Launching in Japan

Richard Morgan
April 18, 2018

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Nick Katz comes in to chat about launching in Japan. Nick got into Japan in 1995 and has been in Retail since the end of the 1990’s. Selling mainly in Japan, UK and Germany on Amazon.

Identifying and Sourcing a Product

Biggest hurdle for people with japan
Choosing the right porduct
3rd Largest Market behind USA and Germany
Look at the size of the category before going in (20-30 in USA may translate to 1-2 in Japan)

Tools

Amachete is a JungleScout type overly on your screen showing you info on product sales and BSR
There are just whole categories that won’t sell in Japan
Garlic Presses and Spatulas are the kind of products that the Japanese market will support – not what you think
Well known products and interesting products do fairly well – more ubiquitous products – things you see around you every day
A very different mindset than USA is needed for launching in Japan

Translations

Keep things concise and not hard to read when launching in Japan
Style of writing is similar to Germany – no fluff and fun just informative
This is good for Japan listing
Writing good copy is not an easy thing even for native speakers
Get keywords in the title and bullets
Put a listing up and iterate on it

Enhanced Brand Content

A plus is what it’s called in Japan – a bit different to A plus in the USA
EBC has always been there in Japan
Jury is out on how useful it is
You should be using it anyway
Use your foreignness to your advantage
US or UK brand then make sure people understand it – a competitive advantage
Put your photos in there and with brand registry use storefront

Reviews

Japanese don’t leave reviews
Email sequences are not effective
If they like a product they will leave reviews
You don’t need a lot of reviews to compete – 10 is terrific, 1-2 is okay
Type of product is important – functional products less likely
Garlic press in US might have 3,000 reviews but in Japan it would be 65 reviews

Storage and FBA

Japan has the highest storage fees of all the markets Nick is in
Fees are high and are going up again
Try and use a Just in Time system with your own warehouse
Not expensive to ship into Amazon itself
A company called Jwire – Takiomi is the contact Danny used in Japan
Use a 3rd Party
Sending a product into Japan you have to have an importer of record for customs to contact
Amazon will not be you importer of record and if you don’t arrange it they will send your product away
Costs about $50 for this importer of record
Optimize by not using a shipping agent on the Japanese side but in China and just use Japan for clearance
Can be costly if you’re not careful
Quantity shipping – use a company that has experience of sending to Japan, not all freight forwarders have
There are not many Chinese companies that are on the ground in Japan for clearing
Costs from the Port to Amazon is very costly
China to Japan is 7 days by Sea! Very quick

Chinese in the Market

There area lot of Chinese competitors in the Japan market as it’s so close
Premium products work quite well as a differentiator
Japanese like good high quality but not too expensive – show a lot of value
A decent product at a fair price

PPC and Marketing

Danny had just one keyword that worked for his product in Japan
It was $6-7 / click
No top ad slots for this main keyword
Danny did Facebook ads, a landing page and a coupon server to promote
Got into AMS but then kicked out as the paperwork wasn’t right
Nick uses headline ads

Consumption Tax

Nick has a Japanese company which is different to a Foreign Seller
If over $500k
Like UK VAT – it is 8% in Japan
Tax on Seller central and PPC fees
If your address is not in Japan then you don’t get the 8% included
VAT on your sales – you don’t pay on the 1st two years – you start paying in the 3rd year in arrears (so your year 1 VAT is paid in year 3)
You don’t pay until you’re at $100k USD sales
It’s a grey area
Corporation tax is 33%