Something More: Japanese department stores' marketing of 'a meaningful human life'

Their employees and customers agree that department stores in Japan do not just exist to sell goods or display merchandise; they offer 'something more'. This 'something more' encompasses, as Mitsukoshi puts it, the role of department stores in promoting 'the revival of learning and culture' (Mitsukoshi 1986: 18). It includes an entertainment and an educational function; it involves the sponsorship of the performing arts, and an attempt to revitalize community crafts; it offers an attempt to fulfill the cultural and intellectual needs of the populace, not just their desire for consumer goods. In some cases the emphasis on 'something more' has led department stores to an attempt to deal with philosophical issues, to address questions of human purpose and meaning.