Creating winners in Japanese market

Director Dr. Shigeru Yamato

Director Athulla Edirisinghe

Japan Ceylon Business Connectivity Ltd. (JCBC) is bringing a new dimension to quality product owners in Sri Lanka to find markets in Japan.

With several success stories to their credit, the company’s Joint Founder Directors Dr. Shigeru Yamato (PhD) and Athulla Edirisinghe explained their successful business development strategy in Sri Lanka to Daily FT. Dr. Yamato is an experienced Business Development Consultant having expertise in creating markets in Japan for many South Asian manufactures and service providers, and Edirisinghe is a Business Development Consultant having dealt with numerous Japanese trading companies and key Japanese corporates with a track record of finding markets successfully in Japan for Sri Lankan manufacturers.

Edirisinghe said that JCBC now finds opportunities to connect Sri Lankan suppliers to Japanese partners as several companies in Japan are now looking at supply sources other than China for quality products for both OEM and private label business. He said Sri Lankan manufacturers with well-established product competence in EU and western markets with their medium-scale production volumes offer a great opportunity to these Japanese companies. Edirisinghe also stated that post-COVID opportunities in Japan with online sales in e-commerce business are increasing in Japan. It opens another excellent chance for Sri Lankan products to be offered with retail, courier-friendly packages to e-commerce companies.

When inquired about the preferred products from Sri Lanka, he said products made out of rubber, tea in bulk as well as tea bags, personal safety products, outerwear, shoes for special applications, rice-based products, handloom products, bedding material, shrimps and prawns, coir and peat products, and spices are to name a few products.

Among the service sector, he added Tourism connected with Ayurveda and Theravada Buddhism has a growing demand among affluent elderly Japanese. However he stressed on the need for properly trained tour guides with Japanese communication ability as a core requirement. The IT business field was identified as a winner for Sri Lanka IT companies in Japan, but lack of Japanese language competency remains a significant hindrance. He emphasised the importance of knowing the Japanese language by IT staff to take up positions as Bridge Software Engineers as a highly successful initiative to enter the Japanese IT market. Furthermore, he mentioned that an education business, human capital development, for the IT staff has enormous potential because IT companies in Japan currently look for competent IT staff from overseas with a certain level of Japanese language skills.

Dr Shigeru Yamato explaining the business development strategy for Sri Lankan companies, said it all begins with a section of Sri Lankan manufacturers whose products are already enjoying overseas market share or manufacturers of high-quality products that were not exported before. The selection of prospective buyers will go through a lengthy process. The most challenging task is the proper introduction to penetrate a Japanese company. In the Japanese business culture, introducing a person of appropriate business standing becomes critical as no Japanese company will want to deal with an unknown overseas company, however good one’s products or services are. This usually happens through the head of a trade group or a social group. Thereafter as the first step, at least 100 targeted Japanese partners will be reviewed, analysing prospective buyer data from Japanese databases. As the next stage, careful scrutiny will be done considering product features and buyer requirements based on OEM or Private Label, bulk imports or retail packs etc. In this process, eliminating less suitable partners will limit the selection to about 20 matching companies. Dr. Yamato added that these 20 companies would be the core focus of JCBC by conducting in-depth studies to determine their suitability in terms of product features, quality and price objectives. Next important task will be the introduction at an appropriate level. Thereafter personal visits for face-to-face meetings with samples where applicable, video conferencing and pursuing various accreditation and standards evaluations will be done to determine the product features and suitability for market sizes and retail chains. Dr Yamato added that after that, the final 6 to 8 companies would be selected for senior company representatives from Sri Lanka able to make decisions on prices and supply chain factors to meet in person in Japan for B2B meetings.

Usually, these meetings in Japan will take place during a week. Depending on the selection of the right partner, visits out of Tokyo to towns such as Osaka, Hiroshima, and Kobe will be necessary.

Answering a question, Dr. Yamato said the responsibility of JCBC will not end merely by connecting two parties. JCBC will undertake and agree on a local regular follow-up system by communicating in Japanese, which Japanese product managers and buyers are more comfortable with. Dr. Yamato said many deals in Japan are concluded over a “Nomikai” – a drinking and socialising opportunity to enhance communication and trustful relationships. Edirisinghe said that it is not only an offer of a product at the right quality and correct price that matters in doing business in Japan. It is how a relationship can be developed on a solid foundation of trust and confidence, he added. He also said it is mandatory that one must be prepared to be patient to develop such a relationship, and he said that there are several such winners JCBC is proud of creating in Sri Lanka.

Co-Founder Directors of JCBC can be contacted by email: [email protected] and [email protected]