--- title: Nobu Sato | Launching in Japan, starting with people and systems description: "Nobu Sato helps foreign companies launch in Japan: organization design, sales channels and teams, technology organizations and key hires." image: https://nobusato.jp/hubfs/seo/og-en.png --- [Nobu Sato](https://nobusato.jp/en?hsLang=en) [Profile](https://nobusato.jp/en/profile?hsLang=en) [Method](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/method?hsLang=en) [Articles](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog?hsLang=en) [Glossary](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/glossary?hsLang=en) [Contact](https://nobusato.jp/en/contact?hsLang=en) [日本語](https://nobusato.jp/home)[English](https://nobusato.jp/en)[中文](https://nobusato.jp/zh) Building organizations, sales and technology in Japan # Launching in Japan, starting with people and systems. The first question most foreign companies ask about Japan is who to hire. I start a step earlier, by mapping the market and the people in it. Organization design, sales channels and sales teams, technology organizations, and the few key hires that hold it together. Over ten-plus years I have built teams from zero in Japan several times, and I write about it in Japanese, English and Chinese. [Read the method](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/method?hsLang=en) [View profile](https://nobusato.jp/en/profile?hsLang=en) No guessing. This is the order I work in. Tap a stage to open that part of the method [Two maps01 who competes for your customers and people MarketTalent Where the money flows, and where people move - Only rivals for the same customers or the same people go on the map - Famous for its own sake does not qualify](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/method-maps?hsLang=en) [Product02 what you sell in Japan HQ Bring these two, not the whole catalog - Do not bring everything - Pick a few, let the rest wait](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/method-product-sales-org?hsLang=en) [Sales03 partners, direct, or both UsPartnerDirectClient Go along on the first ten deals - Swapping a partner that does not move changes nothing - Only once the selling is set can the people be set](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/method-product-sales-org?hsLang=en) [Organization04 who sells, and how it is judged 12345678910 The first five decide the next fifty - Score the role before the person - Match person and role in four layers](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/method-four-layers?hsLang=en) [Systems05 grade, allowance, bonus GradeAllowanceBonus Three tracks. Never one line - Grade follows the person, allowance the role - Bonus pays for results](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/method-pay-tracks?hsLang=en) Reverse the order and you redo the hiring and land back here (04 to 02) All five stages read people and organizations in the same four layers. The more you decide from the top down, the less you hire twice. 10+ years Launches, hiring and organizations 5 sites Taipei, Shanghai, Osaka, Fukuoka, Okinawa 70+ Hires closed in a single year (peak) 3 languages Japanese, English, Chinese ## [One ruler for people and organizations](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/method-four-layers?hsLang=en) Fit is never an average: I look at the weakest layer. What an organization diagnosis finds about how a company really works becomes the context layer when I assess a person. Person and role, matched in the same four layers. The verdict takes three steps Example: a candidate whose patterns rate only Average Step one: veto items Does the core hit a veto item? **Yes**Stop here. The other layers are not looked at. **No →**Match the four layers Veto items are written per role, in advance. Never decided for the first time in the interview. Step two: four layers PersonMatchRole Core*⟷*FitCore floor of drive and values Patterns*⟷*AveragePatterns behavior under pressure Equipment*⟷*Strong fitEquipment ability, experience, skills Context*⟷*FitContext person plus workplace Step three: the five-level verdict Strong fit Fit Average ← this case Poor fit Strong mismatch No weighted average. *The weakest layer* sets the verdict. If the weak layer is equipment, it can be trained. Patterns set the ceiling, so check first whether one step up is realistic. What an organization diagnosis finds about how a company really works goes straight into the context layer. The four layers are defined in the glossary. [Read the method →](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/method?hsLang=en) ## Draw the maps first Before listing competitors, draw one map of where the money flows and one of where people move. Only companies that compete for the same customers or the same people go on them. The numbers show that neither map lets you take on everyone. Two maps before any list of companies In numbers, you cannot sell to everyone Market map where the money flows Japan has roughly 3.375 million companies. As one bar: Small 84.5% 15.2% Small businesses 2.853 million 84.5% Sales setup 1 Mid-sized about 500,000 15.2% Sales setup 2 Large 10,364 0.3% Sales setup 3 Three tiers, three sales setups. Prices, channels and the people who sell all differ, so one company going after all three at once fights itself for resources. Small and Medium Enterprise Agency, number of SMEs and small businesses, as of June 2021. Mid-sized is SMEs minus small businesses. Talent map where people move Each requirement you add halves the pool (the estimate in the article) **100%** Whole pool: everyone in the field **50%** one requirement **25%** two **12.5%** three: one in eight **6.25%** plus a language **3.1%** plus years of experience: five leave 3% Around your company sit the ring that competes for the same function, the ring of neighboring functions, and the far ring. Decide how far out to go, and which requirement to relax, before you hire. Circle area is the share of the pool, outer to inner, in the same order as the table. From the estimate in A talent map is not a list. Get the facts straight on two maps, then decide product, sales, organization and systems. Every later decision reuses the same two maps. [How to draw the maps →](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/method-maps?hsLang=en) ## Column guides One page per column: the main conclusions, and which article to read first. 1. 01[Launching in Japan](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/guide-launching-in-japan?hsLang=en) How foreign companies actually get started here: sales channels, agents, setting up a base. 2. 02[Organizations & Hiring](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/guide-organizations-and-hiring?hsLang=en) Designing the organization, making the key hires, running the hiring process. Worked through with cases and models. 3. 03[Japan by the Numbers](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/guide-japan-by-the-numbers?hsLang=en) Reports that read Japan’s labor and talent markets from public data. 4. 04[Career](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/guide-career?hsLang=en) What experience is worth, changing jobs, and how work is shifting. What I see from the hiring side. [Glossary →](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/glossary?hsLang=en) ## Latest articles 1. 01[Why AI-Written Text Is So Easy to Spot](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/why-ai-writing-is-easy-to-spot?hsLang=en)7 min Five frequent ChatGPT users misjudged 1 of 300 articles. 379 of 454 words that surged in 2024 abstracts were style words. What gives AI prose away, ... 2. 02[Using AI for Competitor Research: Give Every Number a Trail](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/ai-competitor-report-sources?hsLang=en)7 min Only 51.5% of AI search sentences were fully backed by their citations. A five-column worksheet that ties every competitor number to its original ... 3. 03[Why Japan's Recruiter Fees Run 30 to 35% of Salary](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/japan-recruiter-fee-a-third-of-salary?hsLang=en)8 min Japan caps recruiter fees near 7% of salary unless the agency files its own schedule. Filed schedules say 30 to 40%. The FY2024 average was ¥1.03m ... Reference: [What a Japan entity must file each year](https://nobusato.jp/en/japan-compliance-year?hsLang=en) [All articles →](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog?hsLang=en) ## Get new articles by email. One email a week with what I published that week. Unsubscribe any time. Email Nobu Sato Writing about launching in Japan, in three languages. 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