Japanese spend big to horse around

There's a restaurant in Tokyo’s Hiroo district about which people say, “I want to go, but I can’t.” This is because Roast Horse is a members-only restaurant. It serves dishes featuring horsemeat.
Its address is not disclosed, and no sign hangs at the entrance that shows its existence, so few people notice there’s a restaurant there at all.
On a typical evening, all 30 seats in the restaurant are occupied. Owner Mineyoshi Hirayama is serving customers a series of horse-based dishes, such as raw and roasted horsemeat, while describing the details of the horseflesh he bought and the cooking methods. 
The restaurant has a set-course menu of 7,500 yen (Bt2,300).
“What’s great about this restaurant is that it is exclusively members who can book a table,” says journalist Masakazu Honda, who is a member. “What’s more, we can taste horsemeat, which isn’t available anywhere else. All the people I’ve brought here have been delighted. This is a special restaurant!”
Roast Horse solicited its clientele in a unique way. In the summer of 2014, four months before its opening, Hirayama used the crowd-funding service Makuake to collect money for a custom-made stone oven. About 500 people, including regular customers at Hirayama’s previous horsemeat restaurant, chipped in and he raised about 6 million yen.
Membership is a privilege for those who invested in the oven. “I feel a sense of value that’s higher than the money I initially spent to cooperate,” says a 41-year-old patron.
In Makuake’s view, the members who jointly established Roast Horse enliven it. There’s a mutual affection between the restaurant and its customers.
Salon de Louange in Tokyo’s Nishiazabu district is a members-only “sweets salon” opened in September 2015 by Louange Tokyo, a prestigious dessert bar in Roppongi district. It serves cakes and chocolates, tea and wine in a sophisticated atmosphere.
Membership fees start at 50,000 yen and many patrons are regular customers of Louange Tokyo. In short, admirers of the flavours and sophisticated ambience provided by Louange Tokyo also support the salon.
One of them is Akihiro Kawagoe, who works at a foreign-affiliated financial institution. “People I bring here are 100 per cent satisfied with the combination of a cosy space and delicious sweets,” says Kawagoe, who’s there almost every week.
The Nomura Research Institute (NRI), from questionnaires sent to 10,000 people, spotted two trends on the rise. One is “premium consumption”, meaning consumers not minding spending large amounts of money if they like the products or services. The other is “the consumption of convenience”, where importance is attached to convenience of purchase.
“Even if consumers have to bear some expenses, such as initial membership fees, they can feel a sense of security that they’ll receive a reasonable deal and don’t have to waver over what to buy. A members-only system fits these two consumption styles,” says NRI senior consultant Motoko Matsushita.
Membership systems are also being adopted in the leisure market. In a study on leisure, the Japan Productivity Centre found that members-only resort clubs were collectively worth 355 billion yen in 2015, up 13 per cent from the previous year and 1.6 times more than the 2005 figure.
A Japan Resort Club Association spokesperson says the public favours customer-friendly service these days, and resorts within a couple of hours’ drive of urban areas like Tokyo and Osaka are popular.
“One of the charms of a membership system is that it connects people with the same set of values. This sense of relief is leading them to feel comfortable,” he says.
A membership system recalls the notion of status symbols, as typified by prestigious golf clubs, but public perception has changed over the years, says Matsushita.
“People these days don’t seek status through consumption. Instead, I think they gain a ‘quality guarantee’ by spending a certain level of money.”