Since its founding, SOPHOLA has been working to address the “walls” that global tech partners face in the Japanese market. One of the key barriers we’ve highlighted in our blog is the “language barrier.” Many Japanese companies still find it difficult to conduct business in English.

When I was in university, China and South Korea were in similar situations, but over the past 20 years, both countries have made significant progress in business English. They’ve moved past the outdated challenges that Japan still faces when it comes to using English in business.

At SOPHOLA, we pride ourselves on our high proficiency in both Japanese and English in the field of digital marketing. This allows us to effectively manage contracts, online meetings, and document creation between Japanese companies and global tech partners.

The second “wall” (I’ll skip the third, which deals with the “market barrier”) is the “business practices barrier.” We’ve discussed this in previous blog posts, and today I’d like to focus on an important aspect of Japanese business culture: the “manual culture.” In the West, it’s common to use online meetings or recorded tutorial videos to convey how to operate SaaS products and share know-how. However, in Japan, the “text manual culture” still prevails, and ensuring that users can access the manuals for the information they need is crucial for user satisfaction. This cultural difference often leads to misunderstandings and delays in document preparation, resulting in frustration among Japanese users who struggle to fully utilize SaaS products. This, in turn, can lead to cancellations and even cause some global tech companies to exit the Japanese market.

The solutions we offer, which have been successful, all include thorough manuals, ensuring that users can easily find the information they need about product features and know-how at any time. While features and pricing are often discussed when evaluating success or failure in the Japanese market, understanding and adapting to these business practice differences is key to overcoming these barriers and achieving success. I hope this blog post helps illustrate that point!

Masaki Iino
Founder & CEO
SOPHOLA, Inc.