What Is Ringi-sho? How Japanese Companies Approve Purchases

Why a good meeting doesn't mean a fast yes

In many markets, an enthusiastic contact who liked your pitch can push a deal through fairly quickly on their own authority. In a Japanese company, that same enthusiastic contact is frequently not the final decision-maker, and even when they are, they still need internal buy-in before formally committing. A deal that seems to stall after a strong meeting is often not stalling at all — it’s moving through a process that simply isn’t visible from outside the company.

Nemawashi: building agreement before the meeting that matters

Nemawashi — literally “going around the roots,” from bonsai cultivation — refers to informally socializing a proposal with the people who’ll need to approve it, before it’s raised in any formal meeting. Your contact may be quietly checking with their manager, a technical team, or procurement well before anything is said to you. This is why a contact might go quiet for a period after a good meeting: they’re doing the internal work of building support, not losing interest.

Ringi-sho: the formal approval that follows

Once informal agreement exists, many Japanese companies still route a purchase through a ringi-sho — a written proposal that circulates to relevant stakeholders for sign-off before a final decision is formalized. Because agreement was mostly secured during nemawashi, the ringi-sho stage is often more of a formality than a real decision point — but it still takes time to physically or digitally route through every required signature, especially at a larger or more traditional company.

What this means for how you sell

• Don’t mistake quiet for lost. A period of no contact after a positive meeting is often the nemawashi process running its course, not disinterest.
• Give your contact material they can use internally. A clear, well-organized proposal or one-pager helps your contact advocate for you in conversations you’re not part of.
• Ask who else needs to be comfortable with this, directly and respectfully — it’s a normal question in Japanese B2B sales and helps you understand where the deal actually stands.
• Budget more calendar time than you would elsewhere for the gap between a strong first meeting and a signed order, and don’t read that gap as a negative signal on its own.

Where this fits in the sales process

This is the stage that follows a successful sales meeting in the process outlined in selling to Japanese customers without a local office — patient, consistent follow-up through this internal process is generally what separates a deal that eventually closes from one that quietly dies from being followed up on too aggressively, or not at all.