Editor's Column– archive –

ベトナム北部ではルビーが採れる。イエンバイ省ルックイエンを軸に、ミャンマー産と見紛う品質、ここだけのコバルトブルー・スピネル、午前だけ開く宝石市場、宝石画まで、確認できた事実で紹介する。

In Vietnam, a country of coffee and beer, something I drink surprisingly often is kombucha. From Star Kombucha and Vinamilk to Pizza 4P's whey kombucha — a look at Vietnam's flavor-rich kombucha, and the Junbucha I still haven't gotten to try.

A guide to Vietnam's "select shop culture," where you can see the country's new-generation brands all in one place. It covers how small brands without their own storefronts share shelf space, the main spots in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, and how to explore them as a traveler.

「K-POPの次は東南アジア」の実態を、ベトナムを軸に読み解く。韓国ブランドの東南ア進出、FW26でのタイ俳優の台頭、そしてK-POPスターがベトナムのブランドを着る「逆流」まで、双方向の流れを追うレポート。

Why does Vietnam's Gen Z choose unknown homegrown brands? Reading it from the consumer's side: values that pick affinity over name recognition, a buying style that goes straight from an SNS video to a purchase, and a longing for Korea coexisting with pride in their own country.

Why Vietnam's local apparel is so interesting right now. A report that reads "why now" through four backbones — the market's numbers, the tailwind of K-fashion, Gen Z's social-driven buying, and the D2C ecosystem — and introduces rising next-generation brands through case studies.

Vietnamese chè—beans and taro simmered until sweet. In the south it's sweet and showy with fruit and coconut; in the north it's less sweet, with lotus seeds, beans, and even kombu. A story of north-and-south chè that share a name yet are utterly different.

The red "NGAN" signs you often see around Hanoi. At a shop I walked into for the beer, the fried meat that came out was a little different from the duck I knew — a story about the Muscovy duck dish I met on the ground.

As Southeast Asia adds its presence to the Asian trends long led by K-POP, Vietnam's young apparel scene is on the rise. A report reading the underlying structure, with examples of five brands you can find at select shops in Hanoi.