Practical writing on Japan market entry for growth-stage companies — what works, what quietly fails, and why.
Your Japan business is capped by your worst-localized asset, not your best. A B+ everywhere beats an A on the homepage and a C on the support pages — and the buyer is screening on the C.
Read the article →Five APAC launches in a row, then Japan stalls. Same person, same product, same playbook — not working. What transfers, what doesn’t, and the four substitutions a Japan operation actually needs.
Read the article →Japan’s inward FDI is at a record high. Net flows are receding for the second year. Both numbers come from the same JETRO report — and the gap between them is the answer to the question you should actually be asking.
Read the article →Japan did not beat Walmart, Tesco, and Carrefour because it is closed. It beat them because they treated market entry as a setup problem when it is actually a systems problem. The strategic frame we use with clients: readiness, the five decisions, and what year one actually looks like.
Read the article →IKEA left Japan after twelve years. Starbucks thrived from day one. The difference was not translation — it was adaptation. The four-layer framework we use to audit what actually needs to change, and why most companies get it wrong.
Read the article →Nemawashi and ringi are not quirks. They are the decision-making system that determines whether your deal closes or dies. The mechanics of Japanese consensus, and what it means for your pipeline, forecasting, and materials.
Read the article →The four realistic options for entering Japan, what each commits you to, and the decision framework to match structure to strategy. Most companies agonize over this choice when the real question is simpler than they think.
Read the article →Evaluating Japan? Book a complimentary consultation and we’ll help you pressure-test your plan.
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