• Viewpoints
• Research

Hello again from the Career Woman Lab. The previous two installments focused on Japanese career women’s tastes in beverages and ice cream. Here, based on data on their website access, we’re going to examine their interests as revealed by their online behavior. They tend to visit the Web whenever they have a spare moment, whether to check out something that interests them, browse articles, or shop online.

Fig. 1 shows the top ten types of websites most accessed by career women.

Fig. 1

The top-ranking category is “Fashion, accessories, makeup & hair,” followed by “Health, beauty & cosmetics.” Japanese career women are very interested in fashion, beauty, and health because as working people they often interact with others, and they evidently make extensive use of websites to pursue those interests. Beauty and fashion trends are constantly changing: the Career Woman Lab website recently reported on the popularity of makeup techniques that make a woman look vulnerable and thus captivate men by appealing to their protective instincts—the “after-bath” look, for example, and “damsel-in-distress” eyebrows. Keeping up with such trends on a daily basis may be part and parcel of the career woman lifestyle.

“Business news sites” placed fifth. This suggests that career women take advantage of the Internet to gather information about business and apply it on the job. “Events, leisure & vacations” placed seventh. Career women have a bit of extra money to spend, and on their days off they want to get out and about and forget about work. They stay abreast of the latest trends, and maybe they consider attending an event that’s happening in the outskirts of town or taking a jaunt somewhere. Just looking at photos of an attractive location, or watching a fun event, on a website can transform your mood and relieve stress, even if you can’t actually go. Websites that take you on a trip even just in your mind may be surprisingly in demand among Japan’s weary working women.

Next, let’s look at the top ten types of websites accessed more by career women than by women of the same age group (20-39) overall (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2

“Restaurants & eating out” ranked first among website categories particularly favored by career women. Despite being busy with work, career women are surprisingly fond of eating out. They presumably socialize with friends and office colleagues over meals and drinks. And interestingly, “Health food” placed third. Career women are pressed for time, and perhaps they look to health food as an indispensable way to stay healthy. “Relationship advice” ranked sixth and “Dating” ranked ninth. As we’ve seen, career women are enthusiastic about all kinds of things—fashion and beauty, leisure, eating out. It turns out that they’re enthusiastic in romance as well. Recently, it seems, many career women use websites and online services to find Mr. Right instead of going on group dates. For tips on romance they apparently turn to relationship advice websites, which are packed with stories about other women’s experiences, and efficiently apply the lessons to their own love life.

Finally, “Cars and motorcycles (imported)” placed tenth among career women. Whereas women aged 20-39 overall are interested in domestic makes, career women are, it transpires, more interested in imports! Thus there could be unexpected demand for imported cars among Japanese career women. If you deal in imported cars, you may want to investigate further (LOL)!

That brings our survey to an end. Our analysis of Japanese career women’s online behavior based on actual data reveals that it has certain definite characteristics, differing significantly from that of women aged 20-39 overall. Career women, we’ve seen, are highly aware and active on every front—fashion, beauty, leisure, eating out, romance. But does their online behavior vary depending on which of the seven categories of career women they fall into? The next installment will examine website access patterns by each type of career woman. Stay tuned!

Yuma Shirane

Researcher, Career Woman Lab
Activation Supervisor, Integrated Planning Division

Yuma Shirane has been with Hakuhodo since 2010. As activation planner she works in a wide spectrum of fields including beverages, foods, cosmetics, apparel, cars, electrical appliances, and commercial facilities. She loves the theater and goes a couple of times a month.

• Survey Outline
Online survey by Macromill, Inc.
When conducted: May 2017
Results from a nationwide panel of 200,000 were extracted for the 7 clusters defined by the Career Woman Lab Survey.
*“Career women” here means working women aged 20-39 without children (regardless of marital status) with annual income of 2 million yen or more (excluding part-timers).