Podcasts about business in japan

Meet Zaya, a multi-business entrepreneur who joins us to give insight on introducing Mongolian culture to Japan through her import company and popular Mongolian cafe in Osaka.Follow Zaya:https://mongorusei.co.jphttps://www.instagram.com/mongoruseihttps://x.com/bigmangashttps://www.facebook.com/MONGORUSEIhttps://www.facebook.com/cafemongoliaFollow us on our social media:youtube.com/@unpackingjapanshorts  https://www.buzzsprout.com/2158416https://www.instagram.com/unpacking_japa@UCx3XoY5gyyPvCe4FdwdFJQAhttps://www.tiktok.com/@unpackingjapanhttps://www.x.com/unpacking_japanhttps://www.facebook.com/unpackingjapanSubscribe for more in-depth discussions about life in Japan!Interested in working at a global e-commerce company in Osaka? Our parent company ZenGroup is hiring! To learn more, check out https://careers.zen.group/en/youtube.com/@unpackingjapan

In our Travel Tuesdays series, we explore the 'need to know' items for doing business in various jurisdictions around the world. This week, we take a closer look at Japan. Stay tuned for more episodes!Host: Peter Walts (Employment Law Alliance / Global)Guest Speaker: Rikisuke Yamanaka (email) (Ushijima & Partners / Japan)Support the Show.Register on the ELA website here to receive email invitations to future programs.

I meet a lot of CEOs in Japan.  I am always out there networking and looking for clients.  If they cannot become a client, then I try to encourage them to be a guest on my podcast Japan's Top Business Interviews.  I get two groups in particular who will refuse the offer – women and Scandinavians.  They say that women are more reticent about putting themselves forward than men and my own unscientific survey would seem to bear that out.  If a man only has 60% of the qualifications for a job, he will raise his hand whereas a woman will only do so, if she has 90%.  This is what I guess is happening with my invitation to come on the podcast and talk about one topic - leading in Japan.  The women are lacking in confidence to talk about the subject, because they are not feeling they are perfect enough. The Scandinavians I know here tell me that their culture is to not push yourself forward and to stay in the background.  Their podcast guest refusal rate stands out, so I guess this is what is happening with their thinking.  So far, 213 leaders have managed to spend an hour with me talking about leading in Japan for the weekly podcast, so I am finding enough of those in agreement.  It isn't as if I cannot get guests, because no one wants to join me on video and audio to talk about leadership. I think both groups reflect a misunderstanding of what their leader role is in Japan.  The leader here is the face of the business and particularly in this social media age, we need to be masters of this new universe.  I get it.  Taking your photo or even worse – video – is not something we all welcome.  We are very self-conscious about how lacking we are in terms of being photogenic or how awkward we look on video and when we hear our own voice, we shudder.  In life, I have found I am particularly unable to be photogenic, so I totally sympathise.  You know when you take that group shot and when you get it back you look for yourself – it is always a disappointment for me. In this modern world of work, however, we are all in a life and death struggle to attract a declining demographic of young people and mid-careers hires to join us.  We must be competitive, and that means we need to be getting some clear messages out into the world about who we are and what are our values. We need to be good communicators and also add our image to go with the words.  If we can speak the words on video and audio even better. I have been told by numerous guests on my podcast that they found that they were successful in attracting new staff who had checked them and seen the video interview.  I can believe that, because the nature of the interview is very authentic and no one so far has succeeded in pushing forth a fake version of themselves to fool the masses.  I don't say much during the interview and just let the guests talk. Occasionally, I will dig down on a point to go a bit deeper, but the bulk of the time is theirs.  People watching the interview get a very clear picture of the boss and then can decide if this is the type of place where they want to work. Clients also check us out and they are making decisions about us too in terms of do they want to have a relationship with our company.  They want to know who we are and what we stand for.  This is an important chance for the CEO to become active and provide the content the buyers are looking for.  They want to know who the boss is and what they are like. Hiding in the background is not a clever option.  It is much better to work on mastering the medium.  Looking straight down the barrel of the camera lens is not that easy and for many people, it is a formidable obstacle.  Video is difficult to come across naturally, I find.  Using teleprompters is not easy either and getting the right rhythm is a challenge for me. I always have trouble with photo shoots because I manage to look like a dork more often than not.  I was watching something on TikTok where a male model was demonstrating how to move and stand, to get the right shot and I realised I have no ability to do that. Fortunately, Tia Haygood, who is my local photographer here, manages to make me look presentable enough to squeak by. What I have found is that the more you do it, the better you become, and refusing to participate is a guarantee that you will never master the medium.  The CEO shouldn't be hiding. Instead, they should be pushing their message forward at every opportunity.  So find Tia if you are in Tokyo and work on your official portrait shots to use on social media and on your website.  Get a videographer like Rionne McAvoy, who I use from Japan Media Services, involved to help you with creating quality videos.  I have been using Tia and Rionne for years and I trust their work, which is why I am mentioning them if you are looking for help locally here in Japan. The point is the leader has to lead from the front and be the face of the business.  We need to break down any potential barriers to getting staff or clients.  Get the photos, the video, the audio, go on podcasts, do the interviews – do every possible thing you can to control the image you are projecting.  If you can't speak confidently or coherently, then come and do some training with us and we will fix that for you.  There are no excuses anymore because there are plenty of people around to help. Be honest – are you a great leader or are you a mediocre leader? How can you become a leader people actually want to follow? How can you be the leader whose team gets results? Do it yourself trial and error wastes time and resources.There is a perfect solution for you- To LEARN MORE click here (https://bit.ly/43sQHxV ) To get your free guide “How To Stop Wasting Money On Training” click here ( https://bit.ly/4agbvLj ) To get your free “Goal Setting Blueprint 2.0” click here (https://bit.ly/43o5FVK) If you enjoy our content then head over to www.dale-carnegie.co.jp and check out our Japanese and English seminars, workshops, course information and schedules and our whitepapers, guidebooks, training videos, podcasts, blogs. About The Author Dr. Greg Story, President Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training Contact me at greg.story@dalecarnegie.com Bestselling author of “Japan Sales Mastery” (the Japanese translation is "The Eigyo" (The営業), “Japan Business Mastery” and "Japan Presentations Mastery".  He has also written "How To Stop Wasting Money On Training" and the translation "Toreningu De Okane Wo Muda Ni Suru No Wa Yamemashoo" (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのは止めましょう) and his brand new book is “Japan Leadership Mastery”. Dr. Greg Story is an international keynote speaker, an executive coach, and a thought leader in the four critical areas for business people: leadership, communication, sales and presentations. He leads the Dale Carnegie Franchise in Tokyo which traces its roots straight back to the very establishment of Dale Carnegie in Japan in 1963 by Mr. Frank Mochizuki. He publishes daily blogs on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter Has 6 weekly podcasts: 1.     Mondays -  The Leadership Japan Series, 2.    Tuesdays – The Presentations Japan Series Every second Tuesday - ビジネス達人の教え 3.    Wednesdays - The Sales Japan Series 4.    Thursdays – The Leadership Japan Series Also every second Thursday - ビジネスプロポッドキャスト 5.    Fridays - The Japan Business Mastery Show 6.    Saturdays – Japan's Top Business Interviews Has 3 weekly TV shows on YouTube: 1.     Mondays - The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show Also every Second Thursday - ビジネスプロTV 2.    Fridays – Japan Business Mastery 3.    Saturdays – Japan Top Business Interviews In the course of his career Dr. Greg Story has moved from the academic world, to consulting, investments, trade representation, international diplomacy, retail banking and people development. Growing up in Brisbane, Australia he never imagined he would have a Ph.D. in Japanese decision-making, become a 39 year veteran of Japan and run his own company in Tokyo. Since 1971, he has been a disciple of traditional Shitoryu Karate (糸東流) and is currently a 6th Dan. Bunbu Ryodo (文武両道-both pen & sword) is his mantra and he applies martial art philosophies and strategies to business.      

They are not making as many Japanese as they used to.  Every year we get these headlines about the new lows in numbers of births in Japan.  The demographic trend is obvious to everyone.  What is not obvious is how this is going to force a change in the way we lead.  Until now, we have all applied the like it or lump philosophy to staff working for us.  They were infinitely replaceable – lose one and go get another one.  Not anymore. It is hard to understand, really.  The economy is not doing remarkably well.  The prospects for future growth are also not looking great, so why is it we are not seeing a parallel step down in business needs which translates into less need for staff?  I am not sure and I will let the economists duke that one out, but it is an interesting question to ponder. We are certainly seeing an uptick in demand for people and a corresponding downturn in their availability.  That translates into higher costs, which is only starting to happen now and increased competition for people.  This isn't only related to the hiring, it also covers the retaining bit as well.  The recruiters are having a field day with the revenues being generated from us for hiring staff and there isn't much we can do about that in a staff bull market.  What we can control is the retaining piece of the puzzle.  Delegating work to staff is a critical part of that effort.  Young people want to advance in their careers and they want to be given responsibility for their work.  Delegation serves both purposes well.  The issue with delegation is that when done poorly, it can lead to problems. The biggest failure is selling the delegation to the person receiving it.  This sounds simple, but so often this is not done at all or not done very professionally.  Usually, the delegation process is a series of orders – do this and do that type of thing.  The person on the receiving end already has a job and may be thinking, “wait a minute, I am already busy and why do I need to do your job as well?”.  That would be a legitimate and logical conclusion of having your boss dump their work on your desk. The selling component is making clear the benefit to the person receiving the delegation.  There is usually a selection process for internal promotions and the people making the decision want to know the new person can handle the tasks and are not going to blow anything up.  If we are changing companies, when we get to the interview stage, they will ask about our experience.  We are trying to step up and being able to reference completion of work at a level above where we are now is an advantage.  When it is put like this, people can understand how they can leverage these tasks at a future point and make it an advantage to themselves. The other negative aspect of delegation is boss abandonment.  You are handed a bunch of tasks by your superior and that is the last you hear about it until the completion deadline.  This is very dangerous because if the person takes the project off on an incorrect tangent and you hit the deadline, then there is little which can be done to salvage the wreckage.  Now there is a balance between the boss interfering and micro-managing the delegated project and keeping an eye on how things are going.  The latter is obviously the way to go, but where is the line between them?  One good idea is to discuss how they are going to approach the task.  Get them to tell us what they think about running this part of the work. We want their ideas because that is where the ownership is located.  We still need to monitor progress, though. Agreeing a regular check in is a good practice.  All the boss is looking for is whether the project is on track.  There are many ways to the top of the mountain and we have to let the delegated person find that out for themselves, as part of the learning process, rather than being proscriptive about how to get there. If we get both the sell the delegation part and the shepherding component right, then the delegation will be successful and help us to retain staff.  The team member will feel empowered, trusted, and valuable. These are all brilliant and required elements to keep people with us and not straying off to greener pastures.  We must deny the siren call of ravenous recruiters trying to lift our people out of our companies.  If we don't start delegating, we will lose staff, find it hard to get new staff and gradually shrink in size. In turn, this will make us less attractive as a work destination, as we become too flat to be able to accommodate ambitious people.  It is a cycle which ultimately leads to oblivion.    

This is the first of 4 parts of the 500th Episode of the Seek Sustainable Japan talkshow-podcast with a multitude of talented and special guests who have previously appeared in the series.This part one is with Tove Kinooka co-founder of Enteleco consulting in Tokyo, James Hollow founder of Fabric consulting and research co in Tokyo, Ruth Jarman founder of Jarman international in Tokyo.

On this episode of After Earnings hosts Austin Hankwitz and Katie Perry explore Visional CEO and founder Swimmy Minami's journey and the rise of his company. They discuss Visional's use of AI in HR, its recent IPO on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and the differences between the Japanese and U.S. job markets. Swimmy also talks about Visional's plans for cybersecurity and other growth areas, his recent accolade from EY as World Entrepreneur of the Year, and his involvement with the Yankees. EY World Entrepreneur of the Year 2024: https://www.ey.com/en_gl/weoy/class-of-2024 TSE:4194 00:00 START 00:12 Meet Swimmy Minami: Tech Entrepreneur and Yankees Owner 01:06 Visional: The Japanese LinkedIn 02:23 AI and Human Capital Management 09:08 Listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange 11:24 Retail Investing in Japan vs. the U.S. 12:47 Revenue Growth and Market Trends 19:27 Future Innovations and Cybersecurity 23:00 EY World Entrepreneur of the Year 27:46 Swimmy's Role with the New York Yankees After Earnings is brought to you by Stakeholder Labs and Morning Brew.  For more go to https://www.afterearnings.com Follow Us  X: https://twitter.com/AfterEarnings TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@AfterEarnings Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afterearnings_/ Reach Out  Email: afterearnings@morningbrew.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The JREP panel members get together to discuss Tracey and Blanka's experiences owning and running a property related business in Japan's extremely traditional business environment - the FEWture 2024 conference - and more about interest rates and mortgages - tune into the conversation!

JREP members Emil Gorgees, Tracey Northcott and Ziv Nakajima-Magen get together to discuss the gap between first-time buyers' expectations and the reality of the property market in Japan, low-ball offers, short term stay pricing dynamics, and much more.

Japan has had a very low degree of mobility in employment.  Large companies hired staff straight out of school or university and expected they would spend their entire working life with their employer.  That has worked for a very long time, but we have hit an inflection point where this is less something we can expect.  Mid-career hires were frowned upon. If you bolted from your employer, you had almost zero chance of joining a competitor. You entered a dark forest and had to find your way through the brambles and undergrowth to meet out a living on the lower rungs of a netherworld of small firms willing to take you on. In 1997, the venerable Yamaichi Securities blew up and a lot of competent, hard working finance industry people suddenly found themselves in the street without a job.  Other firms in the same sector employed them, because they were skilled and this was the first tear in the fabric of the stigma of the mid-career hire.  The Lehman Shock on September 15, 2008 added another slash to lifetime employment in Japan, as many people lost their jobs.  The 2011 earthquake, tsunami and triple nuclear power plant explosions disrupted many industries, throwing people out of work.  Covid did a similar job on particular industries like tourism and hospitality as borders closed. The downturn in population has meant there is a strong demand for workers with a growing limitation on the supply side.  This throws up options for staff which were not there before and it impacts the loyalty factor of the worker-employer construct.  Thirty percent of young people in their third and fourth years of employ, after having been trained by the company who hired them, jump out and go somewhere else.  No loyalty and no qualms about leaving their employer. A client of mine sent me a note the other day about doing some training and as an aside, he mentioned that one of his key people involved in that decision, who had been with him for 14 years, was suddenly leaving.  This is very disheartening because you lose the experience, their contacts and the continuity with their colleagues and clients.  That takes a long time to re-stitch together. Sometimes it is the stupidity of our own construction.  An organisation I used to work for had a new leader appear.  He was not the usual standard of experience or capability for that complex work and decided to fire one of the staff who had been with the organisation for decades.  He had no conception of the network he was letting walk out the door.  Twenty-plus years of deep relationships with buyers in his industry was just vaporised.  It is not something obvious you can notice, like a chair has gone missing in the office, but the loss to the business is still there and manifests itself later when you least need it. What can we do about this?  Sadly, not much.  We do our best to align the direction and values of the organisation with the staff's interests.  It won't always be a perfect fit.  Also, their interests change.  They now have aging parents, get married, have children, start to think about retirement, etc.  Covid has crushed many companies and those pressures can speed up changes, which lead to staff leaving. When things are rolling, there is less taste to leave because the rewards are coming thick and fast.  When things have been tough and you are crawling out of the hole together, the rewards are all in the future. Two of Dale Carnegie's stress management principles come in handy here. One is to cooperate with the inevitable and the other is to expect ingratitude.  It is inevitable that in a strong demand economy for staff, we will see people moving more and more than in the past. The old mid-career hire stigmas have become less potent and the era of the “free-agent” employee is upon us.  We have to face the reality and not pine for the good old days of a desk groaning under the weight of resumes of people seeking employ.  I should have photographed that phenomenon, because I will never see it's like again in my working life. The ingratitude aspect of no loyalty is also a bitter pill to swallow.  We do our absolute best to be fair with our people and give them as much as we can of the rewards, but they still up and leave us.  The departure event is one struggle, but our reaction is the bigger struggle.  If we get caught up in expectations which are too high or unrealistic for a changing market, then we are setting ourselves up for depression and stress. If we believe we have been fair, but it hasn't been enough, then we should get over it and go find a replacement, no matter how fraught, expensive and difficult that may be.  We also had better get used to it, because this has already become our reality from now on.   Loyalty Is Now Tenuous In Business In Japan Japan has had a very low degree of mobility in employment.  Large companies hired staff straight out of school or university and expected they would spend their entire working life with their employer.  That has worked for a very long time, but we have hit an inflection point where this is less something we can expect.  Mid-career hires were frowned upon. If you bolted from your employer, you had almost zero chance of joining a competitor. You entered a dark forest and had to find your way through the brambles and undergrowth to meet out a living on the lower rungs of a netherworld of small firms willing to take you on. In 1997, the venerable Yamaichi Securities blew up and a lot of competent, hard working finance industry people suddenly found themselves in the street without a job.  Other firms in the same sector employed them, because they were skilled and this was the first tear in the fabric of the stigma of the mid-career hire.  The Lehman Shock on September 15, 2008 added another slash to lifetime employment in Japan, as many people lost their jobs.  The 2011 earthquake, tsunami and triple nuclear power plant explosions disrupted many industries, throwing people out of work.  Covid did a similar job on particular industries like tourism and hospitality as borders closed. The downturn in population has meant there is a strong demand for workers with a growing limitation on the supply side.  This throws up options for staff which were not there before and it impacts the loyalty factor of the worker-employer construct.  Thirty percent of young people in their third and fourth years of employ, after having been trained by the company who hired them, jump out and go somewhere else.  No loyalty and no qualms about leaving their employer. A client of mine sent me a note the other day about doing some training and as an aside, he mentioned that one of his key people involved in that decision, who had been with him for 14 years, was suddenly leaving.  This is very disheartening because you lose the experience, their contacts and the continuity with their colleagues and clients.  That takes a long time to re-stitch together. Sometimes it is the stupidity of our own construction.  An organisation I used to work for had a new leader appear.  He was not the usual standard of experience or capability for that complex work and decided to fire one of the staff who had been with the organisation for decades.  He had no conception of the network he was letting walk out the door.  Twenty-plus years of deep relationships with buyers in his industry was just vaporised.  It is not something obvious you can notice, like a chair has gone missing in the office, but the loss to the business is still there and manifests itself later when you least need it. What can we do about this?  Sadly, not much.  We do our best to align the direction and values of the organisation with the staff's interests.  It won't always be a perfect fit.  Also, their interests change.  They now have aging parents, get married, have children, start to think about retirement, etc.  Covid has crushed many companies and those pressures can speed up changes, which lead to staff leaving. When things are rolling, there is less taste to leave because the rewards are coming thick and fast.  When things have been tough and you are crawling out of the hole together, the rewards are all in the future. Two of Dale Carnegie's stress management principles come in handy here. One is to cooperate with the inevitable and the other is to expect ingratitude.  It is inevitable that in a strong demand economy for staff, we will see people moving more and more than in the past. The old mid-career hire stigmas have become less potent and the era of the “free-agent” employee is upon us.  We have to face the reality and not pine for the good old days of a desk groaning under the weight of resumes of people seeking employ.  I should have photographed that phenomenon, because I will never see it's like again in my working life. The ingratitude aspect of no loyalty is also a bitter pill to swallow.  We do our absolute best to be fair with our people and give them as much as we can of the rewards, but they still up and leave us.  The departure event is one struggle, but our reaction is the bigger struggle.  If we get caught up in expectations which are too high or unrealistic for a changing market, then we are setting ourselves up for depression and stress. If we believe we have been fair, but it hasn't been enough, then we should get over it and go find a replacement, no matter how fraught, expensive and difficult that may be.  We also had better get used to it, because this has already become our reality from now on.    

A follow-up chat with Richard, a savvy young entrepreneur in the early planning stages of his new Japan real estate property business - we talk dodgy realtors, client and seller profiles, the difference between working with Japanese and foreign clients, doing deep and thorough work VS transactional speed, and much, much more!

We talk to a couple who want to kick-off their Japanese investment portfolio, and leverage it to move to Japan - what should they invest in?

This week we revisit an episode of the podcast about navigating the Japanese business landscape that aired on 26th May 2023.Are you doing business in Japan, or would like to, and feel like you could use some guidance on how to maximize your time and effort? If you are an APAC or global business leader, and looking to navigate the business landscape in Japan and build successful, long-term partnerships with Japanese companies, it's essential to approach business in Japan with a mindset of respect, cultural sensitivity, and a willingness to adapt to local customs and practices. In this episode I discuss ten factors that I've found incredibly important to keep in mind for APAC and global business leaders looking to do business in Japan.In this episode you will hear:About Japan's unique culture and business practicesHow important long-term business relationships are in JapanThe expectations placed on business leaders in Japan including strong work ethic, respect for hierarchy and seniorityAbout the importance Japanese companies place on consensus decision-makingConnect with David Sweet:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drdavidsweet/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/focuscorejp Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/focuscoreasiaInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/focuscorejp/ Website: https://www.japan.focuscoregroup.com/ Are you enjoying the FocusCore Podcast? Please take a few minutes and leave a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts! Scroll down the show page, select leave a rating, and tap ‘Write a review'. The FocusCore Podcast is hosted by David Sweet and produced by Podlaunch with Jayne. Doin' the Uptown Lowdown,” used by permission of Christopher Davis-Shannon. To find out more, check out www.thetinman.co and check out his new album, FIFTY​/​50. https://music.cdavisshannon.com/album/fifty-50-2 Support independent musicians and artists.Mentioned in this episode:2024 Salary Guide

In november gaat een delegatie van Dutch Music Export op handelsmissie naar Japan. Wat kun je verwachten als je zaken gaat doen in Japan? Waarom is het zo'n interessante markt voor artiesten? En waarom moet je nu alvast visitekaartjes bestellen? Jochem Tromp praat erover met Emilie Kannekens van MassiveMusic en Sander Petit van Backstage Legal.  Muziek: Sarahjulia (@sarahjuliamusic) Reinier Zonneveld - Music is the answer Maxine - Kinda Wanna (feat. miida) Kafka - Time for love Tip van Sander: download de app 'Hofstede Insights' Voor meer informatie over Dutch Music Export  -> https://www.dutchmusicexport.com Voor meer informatie over  Soepermarkt Music Management -> https://www.soepermarkt.com     Deze  podcast is geproduceerd en opgenomen door Geesje Oostland en Jochem Tromp. Nabewerking door Adam Bar-Pereg in de Split Second Studio in Amsterdam.

DOING BUSINESS IN JAPAN Moderator: Mr. Nicolas Duran, Managing Director & Partner, Investment Banking – Fearnley Securities Panelists: • Mr. Georg A. Whist, CEO – Gram Car Carriers • Mr. Stamatis Tsantanis, Chairman & CEO - Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp. (SHIP); Founder, Chairman & CEO - United Maritime Corporation (USEA) • Mr. Edvin Endresen, CEO – Solvang • Mr. Nicos Rescos, COO – Star Bulk Carriers Corp (SBLK) 2nd Annual Capital Link Japan Maritime Forum , held on Thursday October 26th atThe Tokyo American Club. The event was in partnership with Fearnley Securities and Columbia Shipmanagement.For more information, please visit here: Capital Link Forum

DOING BUSINESS IN JAPAN Moderator: Mr. Nicolas Duran, Managing Director & Partner, Investment Banking – Fearnley Securities Panelists: • Mr. Georg A. Whist, CEO – Gram Car Carriers • Mr. Stamatis Tsantanis, Chairman & CEO - Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp. (SHIP); Founder, Chairman & CEO - United Maritime Corporation (USEA) • Mr. Edvin Endresen, CEO – Solvang • Mr. Nicos Rescos, COO – Star Bulk Carriers Corp (SBLK) 2nd Annual Capital Link Japan Maritime Forum , held on Thursday October 26th atThe Tokyo American Club. The event was in partnership with Fearnley Securities and Columbia Shipmanagement.For more information, please visit here: Capital Link Forum

Nicki is a single mother and entrepreneur with one leg firmly planted in Amsterdam and one in Tokyo. Back in 2011 she moved with her then husband to Tokyo as a trailing wife. Unable to find a job and reach her objective to be at a native level in her Japanese ability two years in, she decided to start her own company called “Tokiotours”. 10 years later she's had a child, is divorced and has her “home base” back in Amsterdam from where she runs her tour guide business together with a business partner located in Tokyo. What started out as a simple side business has grown into a flourishing business with 50 local guides working for her from various destinations. Not only does she offer private guided tours to tourists, but she also focuses on market explorations for the B2B market where she helps companies take their first steps on the Japanese market. Topics covered in today's conversation include: -how not understanding Japanese culture will sabotage your business prospects –Nicki's experience moving from a trailing spouse to entrepreneur in Japan -what it takes to be a successful tour guide -why leaving ambiguity almost always results in a “no” from clients -how to manage your expectations and make the most of your time in Japan Nicki's Links: -www.tokiotours.nl -www.tokiotours.com -www.facebook.com/tokiotourswww.facebook.com/verkenjapanhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/tokiotours/https://www.linkedin.com/company/verkenjapanhttps://Instagram.com/tokiotourshttps://Instagram.com/verkenjapanhttps://instagram.com/Nicki_Amsterdam =https://twitter.com/tokiotours -⁠Nicki@tokiotours.com⁠ Want to support the podcast? Check the podcast's ko-fi page to help keep me well-caffeinated enough to keep making content: https://ko-fi.com/businesssuccessjapan Be sure to follow or subscribe for more Japanese language and cultural insights. And if you enjoy the podcast, please leave a review so that other people can find it as well. And of course, if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, please email me at ⁠businesssuccessjapan@gmail.com⁠. I'd love to hear from you! Leave me a voice message here: https://anchor.fm/businesssuccessjapan/message --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/businesssuccessjapan/message

We speak to an ex-pat living in Japan, who is interesting in setting up a real estate brokerage or agency in the land of the rising sun - what are some things to think about before pulling the trigger? Join the conversation to find out!

Most successful startups are started by more than one founder, but co-founder breakups are also a key cause of startup failure. In this episode, hosts Paul Chapman, Jason Ball, Nalin Advani, Ilya Kulyatin, and guests, discuss how to thrive with your co-founders.

Are you doing business in Japan, or would like to, and feel like you could use some guidance on how to maximize your time and effort? If you are an APAC or global business leader, and looking to navigate the business landscape in Japan and build successful, long-term partnerships with Japanese companies, it's essential to approach business in Japan with a mindset of respect, cultural sensitivity, and a willingness to adapt to local customs and practices. In this episode I discuss ten factors that I've found incredibly important to keep in mind for APAC and global business leaders looking to do business in Japan.In this episode you will hear:About Japan's unique culture and business practicesHow important long-term business relationships are in JapanThe expectations placed on business leaders in Japan including strong work ethic, respect for hierarchy and seniorityAbout the importance Japanese companies place on consensus decision-makingConnect with David Sweet:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drdavidsweet/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/focuscorejp Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/focuscoreasiaInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/focuscorejp/ Website: https://www.japan.focuscoregroup.com/ Are you enjoying the FocusCore Podcast? Please take a few minutes and leave a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts! Scroll down the show page, select leave a rating, and tap ‘Write a review'. The FocusCore Podcast is hosted by David Sweet and produced by Podlaunch with Jayne. Doin' the Uptown Lowdown,” used by permission of Christopher Davis-Shannon. To find out more, check out www.thetinman.co and check out his new album, FIFTY​/​50. https://music.cdavisshannon.com/album/fifty-50-2 Support independent musicians and artists.Mentioned in this episode:2024 Salary Guide

If you want to hear the business talk skip to 44:00. If you want to her about the insanity that is Mr Blobby start from the start. This week we talk about what are all the things you need to do in order to start your business in Japan in regards to all of the things that you need to do before you can even get started. From getting set up, your visa process, and everything in between we give you a very brief outlook on what you can expect. Contact Us: Listener voice questions: https://anchor.fm/tokyofresh/message Twitter: @tokyofreshpod Instagram: @tokyofreshpodcast @afroinjapan @zyrell MERCH JPN https://suzuri.jp/tokyofreshpodcast USA/EU/WORLD https://my-store-b9e39f.creator-spring.com/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tokyofresh/message

Hosts Paul Chapman, Jason Ball, Nalin Advani, Ilya Kulyatin and guests discuss building your personal brand as a startup founder in Japan.

Tracey Northcott of Tokyo Family Stays (https://www.tokyofamilystays.com/), a member of the #JapanRealEstate Experts Panel (JREP), speaks at the inaugural Japan Real Estate Summit in Tokyo, winter 2023 - all about the tremulous history, current legislative and management framework of "minpaku" (short term stay business) and the inn & hotel business sector in Japan! (Please forgive the low audio quality, due to venue acoustics - we aim to improve on future recordings!)

Many founders begin their startup journey without formal sales training or experience. In this episode, hosts Paul Chapman, Jason Ball, Nalin Advani, Ilya Kulyatin, and guests, discuss the fundamentals of B to B sales for founders needing to rapidly acquire sales expertise in order to succeed.

Is the dream to own and profit from an AirBnb accommodation business catering to winter holiday makers in the Japanese alps, in Nagano prefecture and beyond, practical? Find out in this conversation with a new client - what needs to be researched and prepared in advance, which properties qualify, and how to manage it all? (Also - how to find affordable accounting services in Japan?)

Hosts Paul Chapman and Jason Ball, are joined by Nalin Advani and Ilya Kulyatin to discuss how startups can go about evaluating potential investors when fundraising in Japan!

In this episode, Jarrod and Olivier speak with Zoé Bouchard. Zoé runs Niyodo Adventure with her husband Norihiro along the Niyodo River of Kochi Prefecture. Established in 2019, their company gives exciting canyon kayaking, pack rafting, and camping tours to visitors.We learn about ways to support local businesses and regional tourism, and the anticipations they have for the 2023 season. Zoé shares how she and her husband settled in Japan and set up a company in the Kochi countryside. And we learn about the beauty of the Niyodo River and the nearby Iya Valley too.As is becoming the case with all of our guests, we hope to visit them in person and experience their wonderful work in person.Learn more and book a tour here!Website: https://www.niyodoadventure.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/niyodoadventure/Please visit our Patreon page where you can sign up for just $2 a month!Your contributions help us with production costs and the time required to record and edit podcasts and organize interviews. We are excited to say that excess profits go toward our startup project in Japan. For this, we thank you always. Get full access to Local Japan Podcast at localjapan.substack.com/subscribe

Hosts Paul Chapman and Jason Ball, are joined by startup CFOs Yuki Kishi and Maurizio Raffone to discuss the role of CFOs in startups, when is the right time to hire a CFO, and how the CFO role changes over time. Founded In Japan co-hosts Haruka Takamori and Nalin Advani also lend their voice to the discussion.

Hosts Paul Chapman and Jason Ball, are joined by guests to discuss the video, 'How to Succeed with a Startup', by Sam Altman of Y Combinator, and we consider how to apply his wisdom to starting up in Japan.Sam's video: youtu.be/0lJKucu6HJc

Our second conversation with Anna, who has recently taken on B2C marketing duties for "Hmlet", a Tokyo-based short-term stay and shared housing operator - marketing and business networking on and offline, working for a Japanese company as opposed to an international start-up, and how to be a real person and not a spammy sales robot!

On this episode we are joined by local Sapporo business owner, Gareth. We discuss how to go about starting your own business in Japan, how to start out and some of the do's and don'ts! We also talk about what it's like to run a bar and the good points and bad points of owning a bar. We also talk about the borders opening, North Korea missiles and much more. This episode is packed with useful information so have a listen!For those traveling to japan and become sick with covid, you can contact the Japan Visitor Hotline  at 050-3816-2787 for an over-the-phone consultation with a health professional.Sponsors:Bearfoot BarLocated in downtown Sapporo, walking distance from the subway station. There are  variety of Japanese made craft bottled beers. A wide range of regular and unique spirits and basic cocktails also available. Burgers and pub style snacks. With friendly English and Japanese speaking staff.  https://www.facebook.com/bearfootbar The Red House Located in the heart of Rusutsu Ski Resort, just cross the main road and it's behind the Seicomart Convenience store. The restaurant features a mix of Japanese, Asian fusion, and western Style dishes, including shabu-shabu with wagyu beef and Hokkaido wagyu beef steak. Open winter and summer, 12-3pm for lunch, 5-9pm for dinner, with prices ranging from under Yen 1000 to about Yen 5000. https://theredhouse.jp/ Rusutsu LodgesOpen all year round. Located 5 minutes walk to the main Rusutsu Ski Resort Gondola. There are Japanese, Western, and apartment style rooms with breakfast packages available. There's a Japanese sento (public bath), two convenience stores less than a minute walk, ski room and tune up tables, plenty of free parking space, and summer BBQ packages available. Check out the website for more information and availability. http://rusutsulodges.com Hokkaido GuideEstablished over 10 years ago, written by locals for locals and international tourists. The guide contains information on all types of businesses and locations around Hokkaido. There's information regarding all things Hokkaido such as sightseeing, nightlife, events, services, food and restaurants, entertainment, outdoor activities, and more. Currently offered in English and Thai, advertising space available. Check out website for everything you need to know about this beautiful prefecture. https://hokkaidoguide.comUse our Buzzsprout affiliate link to start your podcast today! Website:https://www.voicesinjapan.com/Follow us and check out our other content:https://twitter.com/voicesinjapanhttps://www.facebook.com/voicesinjapan/https://www.instagram.com/voicesinjapan/Get in touch: voicesinjapan@gmail.comSupport the showSupport the show

Drew Flynn, CTO at NN Life Japan discusses agile-driven business process. The discussion covers migration to cloud, AI, and the implementation journey. Hosted by Chad Watt, researcher and writer with the Infosys Knowledge Institute.

Japan is opening up for tourism! After more than two years of border closures, Japan is back in the news recently as it begins preparations to welcome people back to the land of the rising sun. And while Japan has always been open for business, it has been a lot harder for people to come and work in Japan with border closures, and there is a renewed interest in working and living in Japan. My guest on the podcast today is Sam Barker, a UK-based marketing professional, writer, and former Japan resident. Sam recently shared an article he wrote about landing your business in Japan - an expert guide to success and it couldn't more timely to chat about his research and his insights into successfully working in Japan. In this episode you will hear:The importance of strong language skills in Japan Mindset - understanding the Japanese mindset and expectations Why thinking that you can successfully copy and paste your business model from APAC and succeed in Japan is a recipe for failure Know when to push the boundaries to make a difference...and when not toDiversity and what does that look like in JapanThe changing dynamics of the Japanese population and what this means for the futureSam Barker Bio:Sam L Barker is a marketing professional with years of experience working in software and technology. He is also a freelance writer focusing on the areas of Japanese culture, technology, music, the internet, and business.His work has appeared in numerous publications including Private Suite Magazine, Mac O'Clock, ListenCorp, Exponents and Ae2 Online. He also writes in a marketing capacity and has produced numerous blog posts, reports, presentations, guides, and features for businesses.Connect with Sam:Website: Far Side Virtual LinkedIn: Sam BarkerTwitter: @Mxhdroom9Links of things mentioned in this episode:‘Landing your business in Japan: An expert guide to success' article by Sam Barker Connect with David Sweet:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drdavidsweet/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/focuscorejp Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/focuscoreasiaInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/focuscorejp/ Website: https://www.japan.focuscoregroup.com/ Doin' the Uptown Lowdown,” used by permission of Christopher Davis-Shannon. To find out more, check out www.thetinman.co. Support independent musicians and artists.Mentioned in this episode:2024 Salary Guide

In this episode of the Busine$$ of the V, we travel to Japan, the epicenter of the femtech revolution. Dr. Dweck and Rachel are chatting with Dr. Amina Sugimoto who offers fascinating insight into the tectonic shifts taking place in the Asian market as women's health and empowerment become increasingly important. Dr. Sugimoto is the CEO and co-founder of fermata, a platform that brings global femtech products directly to Asia. In other words, Dr. Sugimoto is part of a small group of female entrepreneurs who are shaking up the way we perceive sexual and reproductive wellness. Apart from being a highly successful entrepreneur, Amina also holds a master's degree in Global Health Policy and a doctorate in Public Health. That being said, her summary of the differences between Japanese and American healthcare systems is extremely useful and insightful. While listening to the conversation, you will learn a lot about women's wellness products, as well as how femtech empowers women and highlights their wants and needs. If you want to be part of this exciting femcare world, feel free to join the Femtech Fes! in Japan, taking place in October 2022. Now, press play and enjoy the ride! You can subscribe or listen to previous episodes of the Busine$$ of the V podcast by clicking here. TOPICS COVERED: Admiration at First Sight: how Rachel and Dr. Sugimoto met at a conference in Tel Aviv. How Amina got tired of working in the policy sector and decided to spice things up with some femtech. Fermata offers everything: period underwear, menstrual cups, Kegel bells – you name it! Dweck genuinely wonders whether hot flashes are a thing in Japan. If you want to sell women's products in Japan, it's a long way to the market! Each medical product requires a lengthy approval process. Myth or Fact: Asian women have less disturbing menopausal symptoms. Rachel asks the right question: How do they evaluate a product? Femtech is exploding in Japan! It will likely become Japan's leading industry within the next five years. Is there a market for incontinence products in Japan? Absolutely, says Dr. Sugimoto. Obesity, which is rather uncommon in Japan, is not the only cause of incontinence. Sugimoto demonstrates how laws and regulations can impede femtech product development. Maternity and paternity leave in Japan: sounds like heaven! Still not convinced that Japan is light years ahead of us? Well, guess what: they have period leave! Women in Japan must deal with the pressure to stay at home with their children. And yet, all some of them want is to just go back to work. Sugimoto's invaluable advice to aspiring entrepreneurs looking to enter the Asian market: check laws and regulations first. Another point to consider is Japan's healthcare system. If you're visiting Japan in October, do not miss Femtech Fes! It's a festival brimming with femtech products and businesses from all around the globe. Need more information? You can contact Dr. Sugimoto for details! HOT FLASH: Japan appears to have one of the most generous paid leave policies in the world for both men and women. By law, Japanese men can take up to a year off from work to look after the child while still receiving a substantial portion of their pay. QUOTES:   “Fermata started as a space where people can get to know more about different women's health and wellbeing products.” (Dr. Sugimoto) “I really perused your site, it's so interesting.” (Dr. Dweck) “Japanese (women) have different menopausal symptoms, rather mental than physical.” (Dr. Sugimoto)  “The SWAN study has shown that the African American and Hispanic population tend to have the highest rates of disturbing symptoms, while the Asian population was lower on that list.” (Dr. Dweck)  “I'm sure there are enormous differences in what explodes in popularity in the Asian market than here.” (Rachel) “The term ‘femtech' has become quite popular here in Japan, it's been on every single magazine every year.” (Dr. Sugimoto)  “There are multiple factors (in incontinence), and obesity is one of them. There is also genetics, childbirth, big babies, instrumented deliveries, etc.” (Dr. Dweck)  “There has been a lot of discussion in the past several months about parental leave and however an organization defines reproductive care.” (Rachel) “Japan has introduced period leave, but no one is using it. Nobody has thought about how these rules would be sustained.” (Dr. Sugimoto) “Quite a lot of women apply to my company saying that they want to go back to work as soon as they can after delivering a baby. I guess women start to realize that it's okay to work.” (Dr. Sugimoto)   FURTHER RESOURCES:   Website: https://hellofermata.com/en Amina @LinkedIn   LINKS FOR BUSINE$$ OF THE V:   Website: www.businessofthev.com Dr. Alyssa Dweck: https://drdweck.com Rachel Braun Scherl: www.sparksolutionsforgrowth.com/about-rachel-braun-scherl/

“In our business, at our size, we have to be the speedboat, we cannot be the oil tanker”, is a key mantra for my Franchise company.  Why is that the case?  I am the only non-Japanese in the firm and I was frustrated at the slow pace of decision-making and action taken by the team.  Growing up in Western business, speed of decision-making and taking action are requirements drummed into you from any early age. Other foreign leaders in Japan reading our speed mantra will be sagely nodding their heads at this point, because their multi-national firms may be much larger in scale, but the issue is the same.  It doesn't seem to make sense why things are so slow here.    Japan Seems Efficient But Is It? Japan seems very, very efficient.  The famous Bullet Train, the Shinkansen, has an unbelievable record of being on time.  The average delay of Shinkansen trains is less than one minute per year and there are over 3000 trains annually whistling by at speeds of over 230 kilometers per hour.  Train commuters based outside Japan will be astonished at these numbers.  There is also hardly any litter here, graffiti, drugs, guns or crime – the usual reality for many people living in big Western cities.  Everything works and works well, so it seems the pinnacle of efficiency.   Inside companies though the picture is quite different.  In the West, ambitious, thrusting employees trying to make a name for themselves and get promoted, are rapid fire machines.  They are constantly pushing the boundaries, taking calculated risks and quite aware they are being judged on how quickly and well they can get things done.  In Japan, none of these things are particularly important.  Sprinting off a cliff is thought to be a bad idea in Japan.  It is much better to take some time, cross every “T” and dot every “I” before moving work along.  Speed often leads to mistakes being made and in Japan that is unacceptable.   Measure Three Times, Cut Once In Japan This fear of making mistakes and errors has everyone measuring three times, before cutting once.  Western CFOs are clever.  They have worked out that there is a ratio of defects to profitability.  The thinking is “if we accept a three percent error rate, even taking into account having to replace defective goods, the firm will make more money that trying to achieve a 100% no defect outcome”.  This would get CEOs salivating at the thought of making more profit and the CFO will get a big bonus, but not in Japan.  That CFO suggestion wouldn't see the light of day here, because it is unthinkable.   Supreme attention to detail, no defects, no errors are rock solid values in Japan.  To achieve these vaunted outcomes a lot of triple checking is required and that takes time.  Getting things out the door pronto is not valued here if there are any mistakes in the process.  The MVP or minimum viable product idea is a difficult concept here because the product has to work well and reliably or no one wants to buy it.  Of course there is a love of kaizen here around making further incremental improvements, but the original release cannot have problems or the product is dead in the water.     Few Marriages Of Corporate Convenience In Japan This safety first idea in also a mantra in decision-making.  Japan is not as litigious as some Western countries, so the legal ramifications are not necessarily the prime driver.  There is another fundamental concern which slows down business deal making.  Western firms enjoy marriages of convenience.  Two firms come together to make more money collectively, than they could individually and there is the thought that this situation is only as good and lasting as the immediate benefits.  When these run out, then we all move on.  Japan sees business marriages as monogamous, life long and full of mutual obligations.  If the business partnership is a lifelong arrangement then a lot of due diligence has to be carried out before any agreements are struck.  This is all understood within Japan and companies here know that Western companies operate off a much more short-term framework, so there is an inherent risk associated with dealing with non-Japanese firms.    The President Isn't Necessarily The Key Decision-Maker Unless it is a founder led company, usually the President is not the key decision-maker.  The more junior people will conduct the due diligence and then the results go up and get homogenised across the various Divisions within the firm which will be affected by the decision to do business with this other firm.  This homogenisation works well for milk but it can be a painfully slow process within the company decision-making structure.  Imagine everyone is worried about taking any responsibility for this decision in case something goes wrong, so the triple checking is being repeated at every level.  No one gets rewarded for speed, but the downside of mistakes is vast. There is an internal decision document called a ringisho ( 稟議書 )which collects the personal seals of each decision-maker, before it can progress to the senior ranks, where the actual rubber stamp formal decision will be taken.   In the West, when the buyer says “we will think about it”, this is usually an invitation, even a challenge, for salespeople to push harder on who will be involved in the decision, what things will be of major concern to them, how long will this take and how can we speed that process up.  In Japan, they really do need to think about it and they would rather make decisions slowly, than repent at leisure for a bad choice.  It is not uncommon for us to gain a new client who we met three years ago.  I always tell my salespeople, “The buyer is never on your timetable”.  Companies prefer to move at a glacial pace because slow is safe.  What about all of the opportunity costs, the missed chances, the deals gone begging?  No one cares particularly, so focus on patience and perseverance when dealing with Japan. 

I get this question quite often: “should I follow the logic of ‘when in Rome, do as the Romans do' with regard to doing business with Japanese companies?”. Their question is usually related to how to present to buyers. The Western “pitch deck” is usually well designed, professionally laid out and zen like in its simplicity.  Ironically, the equivalent decks from companies in the land of zen, are usually more reminiscent of the Baroque period, highly ornate and florid in design.  Polar opposites in fact.  The style of the actual delivery of the decks is usually also a world apart and it is quite shocking when you first encounter this phenomenon. What should we be doing to be effective in winning business from Japanese companies?   Very, very occasionally, when teaching presentation skills here to Japanese people, we will encounter a preference for the “Japanese way” of presenting, rather than the global standard that we are advocating.  What do they mean by the “Japanese way”?  We should speak in a monotone, with no energy, have our back to the audience and read everything on the screen to those in the room.  It also means having a slide with 5 different fonts and a similar number of colours, packed to gunwales with data.  If using graphs is a good idea, then let's put up five on the one slide, so that everything is so tiny, you cannot make much sense of it.  If proffering information is considered important, then let's affix vast slabs of impenetrable text to the slide and then read it to the audience.  Another favourite is to put up the entire spreadsheet, packed with microscopic numbers in the cells.  Just to spice it up, let's add some animation and have various bits move around.   Why are the Japanese decks and every other collection of information offered often so crammed and dense?  I discovered the reason when I was a university student here in Tokyo.  Back in 1979, I attended an academic conference on Sino-Japanese relations, which was my chosen field of study at that time.  One of the professors was relating a point about the difference in thinking between Chinese people and Japanese people.  Zen travelled from India, through China to Japan and so at various points in history, Japanese Buddhist priests would go to China to study.  There was an allegorical zen tale regarding a well and a bucket, which in the Chinese version, made a macro point about the condition of humanity in the world.  The good Professor made the observation that when that allegorical tale was translated into Japanese, in addition to the macro point, there was a tremendous amount of micro detail about the construction of the well, how the rope was made, the dimensions of everything, etc., etc.   Japan Is A Data Consuming Tornado   This is the point – Japanese buyers have an insatiable need for data.  You simply cannot oversupply data to a Japanese client and they will just keep sucking it up, like a tornado devours everything in its path.  So, when we present our highly refined, trimmed down slide deck or submit our carefully manicured written proposal, the Japanese side often feels like they have just missed their lunch and are starving, ravenous for more information.  Written materials in particular can be a problem.  We are trained in the West to be succinct, to focus on the core information, to get to the point.  Japan is just not that way.   The language itself is circuitous, vague and indirect.  We are a bilingual operation here in Tokyo, so we are constantly switching between languages. Even after 37 years here, I am still amazed at how many more words are needed to express the same concept in Japanese than in English.    So should we become Japanese when we present?  To be successful here we need two presentations.  We need the global best practice slide deck, the one which gets to the key points quickly and clearly.  The information on screen must be able to be grasped in two seconds.  If it takes longer than that, the slide is too complex and needs to be simplified further.  When we deliver it, we use our eye contact to engage the audience, our voice modulation to provide variety to keep the audience with us and use our gestures to highlight key concepts, phrases and words.    Bring Supporting Multi Volume Compendiums We should also bring a massively thick compendium of supporting information, so high you couldn't jump over it, to go with your presentation which was focused on the highlights.  After the meeting or after they have received your written proposal, there will be staff designated to comb through this data to find all the problems associated with working with you and doing business with your company.    Japan has a highly risk averse culture, especially in business.  The people you are dealing with are not going to get massive bonuses and rewards for risk taking.  In Japan, the ratio of CEO pay, vis-à-vis the median employee's pay, is 58 times greater, compared to 670 times in the USA.  The upside isn't big for risk taking here, but the downside for making a mistake is massive. The people you are dealing with or the people in the presentation room, will not be making any decisions, until the forensic due diligence has been completed. For that purpose, they have a data devouring demonic need for information.  Always be fully professional in your delivery, but carry a very big bag full of information and hand that over. Trust me, no one will complain about the weight.    Once you understand the conversation going on in the mind of your Japanese customer you can meet them there and things will become much easier.  Don't try to be Japanese.  Be yourself, but be smart, professional, well organised and come packing heavy with data – lots and lots of data.

Tension is a good thing in business, because this is how we get things done.  There is an issue which needs solving and either we fix it ourselves or we outsource the specifics to someone else.  There is a tension between scaling up and preserving oxygen, otherwise known as, “cash flow”.  I have this issue all of the time.  I want to grow my company, but I don't want outside investors, so bootstrapping is required.  That means the process is going to be slower than getting the cash in the door and diluting the ownership.  There is tension between time, cost and quality.  These three inputs cannibalise each other constantly.  If we go for the higher quality, there will be cost and time to market considerations.  If we reduce the cost, then the quality threshold may not satisfy our buyers.  If we go for speed, we may need to pay more for production machinery or overtime and that impacts the cost equation.  Given tension is a constant in business, you would think we would all be masters of dealing with it.   This element of tension though, when it arises when dealing with Japan, can seem a mystery.  Western culture favours the quick, the agile business “backflip with pike” manoeuvre to maximise the market opportunity.  We like the snappy rejoinder, the quick wit, the sharp off the cuff comment.  We view these attributes as indicators of intelligence and articulation.  We are constantly hustling, making things happen, pushing the envelope, forcing the issue.  Japan is not particularly keen on any of these things.   While we in the West are fixated on the correct answers, Japan is considering what is the right question?  Being the market follower is preferred here because that is the safer option, that is why precedent and track record are so highly valued.  You might get fired for being too slow in your decision-making in the West, but the chances of that happening in Japan would be rare.    You really notice the temporal dynamic in meetings between foreigners and Japanese.  The visiting businessperson feels pressure to come back with a deal and the Japanese feel this first meeting is the start of many needed before an agreement is possible.  This is a basic negotiating mistake when trying to do deals in Japan.  Instead of thinking about the sale, switch gears and start thinking about re-orders.  How can we form a trusted partnership with this Japanese company and benefit from the lifetime value of the customer?  If we think about it his way, then getting on a plane and coming here numerous times, is an acceptable commitment of time and money, because the time frame is now “forever”.   Speed decision-making is the hallmark of the competent Western leader.  Seizing the moment, grasping the opportunity, “building the biggest ships, getting there first, sinking everything” bygone British Navy style strategy, still lingers long in corporate life.  What about Japan?  Have a long term plan, enrich it with kaizen style micro-improvements, build for the future, are all more appealing ideas than bustling around.   Sales is a noble profession, although often misrepresented by the unethical, unskilled and undereducated.  The fast talking, hard driving successful salesperson is sent to Japan to ink the deal, to get the business.  With no investment made in learning how to do business here, bluster and supreme confidence are brought to bear on the problem.  The meeting room often has the sole Western businessperson seated across from a phalanx of buyers, a seeming rent-a-crowd of hangers on, from the other side.  “Why are so many of them in this meeting, who is the decision-maker” and other similar irrelevant thoughts are racing through the foreigner's mind.  Actually, unless it is a founder led company, there is usually no one decision-maker and there will be a collective decision made somewhat later.   In the depths of the discussion, the foreigner asks a question.  Silence.  Not your average garden variety silence, but profound silence.  With so many of them in the room you would think one of them could answer this question?  The rapid pace of commerce in the West cannot tolerate this breakdown in communication.  So more words are added to the question and to no avail, because the silence continues.   The bluster and confidence are rapidly withering and confusion sets in.  The internal conversation is now, “What is going on here, I asked a simple question but I am not getting any answers?”.  What is going on is that the other side of the table are deferring to each other, as to who should answer the question.  There will be hierarchies in play, as the more senior people are the ones who should be speaking. Divisional responsibilities may be confused and as yet not clarified, so it is not clear who should speak.  A lot of effort will be going in to consider what to say.  A quick answer may be seen as flippant and not well considered.  Concern about face will be on edge, in case the answer doesn't sufficiently measure up or is deemed incorrect or trespasses on another division's range of responsibilities and blurted out with no prior consultation.   We should just say nothing and wait.  How long should we wait?  The answer is for as long as it takes.  I once visited a branch of the organisation, having heard that one of the female staff was having trouble with her much older male boss.  I asked her how I could help.  She didn't answer immediately and so I sat there waiting.  Five minutes, twenty minutes, forty minutes, an hour went by with me just sitting there, silent, patiently waiting for her answer.  In the end, she told me she couldn't share her problem with me and that was that.  I didn't feel any time pressure though and that is how we should approach meetings with Japanese buyers.  Silence is golden here, because everyone takes partnering very seriously.  Don't be in a rush.

Do you want to reach out to Japanese companies and universities? Then you should know what makes Japan special and different to have a smooth business experience.Different Cultures – Different Rules and Different ways to successJapan is the second biggest market for pharmaceuticals globally. The area is not only interesting for its sales potential; it is also a major R&D hub in Asia.One of the best experts in Japanese business culture in the LSG2G Community is Stefan Sandström.Stefan Sandström is a serial entrepreneur who lived his first life in Sweden and is now living his second life in Japan. Instead of entrepreneurship, he's set up a business development consultancy in Japan aiming at the biopharma industry. After 15 years in Japan and partnering with Mr. Kuboniwa (retired from Chugai, chairman of the management committee of JBA, Japan Bioindustry Association, chairman of GTB, Greater Tokyo Bio community, and an advisor for the Japan Government), we always help find the best solutions in increasing traction or finding the right partners.We are talking about:➡️ Japanese Martial Arts➡️  How is daily life in Japan➡️  Japanese Meeting Culture➡️ The Role of Informal Meetings and➡️ How to Negotiate Prices in JapanDo you want to get in touch:⏩  Stefan Sandström: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefan-sandstr%C3%B6m-22279053/⏩  Manifestum AB: https://www.manifestum.com/iris-biotech-an-exemplary-performance-of-how-to-do-business-in-japan/

In our new Travel Tuesdays series, we explore the 'need to know' items for doing business in various jurisdictions around the world. This week, we take a closer look at Japan.Moderator: Peter Walts (Employment Law Alliance / Global)Guest Speaker: Rikisuke Yamanaka (Ushijima & Partners / Japan) Visit the ELA website at www.ela.law.

"Business in Japan" is Japan's largest English language business networking community (over 70,000 members) - the group's owner & admin, Mr Jason Ball, joined our latest BNG event to talk to us about how to network positively & efficiently, the differences between Japanese and non-Japanese networking practices, and the immense power of a well developed professional network.

Tyson Batino is a native of Hawaii who came to Japan as an English teacher, worked in human resources, and ultimately founded three companies in Japan. He now coaches founders who want to scale their businesses. Some topics covered in today's interview include investing in relationships with mentors, the importance of being clear on what you want in order to be successful in any field, and the importance of understanding the sales cycle of your prospective clients before launching into business. Today's Language: せんぱい se-n-pa-i kanji: 先輩 meaning: senior (at work or school), elder, superior Tyson's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tysonbatino/ coaching business: www.scalingyourcompany.com Japanese online lessons: www.japanswitch.com Related Episodes: Exploring and Thriving in the Changing World of Startups in Japan with Fuminori Gunji: https://anchor.fm/businesssuccessjapan/episodes/Exploring-and-Thriving-in-the-Changing-World-of-Startups-in-Japan-with-Fuminori-Gunji-e176n4q Tackling Law, Entrepreneurship, and a Purposeful Life in Japan with Catherine O'Connell: https://anchor.fm/businesssuccessjapan/episodes/Tackling-Law--Entrepreneurship--and-a-Purposeful-Life-in-Japan-with-Catherine-OConnell-e19j77p How to Make it Big in Japan: Navigating Culture, Burnout, and Entrepreneurship with Misha Yurchenko: https://anchor.fm/businesssuccessjapan/episodes/How-to-Make-it-Big-in-Japan-Navigating-Culture--Burnout--and-Entrepreneurship-with-Misha-Yurchenko-et1045 Want to support the podcast? Check the podcast's ko-fi page to help keep me well-caffeinated and making content: https://ko-fi.com/businesssuccessjapan Be sure to follow or subscribe for more Japanese language and cultural insights. And if you enjoy the podcast, please leave a review so that other people can find it as well. And of course, if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, please email me at businesssuccessjapan@gmail.com. I'd love to hear from you! Leave me a voice message here: https://anchor.fm/businesssuccessjapan/message --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/businesssuccessjapan/message

Interview and Q&A session in the "Business in Japan" weekly Clubhouse room

We speak to two winter sport ski buddies from Australia, who are in the market for a winter sports accommodation business in Japan - what's possible (or impossible), how can it be done, and how much does it all cost?

Are you planning to do business in Japan? Then you need to listen to this interview with Dr. Greg Story.Dr. Greg Story, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan, talked about studying, living, speaking Japanese, and doing business in Japan. A Ph.D. in Japanese decision-making, and a 36-year veteran of Japan, he is a leadership expert with broad experience. Among his impressive business accomplishments are:• Launching a "start-up" in Nagoya• "Turning around" companies for Austrade in both Osaka and Tokyo• Acting as Commercial Minister in the Australian Embassy • Leading as Country Head for Austrade• Progressing to the role of Co-CEO at the Shinsei Retail Bank• Becoming the Country Head for the National Australia Bank in Japan• And more recently, managing, coaching, training, and consulting at Dale Carnegie Training Japan Global, #8 in revenues in 2020. A 6th Dan in traditional Shitoryu Karate, he applies martial art philosophies and strategies to business issues. He is so energetic and enthusiastic! An excellent and engaging communicator! You will learn a lot about cultural adaptationand Japan. Don't miss it!

Your host, Ziv Nakajima Magen, joins fellow international property professional and enthusiast, Parikshat Chawla, as they talk all things related to living and working in Japan, the property market here, entrepreneurship, family, pets and much, much more.

季節の変わり目、皆さん体調など崩していませんか？  これから職域ワクチンなど、日本でもどれくらいのスピードで進んでいくのか、今年は夏の計画も立てにくいのではないかと思います。  欧米の教育カリキュラムを受けている１６歳長男は、すでに２ヶ月間のサマーホリデイが始まっています。 また１学年を無事に終了することができ、仲のいい韓国の友人が、帰国することになったりと、出会いと別れの季節が彼にとっては６月。 多国籍の先生たちとも、チームとして1年を振り返って、また８月末からの新しいグレード（学年）のスター...

Today we spoke with Mike Doan (co-founder of Skydea in Tokyo, Japan and also owner of thebestjapan.com) about his experiences coming to the country, learning the language, and co-founding his own creative agency with a Japanese business partner. Growing up in the United States as a half Japanese American, he talks about what it's like to try and reconnect with the language, and how he has approached Japanese proficiency as a key part of being a business owner in Japan. Brought to you by Risu Press and Japan Switch.

Running a business in Japan is not for the faint hearted.  Plenty of big companies with deep pockets have failed here.  There are plenty who have succeeded though.  Let's pull back the velvet curtain and get real on leading a business here in Japan.   Running your own business is challenging anywhere, but Japan adds a bit of spice to the broth.  According to official statistics, seventy percent of Japanese companies are unprofitable.  Business seems pretty simple at one level – constantly seek to increase revenues and reduce or hold down costs.  To increase revenues you can find more customers, more repeater customers and raise prices.    Raising prices in Japan gets tough, when you are in the churning wash of decades of deflation and when there are always lots and lots of competitors.  When the consumption tax was raised the last two times, the economy immediately took a hit, which indicates the price sensitivity of the populace.    The usual way of differentiating yourself and justifying higher prices is through the added value you provide.  Naturally, there is a major sales and marketing effort required to get that value message out.  Both options in Japan however come with high price tags.    By the way, whenever we do training as part of a global arrangement, we always get push back on the pricing in Japan, especially when the yen is converted to other currencies.  Why overseas head office staff would imagine that pricing here should be the same as at home is a mystery, but that is often the expectation. The cost structures here in Tokyo for wages and rents are high relative to other countries and the prices reflect that.    I refer these global partners back to their own local operation's wage and rent bills in Tokyo. I point out these are nothing like what they are costing at home, so why expect global pricing to be uniform?  In general, fixed costs as a percentage of revenue are high in Tokyo and it is a struggle to get them down.   Unlike other Western countries, where salespeople are prepared to work on a one hundred percent commission basis, very few Japanese staff are attracted by that option.  Again this opportunity to move wage costs away from fixed to variable is less available here.  This means there must be a base salary plus bonus or commission arrangement and the base will be relatively high.  Especially if you are a foreign operation, as you need to attract potential employees.  When were a start-up in 2007, we had to pay our sales staff close to double the norm, to get them to work for us.  That hurt but we had no choice.  By the way, add another fifteen percent to your wages bill for all the various social insurance and pension costs.   Of course, if you are a prestigious mega corporation, encapsulated by a powerful brand, this attracting staff challenge may not be such an issue.  If you are a Small Medium Enterprise (SME) then attracting people becomes more competitive.  If your team needs to speak some reasonable level of English, then the wage bill goes up immediately.    There is also a limited supply of Japanese who want to work in an international environment and that number is declining rapidly, as less and less young people go overseas to study.  We are currently in the midst of a real turning point regarding the internationalisation of the younger generation. The young don't want to learn English and they don't want to live overseas, because everything is so wonderful here in Japan and it is safe.  In the future, they are going to become almost impossible to hire for SMEs, as we are simply outbid by bigger companies.   Marketing in Japan, especially in Tokyo is a remorseless pit into which you have to throw lots of money.  Print ads and content marketing driven advertorial are very expensive here and the local publishers have plenty of Japanese companies able and willing to pay, so trying to cut a deal is fraught.    Television predominates with fifteen second ads, so even if you can afford the big money involved, your appeal to buyers in that time is microscopic.  On-line banner ads are not inexpensive.  Pay per click keyword search ads and Facebook ads are also not cheap and can burn through cash at an alarming rate.  Few Japanese are using LinkedIn as yet, so it mainly targeting a foreign audience at this point.  PR is a viable option for brand awareness, but you get what you pay for.  SMEs can rarely pony up the type of money required to get the PR agency's “A Team”, so don't expect any particular marketing magic from the “D Team”.   Japanese websites are often the complete antithesis of the Zen like western approach. Garish colours and packed screen real estate are very common here.  So what do you do, go Zen or go Garish?  Do you have the cash to pay for a Japanese language copywriter or do you do it internally to save money?  Are your team members any good at it?  Your SEO has to be fined tuned to push yourself forward in the page rankings and you need people who know what they are doing, as DIY is cheaper, but a lot harder.  These resources may be in-house or on contract, but they still push up the wage's bill.   Networking in Japan is different to Western countries in that few Japanese go to these events all that willing to meet new people.  Sound promising?  The meeting charges are also expensive as well so if your team are really getting out there, the costs can be significant for what is really a shotgun marketing effort.    It sounds crazy, but the usual style is that someone you know introduces you to someone they know.  This is acceptable, if quite limited in scope.  Bounding up to complete strangers and introducing yourself is possible, but the reactions are often mild shock, blank stares and some resistance.  This negative response is applied to Japanese as well as foreign staff.  “Working the room” hasn't quite made it here yet as a concept.   Cold, as opposed to warm approaches are also tricky.  Sending a direct mail piece to someone unknown goes straight in the bin.  Any email from an unknown entity similarly gets deleted unread.  You can cold call here but you really need to know the person's name.  If you don't, you will usually get blocked at the entry point, promised that your message will get passed on and a return call offered – if they are interested.  You will never hear back from them.   There is always the issue of what you are offering may work overseas, but it won't work here.  If you bring global statistics, then there had better be a Japanese component of the survey or the whole thing is just dismissed as irrelevant.  That means you have to pay to run the same survey here, to show the significance of your findings for the Japanese market. This costs money.  Testimonials from overseas companies, super brands or otherwise, are also invalid by definition.  You need a local track record to be credible and skepticism reigns without relief.   Disasters, especially earthquakes are a constant prospect and all of us living in Tokyo know we are overdue for “The Big One”.  After the triple whammy of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear core meltdown in Fukushima a few years ago, our training business ground to a halt with four months of no cash flow.  Who wants to do training, when you are having large numbers of major aftershocks every single day for months.  Covid hasn't been any fun either, as companies have cancelled their scheduled training. We all know it is important, but it is at moments like these, we really understand the importance of cash flow in a business.  This was a painful period for many businesses to get enough cash to keep going and in fact many disappeared as a direct result.   The good news is that in Japan you do get paid by clients.  Also, Japanese companies prefer the devil they know, so if you supply value, then you can expect repeat business.  Staff are hardworking and diligent.  People are honest, neat, polite and things work here, also there is fantastic infrastructure.    There are large numbers of foreign corporates with businesses here, who are more open than a lot of domestic companies to your approach.  There are English language magazines aimed at these expatriate leaders, which because of the limited market, cost a fraction of the Japanese mainstream media.  There are many foreign Chambers of Commerce, business associations and study groups here, so there are many networking opportunities where you can actually “work the room”.   The rule of law applies here and legal disputes that have to go to court are few and far between.  Like anywhere, there are criminal gangs (yakuza) extorting businesses, but they tend to leave foreigners alone and prefer exploiting the locals, as it is a lot easier.    Because of Japan's extremely strict immigration and refugee policies, there are very few ethnic or religious groups who are likely to cause Japan much trouble.  The biggest non-Japanese ethnic group are Koreans.  The majority were born here after the war, their grandparents being brought in during the war years as forced labour.  There are some foreigners here illegally overstaying their visas, but they are keeping a very low profile, because the Japanese government deports them once found.   Japan is still the third largest economy in the world.  The main leisure activities here really, for the majority of the populace, is to shop and eat. Many foreign companies have done well here, they have found the formula for success but few have done that rapidly.  Long-term planning, patience, grit and sustainability take on different dimensions here in Japan.   All in all, Japan is a land of opportunity. Progress just comes more slowly here and with great difficulty, but if you stick it out, then it will come.  There are plenty of foreigners who have made a success of their businesses here.  Adopt some samurai style “grit” and keep going.

Born in Canada, Aki lived the full Asian-Canadian life up until he was in his early teens. Then, his entire life changed as he moved to his ancestral homeland of Japan, a country that was completely opposite to the western society he was so used to. In this interview, Aki talks about the experience of moving from a western society to Japanese society, why he dropped out of high school and his ensuing journey that led him back to education. As always,  share, follow and subscribe, as well as follow along on Facebook and Instagram.

What's it like to start a business in Japan, possibly during one of the worst times in history to do so? Well my brave friend has found out. It's really amazing what he's done and his whole approach of relentless determination during a time that would make many others throw their cards in and claim no responsibility to the outcome, is nothing less than pure grit. It has left me wondering what can I do about my output in a time that I consider fairly sedate considering how little travel is possible. Ultimately I conclude that I can do so much more and should stop sitting on my ass. A fantastic revelation albeit one that requires more energy than I would like to expend.

As a Network Marketer, one of the best things is being able to build internationally. You get to experience so many things. Meet new people, learn how they live and witness the culture firsthand and see the beautiful sights. As an example, here are 3 things to love about building in Japan. The post 3 Things I Love About Building Our Business In Japan appeared first on Matt Mindset.