Co-Founder, Catherine O'Connell shares learnings from the Jandals in Japan Podcast Guests.
On a recent Global Chamber Globinar (Global Webinar!) I shared these top 10 tips collated from our first three guests on the Jandals in Japan podcast - Don Roxburgh Carl Robinson and #JacquiMiyabayashi of North South Stewart
My Podcast co-host Jayne Nakata and I asked them all the same question:
Q: If you were writing a chapter in the Market Entry Playbook for successful business in Japan what would you write in that chapter? Here’s a quick collation of some of their replies we have heard so far. To hear what each person specifically said, please follow the links to each of their episodes at the foot of this article ⤵️
1 You have to actually come here: Spend time here looking at similar products in the Japan market, understanding where they are placed and just get a feel for yourself about where your product actually fits in the Japanese landscape.
2 Good things take time: Expect things to take time and also, take longer than you initially expect. If you are lucky and get some really good instant success that is the exception rather than norm. "Often brands that have had that instant success, have not necessarily stayed here for the long-term for a number of reasons. Maybe they had the wrong partner, maybe they're in the wrong store, maybe their product wasn't quite right for the Japan market."
3 Find the right partner in market: On that point of partnering… Take time to find the right partner and base your decision on your cultural fit with that partner and support them any way you can and they will support you in return.
4 Tell your story well: Japan is a very curious market. Tell your full story and not just a few quick attributes about your product. Tell Japan why this product is fabulous and why it deserves to be in here in Japan. You need to invest that time on your end, to create that story. The amount of marketing that is required in Japan compared to other markets is huge. "Japanese consumers want to know everything and they want to know the name of the dog who’s at the door of the factory where you make your products or they want to know what kind of things you do when you are not working – your interests/hobbies. They want to know everything because it's all about learning and culturally they are curious to want to know all these kinds of things."
5 Japan is a highly educated and sophisticated market: When it comes to anything international, anything of quality, especially in the gourmet world, whether that be honey or cheese or wine or spirits or anything in the luxury space where it depends on a very receptive market – that describes the Japan market. If for example you are importing wine into Japan, you need to know that in terms of wine education, Japan has more wine qualified sommeliers than any other country in the world! It is the most sophisticated market in terms of the amount of people who study wine. Japan is a country where they love getting badges and certificates and things to put on their wall.
6 Don’t focus on all the rules here – focus on investing your effort: It’s a bit of a myth to think it’s hard to do business with and in Japan. If you're an entrepreneur and you want to come here and open a business and invest in plant or invest in property, there's nothing to stop you. It's not difficult to get visas [author note: currently it is tricky unless you have a business partner here to support your entry] - It's just about how much time you are willing to spend. It's much easier than it is in a lot of other countries. Yes, there is all the regulatory stuff. Yes, there are rules. But that's just stuff that you can find a lawyer or an advisor or someone who could help you with those issues. Your problem is time and effort - to build up your business and to be conscious of that you might not make money for the first 4-5 years. "If you invest (time + effort) heavily, eventually once you do, you build up a customer base who are very loyal and very long-term, and it just happens! Once it's done, it's done and then it's about maintaining a strong customer following.”
7 Don’t skip on quality: Service has got be perfect. The standards expected are hight. The quality of the box containing your product has to be perfect. If it has a small tear or has even minute damage, the product simply won’t sell. These kinds of things have always been the case, so it’s not new.
8 Use your common sense!: Common sense is tops here – like sticking to your word, paying on time, all those kinds of things. "It is a business society of high integrity. When you try to enter the market in Japan, don't muck around. Make sure that you can deliver what it is that you say you can deliver and don't underdeliver." Japan is a very loyal market. If you mess something up, don't lie. Don't say you are organic when you're not; don't say things about your products that can be found out to be inaccurate. Japan is loyal but they are very quick to turn their back, if they discover that something has been done that's not quite correct. A lot of the images that we see from overseas - that Japanese work very hard, that they are very strict and that they are loyal and honest - those things, to a lot of degrees are true. If you make a mistake, it can be quite unforgiving here and set you back a long way.
9 Relationship building and nurturing is key: Sure, relationship building is important everywhere, but it is even more so in Japan. You need to reach out to people in the industry that you are in and get involved in that industry, form sturdy relationships with people in that industry, invest in those relationships to make sure that you're getting the support that your business needs and giving them the support that they need. It’s just a matter of TIME - it's often described in Japan as: “You bang your head against the wall, for 6 months and then one day, you bang your head and the wall falls down, but once it falls down, it's gone forever. YOU’RE IN - that's totally how it works. Now, suddenly, you're one of the in-group and a part of the furniture."
10 Know that business is done by introductions: Always ask someone to help you meet that person one degree away from you. Let me share my own anecdote here. This is a story about a member of a group I am also a member of, who is based outside of Japan (Person 1) bypassed me to contact directly to a person in my network in Tokyo who I know very well (Person 2). Person 2 was surprised by the "cold call" from Person 1, who name dropped my name ("I'm an FOC Friend of Catherine") to Person 2. Person 2 reached out to me to verify who Person 1 was and what they were like as Person 2 was surprised by the direct contact. Since Person 1 claims to know about Japanese business and Japan market entry it was even more of a surprise to Person 2 that Person 1 missed the basics of business etiquette in Japan by not utilizing me, as an intermediary who could connect them both. If only Person 1 had asked me for an introduction, things may have led to business between Person 1 and Person 2 but sadly it did not as Person 2 felt Person 1 didn’t really understand Japanese business culture and may be tricky to work with. The moral of the story is always utilize your contacts for introductions in Japan as this is key to successful business here. It's just the way things are done in Japan.
Did you find these 10 tips useful?
Links to listen: 🔗 Don Roxburgh: https://www.jandalsinjapan.com/episode/one 🔗 Carl Robinson: https://www.jandalsinjapan.com/episode/two 🔗 Jacqui Miyabayashi: https://www.jandalsinjapan.com/episode/three-part-one https://www.jandalsinjapan.com/episode/three-part-two
About the Jandals in Japan Podcast This podcast brings The Land of the Long White Cloud** to The Land of the Rising Sun.
How do you build a brand in Japan and nurture a loyal customer base?
What do you need to have in your tool belt if you are thinking of coming to Japan to launch a business here?
Japan is often considered to be in the "too hard" basket but we are here to open up the black box of doing business in Japan. We will share stories from successful Kiwis selling their products and services in the land of the rising sun. They’ll tell you their tips for success and pitfalls to avoid. They’ll share their challenges and what they did to overcome them. They will tell you things you can’t find in textbooks or on the Internet. We will also be sharing the latest intel and insights on Japan from our on-the-ground presence, and you’ll hear some super business culture and other tips from us sprinkled throughout.
Grab a glass of sake and get into it!
** Land of the Long White Cloud = Aotearoa New Zealand 🇳🇿