The Japanese government introduced a budget of 11trillion Yen for comprehensive economic countermeasures titled "The new evolution policy for the rebirth of the Japanese economy" on October 19, 2000.
It is aimed, in addition, to set autonomous recovery of the economy on it's way, to promote the structured reformation of the Japanese economy by promoting the Information Technology revolution, etc. (reported on October 19, 2000 by the Yomiuri Newspaper).

The Japanese internet population reached 27.06 million including mobile phone connection at the end of 1999 (according to the research of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunication.) However, Japan has been still regarded as an internet backward country because of its slow-developing internet infrastructure.
The Japanese Government has now started the policy to promote development infrastructure and computer education for Information Technology.
Personal computer sales are now increasing and most of it is for internet use. Competition among providers has just started and rapid connection charge reductions will be surely achieved in a short period.

According to the Government's new Information Technology promotion policy, everything related to Information Technology is forecasted to be drastically accelerated and it is considered that the beginning of the 21st Century marks the first real internet year in Japan.

Japan has been regarded as late starting, however as unbelievable economic growth after the Pacific War shows, once it starts, it expands very fast as a Government lead movement.

It was reported that the Information Technology Bill passed the House of Representatives on November 9th 2000.

It was reported that internet connection contracts from mobile phones have reached to 31.4 million (about 1/4 of the whole Japanese population) as of the end of February, 2001.
Past record shows that it took more than 1 year to pass 10 million mark, and after that, 5 months to pass 20 million and 4 months to pass 30 million accelerating its growth.

Click here for more information about the latest news from Japan.

Currently, not a day passes without hearing IT related news on daily Newspapers and TV programs.

These Japanese internet situation shows that now is the best time for overseas online shops to prepare the marketing strategy to penetrate the Japanese market which has half the population of the U.S. and the second largest economy in the world.

For successful marketing to the Japanese market, it is essential to know the market structure, distribution system in Japan, and especially, the characteristics of Japanese people.

2. Unique characteristics of Japanese people:

As every race in the world has its own particular disposition, Japanese people have their own unique characteristics. It is considerably different from and sometimes contrary to, that of western people, and this heavily affects their buying behavior. design sense, response to promotional materials and their evaluation on the merchandise, etc.

For the most appropriate marketing strategy to penetrate the Japanese market and to grasp the hearts of Japanese consumers, it is essential to know the unique characteristics of Japanese people.

Click on The Characteristics of the Japanese People for detailed information.

Not only for a commercial relationship, it is important to have good knowledge about their characteristics for every relationship such as political and private etc.

The case of the sinking of a Japanese high school fisheries training ship by U.S. submarine off Hawaii on February 9, 2001 is an actual example to show the difference between the characteristics of the U.S. and that of Japan.

Click on Characteristic related topics for the analysis of this issue.

Where does this unique characteristics of the Japanese people come from?

Examples explained in the Characteristics of Japanese People file are only a few examples. Their characteristics are deeply consequent on the history in which they lived for a long period. It is gradually changing but still underlies in their current lives. It is good to refer to their history for an overall understanding of their characteristics.

Historical analysis of the characteristics of Japanese people by Tsunetoshi Terada, the founder of Intelligence Bridges provides the analysis on the creation of their characteristics.
A Japanese proverb says that " To know the new, know the old."

Clicking on Historical Analysis on the Characteristics of Japanese People will provide the answer to this issue.

3. Japanese consumers:

Then, how does the characteristics of the Japanese people influence their buying behavior?
Japanese people have their own unique buying attitudes, preference in merchandise, taste in design, response to sales approach, and the purpose or motive to buy a merchandise, in consequence of the above unique characteristics.

Therefore, proper and elaborate analysis of Japanese consumers with deep understanding of the Japanese characteristics is essential for successful marketing in Japan.

Clicking on Analysis on Japanese Consumers provides lucid analysis on Japanese consumers and useful hints for creating on effective marketing strategy to penetrate the Japanese market.

4. Japanese online shoppers:

What is the online shopping situation for Japanese people visiting overseas web sites?

Many Japanese internet shoppers encounter uneasiness caused by the language barrier, different culture and foreign business customs, and complex import regulations, etc. as well when they try to buy from overseas online shops.

Language obstruction:
Face to face offline shopping sometimes can be done with only gestures without any words, however, online shoppers must completely rely on their ability to read the explanation on the web site.
People who have enough ability to understand English for online shopping comprise far less than 1% of the whole Japanese population. It's time-wasting, energy-wasting and sometimes money-wasting work for more than 99% of Japanese people to find what they want among vast databases in enormous number of western search engine and to buy successfully from them.
Even encouraging Japanese people who are fluent in English, they take more times, twice, thrice or more than native speakers to read the contents of the web site. And high connection rate push them to skip.

Above all, the biggest reason Japanese shoppers hesitate to visit foreign web site is their un-acclimated feeling with foreign custom.

As Japanese people have community-oriented characteristic, they tend not to get acclimatized to unfamiliar environment.

Please consider how many Japanese people have visited your website, bought from it, and repeated their order.

The currently increasing Japanese online population means the expansion of shoppers with limited or non-existent knowledge of foreign language and customs, and overseas online shops may not be able to enjoy this expansion.

However, you should not feel resigned to missing out on this increasing market with about a half population of the United States backed up with the second largest economy in the world.

Clicking on Analysis of Japanese Online Shoppers shows the obstruction when Japanese online shoppers visit to your web site.

Therefore, the marketing strategy to penetrate Japanese market should adapt to this unique Japanese characteristics.

As described on the above, Japanese people have their own characteristics, considerably different from, sometimes quite contrary to, that of western people, and these characteristics heavily affect their daily lives including buying behavior, their taste in merchandise and their responses to sales approaches, etc.

5. Marketing strategy to penetrate Japanese market

Therefore, the adaptation is more important for Japanese market than for the other Western market.

Clicking on Marketing strategy for penetrating the Japanese market will provide a guide to creating and an appropriate and effective online marketing strategy to penetre the Japanese market.

Localization

As described on the above, Japanese people have their own characteristics, considerably different from, sometimes quite contrary to, that of Westerners, and their characteristics heavily affect their shopping, it is essential to localize online marketing strategy blending in Japanese communities.

Clicking on Localization for Japanese Market page will provide effective localization measure to penetre the Japanese online market.

Summarizing the factors stated in "Marking strategy to penetrating the Japanese market" page and "Localization" page:

Marketer should have sufficient knowledge about Japanese market structure, distribution system, Japanese behavior to do business, and the characteristics of Japanese consumer, and should to watch rapidly changing market sequence.

Especially, for online shops:

1. Each merchandise should be examined for the competition, how to appeal to consumers, the necessity of instruction manual in Japanese language etc.

2. Not only to translate every explanation into Japanese, an additional explanation about the shop or the merchandise will be necessary to provide more understanding and familiarity to the shopper.

3. Native Japanese staff stationed to the site helps shoppers on and after their shopping ensuring their purchase, giving familiarity to the shopper. This familiarity is very important for Japanese shoppers as they tend to agree with sales-man's recommendation when they decide to buy. They will make shoppers feel reassured to notice their credit card data. It is reported about 30% of visitors are repeating visitors who have satisfied with previous purchase.

4. Page design should adapt to Japanese environment. Adaptation to mobile phone shopping will increase access from drastically increasing mobile phone shoppers in Japan.

5. Advertisement activity other than the listing on search engine. It is reported that 80% of visitors know the URL by offline source such as newspapers, weekly magazines, wall advertisement and especially by their colleague or friends.

6. Solution:

We, Intelligence Bridges have been engaging in foreign trade business consultation for more than ten years, providing many business solutions, and are currently responding to increasing queries from many Japanese people who want to start online shopping at overseas web sites.

In the process of our consultation for internet shopping, we have learned much about the obstructions Japanese people encounter when they want to visit and shop at overseas web sites. We judge that currently far less than 1% of the Japanese population has the ability to successfully visit and shop at foreign web sites, and far more than 99% are concentrating on Japanese web sites. And even couraging people who try to visit overseas web sites are often encounter various obstructions. Even when they find attractive products by photos, they often skip the web site once they encounter a description difficult for them to understand.
This disposition will expand more in the future because expanding Japanese internet population means the expansion to the bottom of social pyramid with less English skill.

To address these problem, we reached the concept of shopping mall listing overseas shops for the best solution. Creating shopping mall provides the following benefit for each shops.

1. As Japanese marketers who have sufficient knowledge about Japanese market examine each merchandise on its marketability and provide appropriate suggestion on each merchandise for its competition, pricing and how to appeal as well.

2. As the design of web site is examined to adapt to Japanese shopper not simply translate into Japanese and additional explanation is added for more information if necessary, Japanese shoppers are able to know more about the merchandise and the shop provided with more familiarity with the shop.

3. With Japanese sales staff stationed at the mall all the time, it is possible to provide TPO services at anytime. They will be effective to make shoppers reassured to notice their credit card data.

4. Each shop is able to own whole customer database of mall jointly. Sales promotion e-mails and shopping magazines will be sent throughout the customer by the mall.

5. As the visitor who visit the other shop is imported merchandise oriented shopper, there are much possibility to visit your shop on their surfing.

6. With many shops get together, the mall is able to appear as a big topic making Super Mall.

7. Shop are able to rely the shop maintenance and administration on the mall staff and is able to concentrate on their own business.

we decided to create a shopping mall named Japan World Mall to contribute above explained more than 99% of Japanese online shoppers for their comfortable and reassured shopping on overseas merchandise and, consequently for overseas shops to penetrate Japanese market and to expand the sales in Japan.

We are now inviting overseas shops to join us.
We intend to launch this mall as a topic making concept with innovative features.
We named our new shopping mall listing overseas shops Japan World Mall.

Please click on Japan World Mall for detailed information.

Click on Membership for the information to join the Japan World Mall.

About Us

We, Intelligence Bridges, have long been engaged in offline overseas business consultation and we are now ready to expand into online business consultation.
The Internet has created an international concept. It is not necessary to carry a passport to visit foreign web sites to collect overseas information or to go shopping in overseas shops.
The concept is fundamentally international but in fact, as mentioned above, different languages and customs present formidable barriers.
the result is that web sites in each country are as separated as if borders existed between them.
We wish this international concept to be utilized as the common property of all human-kind contributing to world peace and human welfare, as do the Olympic Games or Nobel prizes.
We wish to be the Bridge for the whole world to cross both offline and online.

Please click on About Us for more information.

To contact us, click on Contact Us

---

Marketing related link:
http://www.edu-marketing.com
Keoz8.com - Society Vertical Portal

MBA School Informations:
mba-business-schools.com
Online MBA Program: Business Education / Top Business Schools MBA Online Business Schools offers you the ability to search top business schools for the business class requirements to earn your executive MBA or business degree.

Internet Service Link:
Technical Support