Breaking into Japan’s markets
Why should you consider entering Japan’s market at all?
Japan is the world’s third largest market depending on the sector, important competitor, and partner. With 125 million people it’s a large and important country.
For many US companies – especially AI, cloud and internet companies, Japan is the first and most important foreign market, eg Apple is intensely active in Japan, both selling Apple products and also for Apple’s supply chain.
15% of the world’s economy is in Japan
25% of the world’s high-tech products are made in Japan
10% of the world’s cars are made in Japan
30% of the world’s cars are made by Japanese brands
How to succeed in Japan?
The first imperative is to understand common mistakes and avoid them, and not to fall into the same traps as similar companies have fallen into. To get you started read:
Steps:
- thorough preparations: understanding the market landscape, your competitors and the value of your product in Japan’s market, and any modifications necessary to your products and services
- sound strategy: you need to decide based on facts, which of about 100 different ways to build a business in Japan you select.
- Don’t jump into a ill-prepared partnership.
- a solid financial plan
- the required investments: many market entries to Japan have failed because of insufficient capital investments.