Suntory

Suntory has launched an ad campaign for its Iemon green tea drink focused on autumn motives. This subway ad consists of a noren-like piece of cloth in the brand's signature green with (fake) autumn leaves attached - a nice difference to the standard poster adverts.

MUJI

MUJI has released a line of skincare products for men in stylish black packaging.

Family Mart goes SUICA

Convenience store chain Family Mart and JR East have come up with a campaign to get more people to use their SUICA cards for payment - a campaign with exclusive SUICA goods as prizes! All customers at Family Mart who spend more than 600 Yen and pay via SUICA, or charge their SUICA cards with 3,000 Yen or more have the chance to win one of the products - which are not available elsewhere - pictured above.

New beers from Asahi and Sapporo

Recent new beer products include Asahi's dark happoshu Honnama Clear Black, which has seen a limited release exclusively for winners of a promotion campaign in autumn 2005.

Sapporo meanwhile has released a special beer commemorating the company's 130th anniversary.

The razor wars?

After Schick's recent PR offensive, Gilette is hitting back with a campaign for its Fusion 5 razor that includes whole trains of the Yamanote Line covered exclusively in adverts for this product.

Boss

Suntory has released an addition to its Boss brand of canned coffee drinks with Boss Begin. As the name suggests, this drink is to be consumed in the morning. Not a revolutionary concept maybe, but as Suntory has been trying for some time now to brand its coffee drinks not by flavor, but other criteria such as the time when the drink is consumed, this seems to be a logical addition.

Suntory

Suntory has added a new flavor to its -196 brand of chu-hi drinks. Taking into account not only the season but also the recent trend towards Japanese ingredients, the new drink contains peaches from Yamanashi prefecture.

GDP Presentation

This year's Good Design Presentation took place two weeks ago in Tokyo and presented the several hundred products nominated the G-Mark, Japan's most prestigious award for design.



Most products were by one of the large Japanese manufacturing companies such as Panasonic, but a section of the exhibition titled Japan Old & New" concentrated on small companies from rural Japan who use traditional techniques and incorporate them into modern products.

A nice idea were these branded water bottles (above left), which were handed out to all visitors free of charge.

Schick goes gangster

The manufacturer of disposable razors Schick has launched a campaign featuring the Gang Club - six guys who look like they stepped out of an early Tarrantino movie - in order to infuse its rather boring brand with some outlaw cool.

R25 Cafe

Outside view of the R25 Cafe , cleverly located across the road from Dentsu's offices in Ginza.

Ichikami

Kanebo is the latest Japanese manufacturer to release a haircare brand inspired by traditional Japan. Ichikami contains ingredients that were used during the Heian period (794-1185).

SUICA Poster for Peach John

The first SUICA Poster has been set up at Shinjuku station. After registering their SUICA train pass or mobile phone with integrated SUICA function, users can touch the reader integrated in the poster when passing and have information - in this case on the latest catalogue from underwear mailorder firm Peach John - sent directly on their mobile phones.