Lipstick on a pig: Getting the tastiest pork from Japanese qualitative research
James ParsonsFlamingo Tokyo
INTRODUCTION
President Obama's newsworthy phrase used during the US election campaign was thought by some to be a reference to Sarah Palin (an assumption perhaps not without value). The official version, of course, is that he was referring specifically to his opponent's economic manifesto – and to the notion that however prettily you package something, its unfavourable underlying reality remains the same.
It's a handy phrase for thinking about qualitative research in Japan.
Whilst qualitative research in Japan is, typically, 'packaged' in the same...