要点In short
- Japanese buyers assemble trust from seven layers, checked roughly in order — and a single missing layer stops the decision silently.
- Your own claims carry almost no weight. Third-party proof in Japanese does the persuading.
- Most foreign companies fail layers 01, 02, 04 and 06 without knowing the layers exist.
- A translated site with no trust signals scores zero of seven. No advertising budget compensates for that.
目次Contents
- 01. Existence — “Is this company actually real?”
- 02. Third-party validation — “Has someone credible already approved?”
- 03. Continuity — “Will this company still exist next year?”
- 04. Language quality — “Are they serious about this market?”
- 05. Responsiveness & sincerity
- 06. Transparency
- 07. Ongoing activity — “Are they still active?”
Japanese consumers and corporate buyers both assemble trust from a stack of signals. Miss one layer and the decision quietly stalls — often without the buyer ever telling you why. Here are the seven, in the order they're checked.
01. Existence — “Is this company actually real?”
The first thing a Japanese user checks: a precise address down to the floor, a Japanese landline (mobile numbers lower trust), a named representative, a corporate number (法人番号), and a map. For B2B, registry information is verified in credit checks.
02. Third-party validation — “Has someone credible already approved?”
Self-promotion carries almost no weight. What convinces is external proof: logos of Japanese client companies and same-industry case studies for B2B; user reviews on 価格.com, 食べログ, @cosme for B2C.
03. Continuity — “Will this company still exist next year?”
Abroad, “new” means exciting. In Japan, “new” means risk.
Years in business and long-term commitment to Japan matter. “Will they still be here in three years?” is a question that genuinely comes up in ringi approval.
04. Language quality — “Are they serious about this market?”
Unnatural Japanese doesn't just underperform — it actively destroys trust. Native-level copywriting is non-negotiable for B2B and B2C alike.
05. Responsiveness & sincerity
Same-day or next-morning replies are expected, with a named contact and correct business keigo. After-purchase care is watched closely and shows up in reviews.
06. Transparency
Clear pricing, terms, and SLAs. “Just give me a rough number” is a constant in Japanese B2B. For B2C, complete legal disclosures (特商法表記) and no hidden costs.
07. Ongoing activity — “Are they still active?”
A site whose last update is old reads as “they've withdrawn from Japan.” Regular case studies, news, and social posts signal a living business — which signals safety.
Use the seven layers as a diagnostic: when a Japanese deal is stuck, one of these is almost always missing. Find it, fill it, and the decision resumes.
Sources
- 01JIN MARKETING field research — seven-layer trust model
- 02Edelman Trust Barometer 2025 (28 countries, 33,000+ respondents)
Takato Minemura — Founder, JIN MARKETING
Takato Minemura is the founder of JIN MARKETING and runs WINDE, a development company in Japan. Educated at university in the United States, he spent years working alongside businesses abroad, where the same request kept arriving from the founders he worked with — we want to bring this to Japan, how does it actually work there? Answering that question repeatedly showed him something he had not expected: what he had treated as ordinary common sense about marketing was in fact specific to this market, and the companies committing the most money to an entry were the ones least aware of it. He works on both sides of an entry, the strategy and the code that implements it, which is why the research here comes out of projects rather than desk study. More about the author