Middle-Class Consumption Transformation in Economic Downturns: Evidence from East Asia

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-585-0_61How to use a DOI?

Keywords

East Asia Study; Middle Class; Consumption Behavior; Economic Insecurity; Emotional Coping

Abstract

The shift from department stores to discount platforms, from luxury brands to livestream promotions, indicates that economic uncertainty has reshaped the consumption behavior in East Asia. While prior studies have addressed either macroeconomic trends or consumer psychology, few have explored how structural economic insecurity and identity crisis jointly shape middle-class consumption patterns. This study explores the behavioral shift from identity-based to functional and emotionally supportive consumption among the middle class in China, Japan, and South Korea. Adopting a combined research methods approach primarily based on secondary literature, theoretical analysis, and comparative case studies, the study reveals that consumption downgrading is not merely a cyclical adjustment, but a structural transformation entrenched in multidimensional distress from social, economic, and psychological dimensions. Moreover, it identifies a paradoxical coexistence of conservative financial behavior and emotion-oriented consumption. The insights suggest that under constrained resources, middle-class consumers are redefining the good life and shifting their consumption priorities rather than exiting from the market, signaling a coping strategy in response to economic and psychological stressors.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Yanran Sun
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/06/18
TI  - Middle-Class Consumption Transformation in Economic Downturns: Evidence from East Asia
BT  - Proceedings of the 2025 International Conference on Hybrid Commerce, Human Capital, and Economic Dynamics (ICHCH 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 550
EP  - 559
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-585-0_61
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-585-0_61
ID  - Sun2026
ER  -