Foreign brands underestimate Japan and overestimate every other market. We've spent seven years inside Tokyo learning what actually moves Japanese consumers, regulators, and retailers — and we put that infrastructure behind your launch from day one.
Most foreign brands enter Japan with a translated deck and a hopeful budget. Twelve months later, they leave quietly. The brands that win arrive with a localized product proposition, the right channel mix for the category, regulatory paperwork already filed, and a marketing voice that sounds Japanese — not foreign. That's the package we deliver: a complete go-to-market apparatus, run from Tokyo, on a fixed launch timeline.
"Japan is not a slow market. It is a market that expects you to do the work before you ask for attention."
We assess realistic addressable demand, competitive saturation, channel access, and import economics before you commit a yen of inventory. Honest read, no upsell.
PMDA, METI, JETRO, customs HS classification, import licensing, labeling — we handle the bureaucratic apparatus end-to-end and tell you the timelines that are real, not the ones consultants quote you.
Product naming, packaging hierarchy, pricing architecture, claim adaptation, and brand voice tuned to Japanese reading patterns and decision frameworks. Localization that actually localizes.
We open doors with the buyers, distributors, and platforms that matter for your category — Rakuten, Amazon JP, Loft, Plaza, Isetan, Tokyu Hands, specialty chains, and the right wholesalers for your tier.
Japanese earned media works on its own logic. We build relationships with magazines, broadcast, and platform-native creators who carry weight inside the categories that matter.
LINE, Yahoo! Japan, Smart News, TVer, paid social adapted to Japanese creative norms — plus the SEO and search infrastructure most foreign brands forget about until year two.
Two-week sprint inside our Tokyo office and your ops. We pressure-test the category, model unit economics with real Japan landed cost, map the regulatory path, and deliver a go / no-go recommendation you can take to your board.
Channel strategy, pricing tiers, brand book in Japanese, PR & content calendar, hiring plan if needed, three-year P&L. You finish with a launch plan that survives contact with reality.
Regulatory filings cleared, retailer onboarding, fulfillment configured, ecommerce live, paid and earned media activated in the same fortnight. We run the launch the way we'd launch our own brand.
Weekly reporting against the plan. Channel optimization, second-wave SKU expansion, expansion into adjacent categories or APAC neighbors when the data supports it.
Japan rewards preparation and punishes shortcuts. We take you from first question to compounding growth through eight connected stages, with a clear owner and decision at each one.
Demand, competition, pricing and regulatory flags for your category.
Positioning, segments, channel mix and a go-to-market plan you can fund.
Transcreated brand, website, eCommerce and offer for Japanese buyers.
Entity, banking, tax and compliance coordinated with qualified specialists.
Measured launch across search, LINE, Yahoo! JAPAN, Google, Meta and Microsoft.
Paid media, SEO, creators, partnerships and local business development.
Conversion, retention and LINE CRM programmes that compound.
New segments, channels, partners and markets from a proven base.
Not a satellite office. Not a partner network. Senior strategists in Shibuya who can be in a buyer's office tomorrow, take a phone call in Japanese at 8am, and read a contract before lunch.
After seven years and 62 launches, the expensive mistakes have already been made. You inherit the playbook, not the tuition bill.
Roughly one in four feasibility studies ends with us recommending against entry, or recommending a different APAC market first. Our reputation depends on your launch working — not on your retainer continuing.
Thirty minutes, no pitch deck. We listen, ask the questions that matter, and tell you what we'd actually do — even if that means recommending you don't hire us.
One connected growth system
Market entry, transcreation, search, paid media, creators and customer acquisition run as one plan with one owner, not as six disconnected suppliers.
Fixed-scope packages
Three fixed-price tiers from $1,500 (or JPY, priced separately), with exclusions listed up front. Checkout buys the listed bounded scope only.