Do you really need your own office in Japan?

Opening an office in Japan offers the potential to:

• Get closer to your customers
• Increase sales
• Capture more margin
• Monitor your competitors and market trends

Get closer to your customers

The decision to open an office in Japan is customer-driven. A major customer demands a presence in Tokyo before increasing its purchases. Distributors ask for same time-zone response to customer questions and requests. While in theory the Japanese market can be served from far away, the requirements of demanding Japanese customers, compounded by the difficulties of dealing across time and distance, cause many companies to consider opening an office in Japan to ramp up their business here to the next level.

Increase sales

In Japan's tightly-knit culture, customers prefer to deal locally with Japanese people and to do business in Japanese. Many Japanese customers, partners and suppliers see a local presence in Japan as a sign of your commitment to the Japanese market that makes them much more ready to commit to your company's products or services. They also want to pay in their own currency and avoid the expense and risk of international payments. Sometimes customers simply require a local entity in Japan to do business with you at all. If a company's products and services are truly sought after and competitive in Japan, a strong local presence here often drives sales to a level well beyond what is achievable at arm's length.

Capture more margin

Your business model for Japan also drives the decision to open an office there. If demand for your product or service is growing in Japan or has the potential to grow, you may want to put in place your own sales organization to reduce dependency on intermediate distribution channels and capture more margin.

Monitor your competitors and market trends

A local presence allows you to have more impact in the market and get feedback directly from your customers about how you are doing versus your competitors.

Thus opening an office in Japan offers many potential benefits. However, these benefits must be weighed against the following factors:

• Startup costs
• Operating costs
• Added tax, legal and accounting complexity
• Added administrative burden on headquarters

Startup costs

Starting an office in Japan involves legal and administrative costs. J-Seed's experience and efficiency helps keep such costs to a minimum. For information about startup costs Click Here.

Operating costs

Operating costs in Japan are driven by your business model for Japan. J-Seed's advice and network of dependable suppliers can help you keep costs under control. For a rough estimate of first year operating costs for a variety of scenarios, from an outsourced contact office to a full captive sales operation, Costs

Added tax, legal and accounting complexity

J-Seed's President Jeff Char is a California bar certified American attorney with extensive business venture operation. Please contact Jeff for advice on the optimal way to structure your entity in Japan to fit your company's business strategy and tax and legal structures.

Added administrative burden on headquarters

With limited or no overlap in standard business hours and great cultural differences, gaps in communication and strains in relations between the home office and the local office in Japan can arise. See our tips for managing an office in Japan as well as information about our dependable staffing partner that can help put in place in your office in Japan people who know how to work effectively with headquarters outside Japan.

If you are fairly certain your company needs a presence in Japan, the first important choice you have to make is whether to open Branch or Subsidiary.

To get a free initial assessment whether an office in Japan makes sense for your business, please contact J-Seed's President Tokyo-based attorney Jeff Char.

To receive periodic tips from J-Seed on starting up and doing business in Japan, please sign up for our e-mail newsletter.

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