Tokyo gets overpriced "Englishness"

[Taro Toporific]

Fortnum & Mason plans Tokyo storeBBC News | Business | Upmarket UK grocer Fortnum & Mason, which has supplied Britain's Royal family and aristocracy for almost 300 years, is planning to open in Japan.
To help revive demand for its jams, teas and sauces, Fortnum & Mason is overhauling its export business.
The 300-year old grocer and icon of Englishness is opening its first....Japanese store in Tokyo in October. ...
....As well as offering goods imported from the UK, the Tokyo outlet will also have a Fortnum & Mason tea shop, bakery and take-away food service stocked with products adapted for Japanese tastes.

[gomichild]

So it'll taste like the usual sugary stuff but have a different label and be 3 times as expensive?

I just don't get the point of changing things to suit the "Japanese taste". More and more on cooking shows they try and show restaurants which have more traditional flavours.

Load of crap if you ask me.

[Cubed]

Actually, it's a well known phenomenon in confectionery. Cadburys change all of their chocolate to suit Japanese tastes. Oddly, Japanese people in the UK report that Cadbury's products taste better there ...

[japslapper]

products adapted for Japanese tastes.

This is a control issue - someone somewhere always has to control ideas and things coming into Japan.

Talking of Japanese being nuts about Brit-crap......FGs next time your all in London - get loads of Harrods green plastic backs (free if you aks/bribe the right Lithuanian till worker!) - and use them to wrap some junk from a 100yen shop and your omiyage is soooo appreciated! ....this is how I live cheaply and happily in Japan!