Case Study: Cultural Immersion in Gen Z Tokyo

Image: KYNE artwork, photo by Darren Gore

Research, concierge, and project management for a major U.S. restaurant operator

If each generation remakes the world in its own image, then nowhere is this truer than in Tokyo. An accelerated trend cycle makes the city one of the world’s most dynamic in terms of youth culture, while a “rip it up and start again”-style propensity towards frequent redevelopment gives each successive generation huge scope to reinvent the landscape. This made the Japanese capital a key focus of this global research project by one of North America’s largest restaurant operators, who hired me to oversee the project’s Tokyo element.

The aim of the project, which spanned major cities across North America and EMEA, was to ascertain the validity of a number of macro trends—pre-identified by the client—with Gen Z consumers from a diversity of cultural backgrounds. Activity on the ground in Tokyo centered around a three-day visit by the client’s senior managers, accompanied by internal researchers and a videographer.

Image: Don Kennedy

I put together—then led this group through—an itinerary of deep cultural immersion that explored not only food, drink, and hospitality venues directly relevant to the client’s business, but also sites that were more tangential: retail locations ranging from backstreet Harajuku boutiques to sprawling new developments; cultural venues such as contemporary art galleries; and an after-hours visit to one of Tokyo’s hippest watering holes.

Image: Don Kennedy

Along the way, we together uncovered new dimensions to the client’s pre-identified macro trends. Beyond this, I demonstrated how certain societal trends—seen across the post-industrialized world, but which Japan is at the sharp end of—are here inspiring new retail and hospitality models. Certain spots I introduced on-camera, for the client’s internal-use video documentary on the entire global project.

Image: Don Kennedy

For the third and final day, I organized several hour-long video interview sessions with individuals whose mindsets could, when taken together, be considered representative of Japan’s Gen Z, and who could be relied upon to be vocal about their opinions thanks to backgrounds in podcasting, modeling, blogging, and other creative endeavors.

(Winter 2024)