When Western B2B companies try to enter the Japanese market, success rarely comes from launching the same campaigns that worked at home with language swapped out. Too often, the result is a well-translated, poorly received message - a classic example of “lost in translation”. The problem isn’t vocabulary. It’s context, culture, and business norms. Japan isn’t just another market - it’s a relationship-driven, consensus-oriented business environment with communication styles t

Japan is one of the most attractive B2B markets in the world. Large enterprises. Strong balance sheets. Long-term supplier relationships. High expectations of quality. It's also one of the easiest places to burn a year’s marketing budget without getting close to revenue. Many UK firms approach Japan as if it were simply 'another region' to launch into. They translate a website, appoint a distributor, run a few ads, attend a trade show, and wait for pipeline. When that pipelin

Japan is an attractive market for many B2B businesses from the UK. Large economy. Sophisticated buyers. High willingness to invest in quality. Strong long-term customer relationships once trust is established. And yet, I repeatedly see companies stall, burn budget, or quietly withdraw after 12-18 months with little to show for it. In most cases, the product wasn’t the problem. The opportunity was real. The issue was how the go-to-market approach was designed. Here are the mos

One of the most valuable and unexpected lessons in my career came from learning Japanese - not as a linguistic exercise, but as a way of understanding how language, culture, and meaning interact in marketing. It’s one thing to translate words. It’s another to 'translate meaning' in a way that resonates with the audience’s worldview. For example, when I worked on reviewing the Japanese edition of The Ideas Book , written by Kevin Duncan - comparing it to the original English v