Guides
Guides
What we’ve learned running Sales and Sourcing engagements in Japan, written up so it’s useful whether or not you ever work with us.
Selling into Japan
- B2B Sales in Japan Without a Local Office: A Practical Guide
A practical B2B sales strategy for Japan when you have no local office or staff: how to reach Japanese companies, how they decide, and how to close a first order.
- The Real Cost of Hiring a Japanese-Speaking Salesperson
Recruiting fees, salary, and work-visa requirements for a bilingual sales hire, wherever you're based, and what that budget buys instead as a monthly service.
- Cold Calling in Japan: Does It Still Work for B2B Sales?
Why the phone is still an effective first approach to a Japanese company, what makes a cold call land, and when a well-targeted email or web form works better.
- What Is Ringi-sho? How Japanese Companies Approve Purchases
Ringi-sho is the written proposal a Japanese company circulates for approval before buying. What it means, how nemawashi comes first, and why deals take time.
- Sales Agent vs. Hiring Locally vs. a Japan Entity: What Actually Differs
The real trade-offs between using a sales agent, hiring a Japan-based rep from abroad, and incorporating a Japan entity — time, cost, and commitment compared.
Sourcing from Japan
- Sourcing Suppliers in Japan: A Complete Guide for Overseas Buyers
How to find, vet, and buy from Japanese manufacturers when you have no local office or Japanese-speaking staff — RFQs, vetting, agents vs. trading companies, and export paperwork.
- How to Write an RFQ Japanese Manufacturers Will Actually Answer
Why RFQs sent cold to Japanese suppliers often go unanswered, and the specifics — units, drawings, quantities, and tone — that get a response.
- How to Vet a Japanese Supplier You've Never Met
What to check about a Japanese manufacturer before committing — registration, certifications, and the questions that surface problems early — without a factory visit.
- Sourcing Agent vs. Trading Company vs. Going Direct: What Actually Differs
The real trade-offs between a sourcing agent, a Japanese trading company (sōgō shōsha), and approaching manufacturers directly — cost, control, and speed.
- Exporting From Japan: Incoterms and Documents You'll Actually See
The Incoterms Japanese manufacturers default to, and the export paperwork — invoice, packing list, certificate of origin — a first-time buyer should expect to review.
- What to Source From Japan: Industrial Materials, Components and Equipment
The industrial categories where Japanese manufacturers are hard to replace — precision parts, motion and automation components, electronic components, specialty chemicals and materials — and where Japan is the wrong choice.
- Importing From Japan to India: CEPA, Duties and the Documents You Need
A practical checklist for Indian companies buying industrial products from Japan — IEC, HS codes, BIS requirements, claiming the India–Japan CEPA tariff rate, and the paperwork to ask your supplier for.
- Small and First-Time Orders From Japanese Suppliers: How to Get a Yes
Why Japanese manufacturers turn down small or first orders, which kinds of suppliers will take them, and how to frame a low-volume request so it gets quoted.
- Managing a Japanese Supplier After the First Order
What keeps a Japanese supplier relationship working after the first purchase order — forecasts, spec changes, quality issues, price revisions and the holiday calendar.