Podcast
Hideaki Yoshimura on challenges and strategies to enter the Japanese market
March 20, 2020 | By Hideaki Yoshimura
In this podcast episode you can learn about:
- What does it take to enter the Japanese market? There are many aspects of doing business in Japan that matter. Getting to product-market fit, finding good bilingual/bicultural talent and the need for patience. Entering Japan is about “learning” how to do business in Japan and filtering through what product customization is important and what is not.
- What is it like working in Japan and working with Japanese clients? Is it possible to pushback on clients’ demands while remaining customer-focused?
- How Japanese customers make key business decisions to partner with Western companies and startups? Often times, we are told it takes a long time to secure a Japanese customer. However, in reality, it’s all about building credibility and trust. Once this is established, Japanese customers tend to move very fast and are very loyal to their business partners.
- How the strategy to create a beachhead in Japan is critical to success. It’s all about finding product-market-fit first, focusing on one product, one core customer and building credibility and trust.