Managing a Japanese Supplier After the First Order

What Japanese suppliers expect from a customer

A Japanese supplier treats a customer as a long-term relationship, and expects the customer to behave like one: share plans early, communicate changes formally, and stay in regular contact. Overseas buyers who only get in touch when they place an order or have a problem often find their orders slipping behind domestic customers who are in touch every week. None of this is difficult. It just has to happen consistently, and in Japanese.

The work that keeps it running

• Forecasts. A rolling forecast, even a rough one, lets the supplier plan materials and capacity. Sudden orders without warning are the most common cause of long lead times.
• Spec and drawing changes. Send revisions as a new drawing revision with the change clearly marked, and confirm in writing which revision applies to which order. Informal changes in an email thread are where mistakes start.
• Quality issues. Report a problem with photos, quantities and the lot number, and ask for a written cause-and-countermeasure report. Japanese suppliers generally take this seriously and expect to be asked; a vague complaint gets a vague answer.
• Price revisions. Material and energy costs have pushed many Japanese suppliers to request price increases with a formal notice. Expect a written explanation and a negotiation, not a surprise on the invoice.
• The calendar. Factories commonly close for several days around New Year, Golden Week (late April to early May) and Obon (mid-August). Orders placed just before these periods ship later than the quoted lead time suggests.
• Regular contact. A short monthly check-in and an occasional visit do more for priority and responsiveness than any contract clause.

Who carries the correspondence

Most of this work is small, frequent communication in Japanese: a question about a drawing, a delivery date to confirm, a revised forecast. Buyers handle it in one of three ways — a Japanese-speaking employee, the trading company they buy through, or an agent acting as their contact window with the supplier. The trade-offs are in sourcing agent vs. trading company vs. going direct. Whichever you choose, keep the supplier relationship and the purchase contract in your own name, so it doesn’t depend on any one intermediary.

When to look for a second supplier

A single source works well with a reliable Japanese supplier, but it is worth having a qualified alternative for anything that would stop your production. Bring up the idea openly rather than quietly — Japanese suppliers understand dual sourcing for critical parts, and the same steps in sourcing suppliers in Japan apply to finding the second one.