Understanding Japanese Management Practices

Chapter 8

Selling Your Product to Japanese Customers

In contrast to Japanese production management and human resource management, Japanese marketing has never been a topic discussed by Western media or researchers. The reasons for this are not quite clear, but I assume that cultural differences or language barriers seemed too great. Especially in Tokyo, marketing is constantly evolving, often innovative, and always competitive. In Tokyo alone, there are more than a million enterprises and 160,000 restaurants competing for the attention of around 35 million consumers. Trends come and go on a weekly basis.1

The main pillars of Japanese marketing are excellent customer service, high product quality and innovation, and a strong sensibility toward ...