My New Business Helps Businesses Do International Marketing to Japan

In 2023, I officially started a business that works a lot with Japan.

After teaching English in Fukuoka, Japan as an ALT on the JET Program, I went back into the social media / digital marketing world. It was what I had done at a startup in Silicon Valley before moving to Japan.

I fortunately found a job at a medium-sized Japanese digital agency called TAM which had been around for more than a couple decades, and worked with the CEO to help crack a window so that the company could do more internationally related work.

What I’ve learned doing international marketing

The language and cultural barriers that exist between Japan and other countries, especially Western ones, prevent most Japanese companies from working with ones outside of Japan and vice versa. They also present enormous challenges for businesses trying to market and sell to and from Japan.

Throughout my years at TAM, I’ve worked on Japanese government projects, helping clients such as the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the Yokohama City Government with outbound international marketing.

I’ve also worked with a lot of international companies trying to market to Japanese people - Small startups, large corporations, airlines, fashion brands and so on. While doing so, I’ve learned the different challenges that are common, what some of their needs are and what I could do to help them.

I will continue doing this through my new company.

My company is called TAMKO X, and we are an independently operating company within the TAM Group.

What my company does

The TAM Group has several companies within it doing things like digital ad strategy, content production, e-commerce site design, AI tool building, VR world creation and more. And with the way that we’re set up, we can all draw upon the group’s resources, knowledge and network when we need to in order to best help clients.

For the projects I’ve been a part of in the past several years, I collaborated with Japanese specialists at TAM because they know the market the best and they’re Japanese themselves. They currently live in Japan so they have an up-to-date pulse on things, so together we’re able to help out and provide a lot of value to these international clients.

The challenges we help businesses with

I’ve learned that most of the challenges international businesses face when trying to market to Japan extends beyond just translating and learning business etiquette and things like that.

Much of it relates to how to actually reach and communicate with people in Japan in a natural way, how to build relevance with their lifestyles which can be quite different so they pay attention, and then how to spark an interest so they think about buying.

A lot of times the approach in marketing communications is quite different from how they’d be done in places like the US, for example, and there are a lot of nuances to think about and figure out.

We help localize and connect culture so that our clients have a better chance at getting Japanese customers. We do this through things like native Japanese social media, content creation and transcreation, influencer marketing, Japanese ad management, website creation, Japanese article creation and publications. Basically if it’s a form of digital communication that can have an affect on people, we can do it.

I’m looking forward to continue working with those I currently work with but also working with new passionate clients and new people who would like to collaborate on these types of project as well.

If you’re interested, feel free to contact me.

Website: https://tamkox.com