01Understand
Before you build, market or sell in Japan, understand what you are entering. Market opportunity, buyer behaviour, competition, regulation and your current position — brought together before you commit resources. Every engagement with JIN starts here.
Why understand
What works elsewhere often doesn't apply here — and most failures in Japan come from a skipped step, not a bad product.
Claims, licences and customs — known before the first page goes live.
Demand measured from public data, sources cited — not a hunch.
“Not yet” is an allowed answer — and the cheapest one to hear early.
The report decides the form of everything after it — site, channels, set-up.
Real risks
Three foreign companies, all on the public record — a fine, a withdrawal and a criminal case.
01Surcharge · March 2024
¥1.23bn
One catalogue sentence called a paid extra “standard equipment”.
Missed: what the law governs
A foreign carmaker's Japanese arm described a feature that cost extra as “standard equipment” in its Japanese catalogue. Not a defect — a sentence. It became the largest surcharge ever issued under the Act against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations.
Source: Consumer Affairs Agency, surcharge payment order
02Sales, in a single month
−14%
New Year osechi arrived nothing like the photo. The backlash was national.
Missed: what a tradition means
Groupon entered Japan in 2010. In January 2011 its osechi — the New Year meal families treat as close to sacred — arrived nothing like the photograph. The backlash was national and immediate. Sales fell 14% in one month, and the company left Japan entirely in 2020.
Source: Japan Times / TechCrunch, January 2011
03January 2024
Arrests
Medicines sold into Japan as “personal import” — without the licence.
Missed: a licence was required
A Singapore company sold medicines to customers in Japan, presenting it as personal importation. Selling pharmaceuticals here requires a marketing authorisation licence. Its directors were arrested under the Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Act — a criminal matter, not a fine.
Source: 薬機法違反事例（薬事法マーケティング）
The point isn't that Japan is too risky to enter. It's that the risks are knowable before you enter.
What you need to know
The five things a Japan decision rests on — each answered in the Market Entry Report.
01Is there real demand — and what does it pay?
Report ch. 01 · 05
02Who decides, and how does the decision travel?
Report ch. 02 – 03
03Who already holds the space here?
Report ch. 04
04What can you sell, say and collect?
Report ch. 06 – 09
05What's missing — and which route fits you?
Report ch. 10 – 17
Not five separate reports. One view of whether — and how — you should move forward.
How it starts
The check is optional. The report is not — all our work is planned from it.
Step 01Free · optional
15 questions across five areas, scored out of 30. About three minutes, no email required.
14/ 30
Example score
10 – 17
Partly ready
Close the critical gaps before spending further.
Step 02$500
Required for every engagement
A researched assessment of your company, category and situation — 4 parts, 17 chapters. Nothing is built before it, and the $500 comes off your first invoice when you go ahead.
Inside the report
Four parts, in the order you would ask them. The plan — the heaviest part — comes last.
Part I5 chapters
“Is Japan even a market for us?”
Part II4 chapters
“What does Japan require of us?”
Part III3 chapters
“How ready are we, honestly?”
Part IV5 chapters
“So how do we actually enter?”
FAQ
No — every engagement starts with the report. What to build, in what form and in what order depends on what it finds, and we won't quote work we haven't diagnosed. If you go ahead, the fee comes off your first invoice, so for companies that work with us it adds nothing to the total.
No. The readiness check is free and asks for nothing. The report is paid precisely so that its verdict is allowed to be “don't enter”, “not yet”, or “do these two things yourself”. We also turn projects down when we expect them to fail — understanding comes before any commitment, on both sides.
Yes. The report is written in English, built to be circulated internally, and stays yours permanently — usable with us, with another vendor, or entirely in-house. Nothing in it depends on working with us.
Next 02 Build
Once you know the market, build what it requires.
Website, App & SaaS, SNS, Listings, Sales Materials — the foundation every Japanese buyer checks before they reply.
Explore Build