consumers have come to place greater relative value on time, emphasizing time performance (taipa). They don’t want to wait. They want to be sure they can get what they want or gain admission. They dislike uncertainty.”
Young people’s fear of failure and the suffocating reality for adults
This aversion to uncertainty is casting a shadow over every aspect of consumer behavior.
“The more choices consumers have, the less confident they become. On top of that, consumers increasingly don’t want to make mistakes, especially younger people. Young people have limited money to spend, yet the amount of information coming their way and the number of things they want to consume are growing.” (Hirose)
This fear of failure among young people is particularly evident in activities such as securing concert tickets for their favorite idols and reserving cafés that have gone viral on social media. By making sure they get tickets and arranging a perfectly planned schedule, they avoid failure despite having limited resources.
Meanwhile, for middle-aged and older consumers and families, the advance reservation of osechi dishes mentioned earlier can also be seen as a way to avoid disappointment. As the year-end approaches, more and more products become available, making it harder to choose. Even if the selection is limited, early reservations offer discounts and guarantee that the desired products will be available, making the system welcome for these consumers as well.
However, this thoroughly established reservation-based society sometimes robs us of the joy of unexpected encounters. Imagine the loneliness of casually walking into a red-lantern izakaya, only to be coldly asked, “Do you have a reservation?” Some popular izakayas have already begun requiring reservations. The thrill of unexpectedly discovering a delicious restaurant, meeting a conscientious owner, or finding an unfamiliar product is gradually disappearing in exchange for the certainty of carefully arranged plans.
Some people prefer freedom and spontaneity, even if it means going wherever the moment takes them. If the reservation-based society advances too far, there will inevitably be people who feel suffocated by it. Nakatani also sounds a warning:
“There are people who enjoy the freedom of not making reservations. Shouldn’t reservation systems become more considerate of consumers?”
Furthermore, for tickets to popular events, people often have to stay glued to their screens the moment reservations open. It is unhealthy if only the information-savvy have a chance of winning, such as those who can take the day off and use high-performance devices to secure tickets.
“In Japan, efforts to introduce lotteries for advance reservations are becoming more widespread. Our neighbor South Korea doesn’t have such a system.” (Nakatani)
In South Korea, fierce click races on a first-come, first-served basis remain a social problem. Japan, by contrast, is exploring systems to prevent such situations.
As the reservation-based society evolves, businesses need to consider fairness by introducing lotteries for advance booking rights or reserving some seats for walk-in customers on the day. We can only hope that this system develops in a way that maintains a healthy balance between the convenience of businesses and the diverse needs of consumers.
Reporting & Text： Hideki Asai PHOTO： Afro (2nd photo)