Fly-Jin Hits Even the Wall Street Journal

From the "They can run but they can't hide files;" as was reported in an editorial on this very blog on Sunday March 15 (just 3.5 days after the big earthquake), that the blow back from the panic and irresponsible reactions of foreign business management in Japan - at the beginning of the nuclear accident - was disgraceful and that there would be repercussions. 

FRANK SINATRA - COME FLY WITH ME

In some cases, the flight of the foreign community was a crime; it was dishonest and theft against their respective employers. It also first reported and predicted on this very blog that there was going to be blow back against these foreigners. In fact, even the Wall Street Journal has picked up on this story. Let me pat you and myself on the back for creating and commenting on this story nearly 2 weeks before the Wall Street Journal. Read on!


First, a time line. In an early post, just days after the earthquake and the height of the panic, I wrote about how the foreign community in Tokyo were being completely irrational by panicking and running away. This contributed to people missing the important issue: 400,000 people without shelter, food or water in the dead of winter in Northern Japan. The foreigners panicking was completely without base and any scientific reasoning.

Tokyo Crisis Update: Nuclear Meltdowns, Drama Queens, TV News and Coca Cola

I, like most Tokyo people, have merely been inconvenienced by this incredible chain of events. I do not think, though, that I should adopt a "victim complex" like many people do when these sorts of things occur. I think doing so is dishonest. I believe that taking a "victim complex" identity like many people do only cheapens the experience of those who have truly suffered.

One need only remember the group victim complex shown by Americans after 9/11 for an example of that. As for me, I'm doing my best to suppress my inner "Drama Queen." 

Folks in Tokyo have not suffered. We have been greatly inconvenienced. That's all. That's not to say that many people haven't over reacted and panicked. They have.

I will, here, take this chance to strongly criticize the foreign management of Coca-Cola Japan for showing such a compete lack of responsibility to their employees and to the Japanese people. So much for Corporate Social Responsibility, eh Coca-Cola? Also, so much for dedication to your work and company. Leaving on a "business trip"? Disgusting. Don't you clowns have the guts to even say that you are running away? Saying that it is a "business trip" allows you to get paid from your company at the same time you skirt your responsibilities all the while you expect that your staff and workers continue on like everyday? If I were your boss, we'd definitely have more than a few words about this. I'd probably fire you.

I can understand you sending your family away... But you running away too? And then expecting to get paid and your employees to carry on in your absence at the same time!?

Scandalous.

This theme held true throughout my blog posting over the next several days. I used a major soft drink company as an example (because I knew it was true first hand) as this is a huge international company, but there were many other  companies whose foreign management fall into the same category. I commented as to how actions by many foreigners and the mass media were criminal (at the best dishonest) and that these people who panicked or induced panic needed to be held accountable - at the minimum to themselves and their families - in some cases criminal. I definitively asked the question about trust between Japanese and the foreign management who in a grossly irresponsible manner left their companies - on paid leave no less - and jumped ship.


If these people really thought the situation was so bad and dangerous, then why didn't they tell their staff to go home and care for their families? 


(Note to selfish foreigner: Your Japanese staff think you are just like an irresponsible teenager, regardless of what they say to your face. Your position and status are worse than "dog house". The respect they held for you - if they ever had any - is completely compromised. Remember: It takes a very long time to build trust, it takes one action to destroy that trust forever.) 


What are you going to do about it, foreign manager? 


Japan Nuclear Disaster? The Scorecard So Far


What's going to happen to the relationship between the Japanese and the foreign community in Japan? I think the actions of many of the foreigners (not just in the media) have created much distrust and disrespect of those foreigners (especially in management) by their Japanese counter-parts. I already posted about one foreign company, Coca Cola, whose foreign upper-management committed the sin of running away while taking paid leave (isn't stealing from your own company considered theft?) while expecting the Japanese to continue working as if nothing at all happened?

If the situation were so bad and they bothered to make rational decisions - while showing a tiny bit of leadership qualities - then they'd have had the guts to say that they were running away and told the Japanese staff to go home; or they would have sent their families away and stayed with the ship. I know for first hand fact that the Japanese staff left over by their panicking foreign bosses have very little respect for those people. They probably should have zero; which were just about the odds of a nuclear disaster hitting Tokyo.


There are many foreigners who read this blog... About one half are in Japan. Why this shirking of duty was explained in excellent fashion by a reader living here in Japan. This brilliant and succinct explanation of the problem appeared in a comments section of one of my posts. The reader was countering the ridiculous argument that claimed that the foreigners who left were, "Forced out" it read:

The people who fled irresponsibly were not 'forced out' as you say. Panicked or not, they acted of their own free will, and left others hanging because of their actions.

Japanese do have respect, manners and kindness for others, and also a sense of responsibility and self-sacrifice. Example: the 'Fukushima 50'.

I have many friends and acquaintances in large corporations and government offices, and they all say that not one of their Japanese bosses fled in panic and left the rest to their fate. Do you know why?

Responsibility.

Think long and hard about that word before you bleat any more asininity.

One of the Japanese words for an executive, manager or other person in charge is 'sekininsha', which literally means 'responsible person'. These people are not just responsible for their workplaces and the people below them during fair weather; when the sh*t hits the fan, they are also expected to step up and take responsibility. That is to say, *leaders* are expected to *lead*.

Absolutely. Like I have already written, these people who panicked and left Tokyo in an irrational, irresponsible blur should resign their posts immediately if they are "sekininsha" (responsible person) at their job. Their position has been compromised. They are ruined and they know it.

But, I won't expect them to resign of their free will. They have already showed us their lack of true leadership abilities when they panicked and left. Who would or could expect them to act like a true dedicated leader like Jerome Chouchan of Godiva Chocolates who showed us his true grit?

Mr. Chouchan, a Frenchman, decided to send his family away but he stayed on because he said that he felt like, "If I leave now and leave my Japanese staff to fend for themselves it would be like the captain leaving the sinking ship first."

Soon after these blog posts ran, where I criticized these foreigners, I began taking flak from people defending the actions of these people. I think no one can defend the actions of those whom I attacked. Please read the interesting back and forth between the foreigners who agreed with me and those who wish to defend the actions of those who ran away on the articles that I have linked to. 

The discussion got even more heated when I reported as to how a new word, filled with derision against those who fled, had entered the Japanese lexicon and was hitting Twitter hard all over Japan lead by a famous Japanese TV reporter. 

New Word in Japanese Lexicon: "Fly-Jin"

Akiko Fujita tweets, Learned new term tonight: "Fly-Jin." Foreigners who fled Japan.

Also, in that article, once again I stressed:

The Japanese are not happy - some are disgusted -by the rash actions of the foreign community. They've lost much respect for those who fled like panic stricken kids. The back lash has begun. Whispered voices filled with derision and tittering behind people's backs.

Once again, a reader provided me with a better commentary about the subject than I could ever write in the comments section of that same post countering the apologists for the "Fly-Jins.":

What the Useful Idiots (uh oh, there I go calling names again) fail to understand is that there is a world of difference between getting yourself and family out of potential danger if you have the resources and inclination to do so, and running away irresponsibly at the expense of others like the Coca Cola execs and others did (i.e. lying to justify the expropriation of company funds for your escape, and leaving others you should be responsible for behind to cover your arse as you run).

I have no problem with the former, even if I think it was a knee-jerk panic reaction in this case. If you have the means to do so and your actions do not leave anyone hanging in your stead, knock yourself out. However, I do have a big problem with the latter, and will continue to criticize the actions of the Coca Cola execs and others who acted in such a cowardly and irresponsible manner.

So again, to make things as clear as possible:

If you fled in a responsible manner - that is to say within your own resources and not leaving others hanging in your stead - then I have no problem with you. I also have no problem with anyone defending those people, be they foreign or Japanese.

However, if you lied, stole, or otherwise acted irresponsibly and/or left others to potentially hang in your stead, then to hell with you. And to hell with anyone defending these scum.

Thanks to all of have added to this conversation. I stand by all my remarks as my excuse is that I was merely predicting what was going to happen and told of the future repercussions of failed leadership and poor decision making. I also am guilty of being the messenger boy. Of course, when those who are guilty, hate the message, they try to kill the messenger boy.


Now, the results of this shameful affair have even hit the pages of the Wall Street Journal.


The Wall Street Journal reports in "Expatriates Tiptoe Back Into the Office": 

Life in Japan is showing tentative signs of returning to normal, but a fresh challenge may be facing the expatriates and Japanese who left and are now trickling back to their offices: how to cope with ostracism and anger from their colleagues who have worked through the crisis.

One foreigner, a fluent Japanese speaker at a large Japanese company, said that his Japanese manager and colleagues were "furious" with him for moving to Osaka for three days last week and that he felt he was going to have to be very careful to avoid being ostracized upon returning to work in Tokyo.


The flight of the foreigners—known as gaijinin Japanese—has polarized some offices in Tokyo. Last week, departures from Japan reached a fever pitch after the U.S. Embassy unveiled a voluntary evacuation notice and sent in planes to ferry Americans to safe havens. In the exodus, a new term was coined for foreigners fleeing Japan: flyjin. 


Think about it: Everyone knows the government are idiots... You pride yourselves on being in private businesses yet when these clowns tell you to panic, you do? Really? I also remember when they told us about Swine Flu, SARS, Bird Flu and Saddam's Nooklar weapons too... And you fools believe what they say? Ha!


So, now, you foreigners who are apologists for those who shamefully ran away can complain to me or call me names all you want... What you say to me isn't going to do you any good in the minds fo your staff... I am not your judge; they are. 


You messed up big time and you know it. 


Still think you shouldn't feel ashamed? 


Denial isn't just a river in Egypt.


NOTE: I have information that Coca-Cola has donated $25 million dollars to the relief fund for those poor folks in Northern Japan. Thanks. Everything helps. It is appreciated. But, should we awe-struck? Maybe. Maybe not. 

Nice

I have information that I wish for you to use to compare. Try Uni-Qlo vs. Coca-Cola. There's no question as to which is the bigger monster company, right?


Uni-Qlo - a much smaller company than Coca-Cola - on March 14, 2011 - just three days after the earthquake - donated $4 million of dollars to the disaster fund. That same day, the president of Uni-Qlo, Mr. Yanagi, donated $10 million of dollars -  out of his own pocket for this effort! Add to that $7 million dollars worth of clothes to the relief effort. Also, a donation effort at 2,200 Uni-Qlo stores nationwide!  


Now compare that with the efforts of Coca-Cola who is a much bigger company with much more resources... Well, thanks Coca-Cola, but I'm not so impressed... Then again, I guess I should be grateful and can excuse you for not acting quickly. After all, your upper management in Japan had all ran away when they jumped ship at the beginning of this mess. I shouldn't expect that the Japanese middle management would have the authority to make donations or any other important leadership decisions. 


The Japanese staff can only be depended on for holding the bag - not the important decisions - while the foreigners run away..... right? 


A big thanks to alert reader Mark (still) in Tokyo Owens for the links to WSJ!

Japan Nuclear Disaster? The Scorecard So Far

“…Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so…” --- Bertrand Russell

Things have calmed down quite a bit concerning the nuclear accident at the reactors in Fukushima. The situation is stable as reported by Japan's stalwart NHK news. 

Can one judge the stability of the situation as it is being perceived by foreigners through the foreign media too? Yes. But, in my case, do I make this judgement that things have calmed down from viewing the news in Japan? No. The news in Japan is pretty much the same today as it was over these last four days: Calm, collected and reporting the facts on the ground without resorting to hysteria. It's too bad that the foreign community in Japan does not bother to learn enough conversational Japanese to be at least able to watch and understand news broadcast in the native tongue of Japan.

I also judge that the situation has calmed down quite a bit for the west in that western media has stopped making ridiculous doomsday pronouncements about nuclear melt-downs and comparing Fukushima to Chernobyl. News in the west has suddenly shifted away now from the potential "nuclear meltdown" in Japan to events in Libya. 

Of course, western news media can get away with this. Attention spans in America are short. 

Think about it person sitting in their home in America - or even Japan... One day you are told to fear for your very lives because of the nooklar boogeyman and a nuclear melt-down... The next minute? Well, look at that! We're bombing Libya! 

If the situation in Japan were so serious and so dangerous to you and your family safety and our lives were coming to an end, do you actually believe that the mass media would be switching your attention so easily to bombing some lunatic in North Africa? 

Hey! There's a novel revelation for me right there! Doh!

Is this sudden switching of attention proof of ridiculous mass media induced tabloid sensationalism? Absolutely. I rest my case, your honor. The mass media in the west is guilty as charged.

Other foreigners in Japan feel the same

Don't think that I am the only one - the only foreigner - in Japan who thinks this way. There are lots of us. You can also bet that very many Japanese are unhappy about this too. There are also several of us long time residents of Japan who, while they won't use the term 'disgusted', are quite dissatisfied with how this situation was handled and reacted to by the foreign news and community in Japan.

(L-R): Me, Daniel Kahl and George Williams drinking together in 2009 

One aquaintance, Daniel Kahl, probably one of the top two experts on Japan (along with George Williams) made this excellent Youtube video... Daniel fumbles his words a bit but I think he can be forgiven because he is restraining himself as I can tell he is actually furious (to put it lightly). Watch:

I enjoy the part at the end where Daniel says, "Cut it out. Knock it off, or your just not going to have any fans in the country." Hilarious. Daniel, my friend, you don't actually think the mass media care about fans or regular people, do you? They only care about ratings and money. That's why they do this sensationalism. Either way, thanks Daniel. I owe you a beer next time we drink together at George's house. 


What's going to happen to the relationship between the Japanese and the foreign community in Japan? I think the actions of many of the foreigners (not just in the media) have created much distrust and disrespect of those foreigners (especially in management) by their Japanese counter-parts. I already posted about one foreign company, Coca Cola, whose foreign upper-management committed the sin of running away while taking paid leave (isn't stealing from your own company considered theft?) while expecting the Japanese to continue working as if nothing at all happened?


If the situation were so bad and they bothered to make rational decisions - while showing a tiny bit of leadership qualities - then they'd have had the guts to say that they were running away and told the Japanese staff to go home; or they would have sent their families away and stayed with the ship. I know for first hand fact that the Japanese staff left over by their panicking foreign bosses have very little respect for those people. They probably should have zero; which were just about the odds of a nuclear disaster hitting Tokyo.


Let me give you an example of a leader who deserves massive respect and knows how to make a company culture whereby his staff and workers will follow him to the end of the earth. I heard from an extremely reliable source that, during the crisis, the foreign president of Godiva chocolates, Jerome Chouchan, decided to send his family away but he stayed on because he said that he felt like, "If I leave now and leave my Japanese staff to fend for themselves it would be like the captain leaving the sinking ship first." He said this and this gentleman is a French citizen! (This means you other westerners who diss the French must bow their heads.) Bravo!


This gentleman calmly made a professional judgement using the basics of risk management. He was able to control his emotions and make a logical, clear-headed decision. Contrast that with how so many foreigners panicked and ran off like some Bruce Willis movie.


This gentleman showed the qualities of a true leader. He has made a situation whereby his staff have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for him. They would follow him to the end of the earth. As a customer, I will always buy Godiva chocolate.


Coca-Cola? No. 


Let me ask you a question. If you are foreign management in Japan - or foreign management returning to Japan after panicking and running away - and are reading this, how would you judge yourself and your status and level of respect amongst your Japanese staff at this moment? 


Misery loves company


From now on you might see that some of these foreigners who panicked and took off will be coming back embarrassed and feeling a bit ashamed. Rationalization will be their tool in defending their actions. Let us forgive them. I hope the embarrassment they feel in their hearts will be sufficient punishment for them. I'm sure this lesson has also taught their children well. After all, aren't the parents responsible for building strong minds and a strong character in their children? 


Once again, let me state that there is no problem in the world with wanting to protect your children and - making a level headed judgement based on basic risk assessment - then sending them away if deemed necessary. But panicking and making hasty decisions is not teaching them an important lesson in life.


What lessons did your reactions teach your children about how to handle themselves and what to do in an emergency?


Another foreigner who has lived in Japan all his life - has been the president of a world famous major foreign corporation in Japan - wrote to me and said;



A lot of the expats were getting that kind of pressure (to panic and run away) from their families from overseas as well.. But in many cases, it was just blind, stupid fear without digging into the facts.

Not everyone has the choice to leave and when people come back, there will always remain the question about how much can we trust or rely on these people..!

I do have a number of friends that call me every night to check in.. Partly out of concern, partly out of guilt.. But mostly I think because they are bored to death with nothing to do.

Aha! Yes. I couldn't have said it better, "...there will always remain the question about how much can we trust or rely on these people."

The time is coming to assess the situation and to pay the piper. This means that everyone will have to judge their actions during this crisis. Foreign parents and company executives need to stand in front of the mirror. They need to look themselves straight in the eye and make serious and fair judgements about how they handled themselves in front of their own children and their Japanese employees. Did they panic? Or did they make rational decisions? Did they gain respect or lose respect during this time?

I think far too many will not like what they see. 

A Japanese family recovers clothes from their destroyed home

And now, finally, the scorecard as of right this moment about the nuclear accident: 

Yahoo reports:

In the first sign that contamination from Japan's stricken nuclear complex had seeped into the food chain, officials said Saturday that radiation levels in spinach and milk from farms near the tsunami-crippled facility exceeded government safety limits.

Minuscule amounts of radioactive iodine also were found in tap water Friday in Tokyo and elsewhere in Japan — although experts said none of those tests showed any health risks. The Health Ministry also said that radioactive iodine slightly above government safety limits was found in drinking water at one point Thursday in a sampling from Fukushima prefecture, the site of the nuclear plant, but later tests showed the level had fallen again.

Six workers trying to bring the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant back under control were exposed to more than 100 millisieverts of radiation

Now we must make a judgement about nuclear power. Is it safe? Is it safer than, say, burning coal or gas refineries that spew toxic wastes into the air that we breathe? This next piece of information from Energy From Thorium

Q: Is nuclear power unsafe?

A: No. It is far safer than chemical power and renewable power. Look at the burning refineries and gas lines. There are no burning reactors. People are scared of "radiation" and don't understand what it means. The media makes little attempt to tell them. I am trying to be a resource to help explain because I have had some training in this area. A dam gave way due to the earthquake. That's not safe either.

Ultimately, the scorecard up until now shows that deaths from the nuclear accident until now are zero. On the other hand, tens of thousands of dead and many more than 11,000 people are still missing, and more than 452,000 are living in shelters. Now that is the catastrophe.

Japanese refugees after earthquake and tsunami left them homeless

The foreign media sensationalizing the nuclear reactor accident and then the foreigners panicking and running away all contribute to the news ignoring the true humanitarian crisis in this country. Those people need our help, not our abandonment.

That's the score as of today concerning the real disaster here in Japan. 
Please donate & help if you can. 
http://www.google.com/intl/en/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html

Thanks to: Daniel Kahl,  George Williams,  Michael Distacio,  Michael Anop,  James Allen,  Mike Newton,  Tim Rabone,  Paul Guilfoile,  Roger Marshall,  Steve "Poots" Candidus,  Marc Abela,  Ken Nishikawa,  Yuka Rogers,  Jon Lynch,  Google,  Rob Schwartz,  Tina Kawamura,  Jerome Chouchan

Facebook is sidelined in Japan as social network battle heats up

By AKKY AKIMOTO / Japan Times

In July, the number of active users on social networking site Facebook worldwide surpassed 500 million. More than 60 percent of Internet users in the United States have signed up with the site, and its presence has reached into almost every country on Earth. You might think that Facebook is taking over the world . . . if you speak English.

There are, however, a few regions where Facebook has not been able to penetrate the market as it has in the West. China, Russia and South Korea have all developed their own popular variants of the idea. Japan also has its own social networking sites and the top three: Gree, Mixi and Mobage Town, are currently in a battle that has become so fierce that Facebook might not even stand a chance.

Both Mixi and Gree began in February 2004, when tech-savvy Japanese were discovering social networking site Orkut. Both Mixi and Gree aimed to come up with a Japanese version of the popular social networks sweeping the West.

Mixi was thought of as Japan's response to Friendster. It came about when Web startup E-Mercury took one of its engineers off their employment- search service Find Job and assigned him to creating Mixi. To everyone's amazement, the site grew quickly and now boasts 21 million users in its network. Also similar to Facebook, Mixi depends on advertising sales for profit — while its main competitors do not.

Mixi continues to be innovative. Last week, the company announced two new features: Mixi Check and Mixi Check-In. Mixi Check is similar to Facebook's Share feature, while Check-In is similar to Foursquare, geo-tagging a user's physical location on the site.

For five years, Mixi sat comfortably at the top of the social networking tree, but last month Gree announced it had 21.25 million registered users. That number made Gree Japan's No. 1 social network.

Gree's success indicates a particular quality of Japan's market. Mixi was the only site among the top three to have established its fame on PCs. But in July 2007, the number of page views on cell phones topped those coming from PCs, essentially moving the battlefield for social network supremacy. Gree's success on a mobile platform is seen as one of the reasons it topped Mixi. After losing to Mixi initially in 2004, many had thought Gree would disappear. Its comeback started in late 2006 after the site pretty much abandoned its unpopular PC version (it still exists but traffic is at 1 percent of its mobile version). Gree inked a deal with Japan's No. 2 cell-phone carrier, KDDI au, and created a mobile version of the site complete with what the Japanese call kajuaru gemu (casual games), simple games for cell phones, and avatars.

Gree CEO Yoshikazu Tanaka said he studied Hangame, a South Korean online game portal, for inspiration when designing Gree's mobile reincarnation. The new Gree has been hooking new users with games such as fishing and virtual pets, all of which can be played for free (but which also have content available for sale to expand the scope of the games). The gaming strategy (and a TV ad campaign) resonated with Web surfers pushed Gree to the top. Recently, the site has started adding third-party social games in addition to expanding its long list of casual games.

The game strategy is being used by Japan's No. 3 social networking site Mobage Town. The site is run by DeNA, who also run successful online auction service Bidders, and was started up in 2006. DeNA also looked to Hangame as a model for Mobage Town. Despite its late start, Mobage Town has increased its user base to 20.48 million. One key factor in its success was enabling users to earn virtual money if they clicked on advertisers' websites. The social networking service provides their own casual games as well as third-party games. The most popular game it has at the moment, "Kaitou Royal," is similar to Facebook's popular "Mafia Wars."

Similar to the characters in "Mafia Wars," Japan's social networking sites are in a fierce competition for turf. DeNA is working with Japan's biggest website, Yahoo! Japan, to open Yahoo! Mobage, which is set to bring Mobage Town to Yahoo! Japan users. Both Mobage Town and Gree are spending copious amounts of money on TV advertising, even outdoing Toyota and Coca-Cola. The companies behind the two sites are also involved in a hiring competition, providing some workers with a maximum ¥2 million one-time bonus.

Where is all this cash coming from? While Mixi's prime source of income is advertising revenues, Gree and Mobage Town directly sell virtual items to their users. Their way of selling such items is different to the way Apple's App Store works. When purchasing something for the iPhone, customers are billed separately, which means they are able to see the charges on their credit card bill. With Gree and Mobage Town, most purchases made are folded into the user's telephone bills — essentially making them less noticeable. This approach has paid off, literally, for both companies and they have been able to lower their advertising prices in response, putting more pressure on Mixi.

However, a DeNA employee appeared at a Mixi conference last week saying Mobage Town and Mixi's services don't overlap and that some cooperation is possible. DeNA CEO Tomoko Namba has also set her target on Sony and Nintendo, hinting that they were old news. DeNA seems to be adapting a line of "you're with us or you're against us," and has reportedly told video-game developers that if they want to sell on Mobage Town, they shouldn't try to sell on Gree as well. The company has not confirmed this.

At its conference, Mixi also announced a partnership with China's Renren and South Korea's Cyworld. Initially, the three will standardize their platforms to allow third-party application providers (which Mixi calls SAPs) to run on the three social networking sites. This strategy is primarily against Facebook. It would be surprising if something big, such as a merger or an inter-platform networking feature, comes of it. This kind of thing, though, does appeal to domestic users. Facebook's global reach has been impressive, but its localization (especially in Asian countries) has been subpar. If Asia's social networking sites can step in and give the image of being able to network internationally, that could be enough to get users interested. However, seeing the approaching ceiling of the Japanese market must have Mixi, DeNA and Gree looking to expand. Indeed, DeNA and Gree could use their profits to grow overseas. With Facebook retaining a possible monopoly in the West, it could be that Japan's social networks see Asia as their best bet to form a challenge against the online behemoth.

Akky Akimoto writes for Asiajin.com, which is planning readers meetups in Singapore on Sept. 25, and Tokyo on Oct. 9. For details, visit asiajin.com. A Japanese version of this article is available on Akky Akimoto's blog at akimoto.jp


From Japan Times

How New Companies Can Succeed in Japan - And How They Fail

Many new companies, especially in IT, think that to make it in Japan, all they need to do is release a Japanese language version of their product... They couldn't be further from the truth. Japan is an entirely different animal.

To succeed in Japan, of course a company needs a Japanese version of their product, but just that won't do the trick. They'll need experienced, well-connected PR and Marketing in Japan. 

On top of that, the new company product/service will probably only have one chance to do their initial product/service release right in the Japanese market. Their first release is their Golden Chance in Japan.... It could also be their only chance in Japan. 

If a company blows their initial release of the product/service in this country, the company will most probably not succeed here. Ever. No matter how much money is spent on PR and advertising. Many before who have made this mistake have tried to recover and failed; even ones with multi-million dollar budgets. A good case in point is Pepsi Cola. Pepsi spent tens of millions of dollars and twenty years for terrible results.


Now, they've finally gotten smart and tied up with a Japanese beverage maker so their prospects are better... Why didn't they do that from the start? Disney, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, and many others did. Why did Pepsi even bother to try to reinvent the wheel?

How to correctly handle a new product or service release?

A new company/product/service will need to appoint somebody in Japan to handle PR for them in Japan and work with that company to make a plan. 

A necessary part of any good plan of attack would be that the representatives in Japan arrange meetings with major media at least 1 - 2 weeks before Japanese release day, as pre-press release. This is critical.

If this sort of ground-work is not fully prepared by the company and their reps in Japan, I strongly suggest that the company postpone the release of the product/service (and fire their  representatives and hire a competent company) and then get properly prepared. If this sort of pre-press release is done correctly, the Japanese media will then follow-up and prepare and study the circumstances of the product/service and company so that they may be able to publish and provide better information for the Japanese audience (don't forget that the Japanese media are competing with each other, too, to provide up-to-date concise information, so this has to be done. No short-cuts here). This is critical for the success of any new company in Japan.  

Even after years of repeated failures by various companies, to this very day, foreign companies come to Japan and repeat the mistakes Pepsi Cola and Seven-Up made decades ago. Some recent examples are Linkedin; E-Bay Japan, Google.jp, and a few others. (I strongly suspect Sugarsync is about to make the same mistake too!)

Take, for example, Linked-in. Linked-in came out with a Japanese version quite a while back but no one here in Japan uses it because no one knows about it; they had no local representation; no pre-press release information. 

Kind of shocking, when you think about it; a supposedly forward thinking company coming to Japan and making such an amateurish mistake. 


E-bay is another example of a successful service in the west which came to Japan and flopped because of not having experienced people on the ground in Japan. Neither Linked-in nor E-bay Japan will probably ever recover... 


No, not probably... There's no way they will ever recover here.

Sad. Had they thought about what they were doing and not tripped over the half-dollar in order to pick up the penny, they probably could have partnered with a huge Japanese company and been worth hundreds of millions of dollars in Japan alone by now. 


The situation today? I only know of one other person besides me who even knows that Linked-in has a Japanese version. People know what E-bay is, but prefer Yahoo Auctions by a laughable margin. 


Oh dear! Linked-in and E-bay blew it... and in the second largest market in the world. I wonder how this will affect their stock price? 

Why won't they recover? Well, because they already launched and flopped... They are not newsworthy, except as failures. If the Japanese want to read about failures, they'll read about their politicians. 

An example of a successful Japan launch recently was Evernote. The PR company which handles that was able to get Evernote into Sony so that Sony scanners come pre-installed with Evernote. 

A Japanese language release might have some sort of plan like this:

1) Setting the Key Concept for Japanese Market 

2) Arranging Press Releases for TV, Internet, Papers and Magazines promoting the URL and product/service

3) Press conference for Japanese Market 

4) Make a presentation to major Japanese companies in order to obtain a major Japanese corporation as partner for the Japan market

In Conclusion

Japan is the #2 market in the world... Being lazy and trying to break into this market without understanding the underlying differences between the Japanese psyche and the west is a sure fire recipe for failure.

Pepsi, along with many others, failed... And they spent tens of millions of dollars... Don't repeat these mistakes. Why not make a little effort and find the people who can help you? You do need Japanese representation here on the ground, in Japan, to make your product/service a success.


Remember that success is 80% preparation.

Many others have already shown you how to fail... Here is written the best way to succeed... Will you learn the lesson?

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