Japan's current shift from a manufacturing to a consumer economy is creating unprecedented opportunities for any company with the savvy to exploit this, the world's second largest market. Certainly, as the Japanese economy continues to rebound, more and more companies will continue to stake and build their presence there and use it as a springboard to enter other growing Asian markets. In Leveraging Japan, three leading authorities on market strategy and Japan present the new rules of Japanese marketing and discuss the evolution of other emerging Asian markets. These experts then share the same strategies that they've used to help American Express, Avon, Levi Strauss, and KFC, among other multinational companies, successfully establish a presence in Japan and leverage that presence to enter other Asian markets. To read the first chapter from this book, click here.

Project Report from the year 2012 in the subject Business economics - Offline Marketing and Online Marketing, grade: 2,0, Southern Illinois University Carbondale (College of Business), course: International Marketing, language: English, abstract: Presented here is Carbondale Consulting Crew’s analysis of opening a new market for Arlington Plating Company’s service in the country of Japan. Included in the analysis is a very concise marketing plan, which will assist Arlington Plating Company in making the decision of whether or not they should proceed. In this marketing plan, many factors that could affect the company’s success are reviewed; such as the legal environment of Japan, the cultural and political environment, as well as the economic environment. Along with those factors is the competitive environment. We not only looked at the general competitive environment of other chroming services, but specific competition as well. In general terms, we concluded that Arlington Plating Company’s toughest competition would most likely be Japan’s quickly developing country. The continuous updating of the company’s plating technology will potentially be exhausting and a difficult hurdle to overcome. When speaking in specifics, there are a few other plating and chroming companies that will be competing in unison with our service. Furthermore, Carbondale Consulting Crew went very in-depth when carefully choosing a target market. With Japan being one of the top leaders in car and motorcycle manufacturing, it was decided it would be tactful to target the three leading car manufacturers, as well as the three leading motorcycle manufacturers: Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Yamaha, and Suzuki. Other things to consider were strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Strengths and Weaknesses included would be APC’s unique technique and sustainable competitive advantages such as patents (strength) and unawareness of doing business internationally (weakness). Opportunities and threats include the fact that Japan is one of the top vehicle manufacturers in the world (opportunity), and competition (threat). It was decided by the Carbondale Consulting Crew that Arlington Plating Company’s mode of entry would be licensing, due to the fact that contractual agreements are normally the most successful modes for business-to-business industries. Projected profits were hypothesized as well in our analysis. Finally, a plan for promotion, product, price, and physical distribution was implemented.

This book gives an account of concrete market situations and describes marketing strategies and distribution channels of German manufacturing firms, German and foreign trading firms and Japanese partner firms on the Japanese market in important product areas.

Global business today is played by new rules -- many of which are being written by the Japanese and their remarkably successful companies. Because the Japanese are redefining business as we know it, Western companies expecting to profit from the new global marketplace must first learn to compete and succeed against the Japanese in Japan. James C. Morgan, Chairman of Applied Materials, Inc., the leading supplier of advanced processing equipment to the worldwide semiconductor industry which does about forty percent of its business in Japan, and J. Jeffrey Morgan, who has worked in Tokyo on the "inside" at Mitsui & Co., Japan's oldest trading conglomerate, contend that apathy and ignorance have prevented many Western companies from capitalizing on the enormous opportunities for business in Japan. In this brilliant examination of Japanese markets, companies, and business practices -- with special emphasis on the establishment of Applied Materials Japan -- the Morgans, father and son, assert that success in the world of Japanese business is determined by two factors: technology and relationships. Candidly discussing their own mistakes and failures as well as their triumphs, the authors provide invaluable insights into the specific challenges facing Western companies in establishing a presence in Japan: problems in financing the venture, product design and production, marketing and distribution, and most important, creating long-term relationships or "putting on a Japanese face." The extraordinary success of Applied Materials Japan -- hailed by George Bush on the campaign trail in 1988 as "a model for all America" -- is testimony to the valuable lessons to be learned from this book. The Morgans provide a clearly written, step-by-step framework for reorienting company thinking, revising corporate strategy, and revitalizing any organization for world class competitiveness. Using vivid examples of Western companies that have both succeeded admirably and failed miserably in Japan, Cracking the Japanese Market is a straightforward examination of what it takes to compete successfully there -- and by extension in the world today.

Aimed at companies trying to break into Japan's markets, this text attempts to provide the information companies need to understand the unique characteristics and customs of Japanese culture. It also provides a reference for trade negotiators wishing to compete in and export to, Japan.