GlobalLINKERTM

• Are We That Different? Similarities and Differences between Americans and Japanese
  
• Cybermarketing Japan
  
• Market Japan in Japanese
  
• Entrepreneurs Around The World
  
• American Entrepreneurs
  
• What's New?
  

	There is a saying in Japanese, Deru kugi wa utareru, which literally means "The nail that sticks out gets hammered down."  Compare this to the contrasting American proverb "The squeaky wheel gets the grease."  Are the two peoples diametrically opposite in character, as is widely believed, and as these sayings would seem to suggest? 

    Tanaka Tomoyuki, a law student at UCD, argues that Americans and Japanese are more similar than different. The following are modified excerpts from his web site, "American Misconceptions about Japan FAQ" (http://www.cs.indiana/edu/hyplan/tanaka.html) (email:  tanaka@ucdavis.edu).

    In both cultures there are maxims that encourage boldness, as well as those that recommend conformity. Many Japanese proverbs and maxims encourage people to be bold, different, and independent. Atatte kudakero is literally "go collide and smash into pieces."  It means, "Even if you're not sure, go ahead and try it," like the American expression, "go for broke."  Keiko to narutomo gyugo to narunakare (originally Chinese) is literally "Rather than be a cow-tail, be a chicken-head." An American equivalent would be:                                        

  "I'd rather be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond."  Anzuru yori umu ga yasusi is literally "easier to give birth than to anticipate it."  It means, "It's not as hard as you think," a common phrase in the USA. Kawaii ko ni wa tabi wo saseyo is literally "If you love your child, let it travel alone," for this fosters independence. 

    In the USA there are expressions and maxims that advise people to be conformist and quiet. "Stick out like a sore thumb" an expression meaning to stand out and draw attention, usually used negatively. "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." (Japanese equivalent: gou ni itte ha gou ni sitagae.)  "Don't rock the boat" "Don't make waves" "Go against the current" "Silence is golden" "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" (Japanese equivalent: mizaru, iwazaru, kikazaru). And finally, "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." (Matthew 5:5)

CYBERMARKETING JAPAN

     	Cybertechnology has shrunk the globe so much that the world market is now available to anyone with access to the Internet.  Now you can reach consumers around the world without leaving your office.  One of the big advantages of the Internet is that even a small player can do business globally like the big players.  Here's an example.  A mom-and-pop Italian sausage store in New York put up a web site in 1995.  The first order arrived from Japan.  The $69 shipping costs didn't faze the Japanese buyer.  Now the store does over $8,000 of business on-line annually.  It's a fraction of their total sales, but they say, "It's a real money-maker."  The Internet can be a vital marketing tool, but conventional marketing basics apply.  You have to get to know your market!  So for those who want to reach Japan's consumer market via the Internet, here are some facts you can use. 

A New Exploding Market	
	In Japan, 1995 was considered the first year of the Internet, and 1996 the year of the Web.  The number of hosts (under the jp domain) in Japan in December 1996 has tripled in just one year, to over 700,000.  This is the third largest number in the world after the US and the UK. The installation of ISDN jumped 52% to 612,468 in March 1996, following a 43% increase from the previous year.	 According to a market research firm in Tokyo, 1.35 million Japanese households had Internet access in January 96.  This accounts for a quarter of computer owners.  The number of Internet users in Japan is estimated to have doubled since then.  The majority of computer owners said that they use computers primarily to visit web sites and to send and receive email.

Who is on the Net?
 Computer-literate Young Men	
    Two 1996 surveys(a)(b) of active users (those visiting the sponsor organizations' web sites and responding to their questionnaires) reveal that 41-49% of the respondents are in their 20's, followed by the 30+ age group (35-37%).  In Japan, few teenagers (4-5%) access the Internet.  The trend is that dominance of the twenty-somethings is beginning to erode--the number of users in their late 30痴 and 40's is gradually increasing. Another survey(c), also conducted in 1996, presents a somewhat different picture.  The average age of the respondents was 38.8, with the 30+ group being the largest.  The 20+ and 40+ age groups accounted for one quarter of the total respectively.	
	Results of surveys(a)(c) indicate further that 90% of Internet users are men.  However, another(b) shows that 17% were women, a 40% increase from a survey conducted  six months earlier.  The female users are predominantly in their 20's, younger than their male counterparts.  All three surveys agreed that engineers, programmers and technicians are the predominant users, followed by students.  However, the ratio of other white-collar workers is increasing, indicating that Internet use is spreading beyond the circle of techies.

Educated and Affluent Urbanites 
	The results of two surveys(b)(c) indicate that users of the Internet tend to be highly educated: 85% have some college education.  75-78% have a bachelor's degree and 10-16% have a master痴.  Internet users are also affluent.  One survey(b) reports that the average annual income of users is Y5.76 million ($52,400) with the Y3-5 million ($30,000-40,000) group being the largest.  However, another survey(c) shows that those making over Y10 million ($100,000) are the second largest group (21%) after the Y4-6 million ($40,000-60,000) group (22%).  Another marked characteristic of Internet users is that they are urban.  35% of these respondents reside in cities with a population of 1 million or more and 60% live in cities with a population greater than 300,000. The top three prefectures for Internet users are Tokyo, Kanagawa and Osaka.

What Are They Looking For?  
		  Over half of the respondents access WWW for entertainment, another 36% for work-related information. The majority of users access sites related to their hobbies and other non-commercial interests, shopping for merchandise, and business concerns.  Their favorite web pages are those of computer-related companies and the mass media. Users find information they desire on the Internet using search engines (37%), web page links (30%) and in conventional media such as magazines and newspapers (27%).  They desire information about products and services, customer support, press releases, entertainment, and on-line shopping.  

       However, only 18% of the users are satisfied with the existing commercial web sites (inferentially, mostly Japanese web sites) because "Not enough information is available," "The information is not updated frequently enough," "It's hard to find the information wanted," "Information flow is one-way," "The information available is mere advertisement," "There are too many graphics so it takes too long to download," and "Little information is of interest."  Many respondents take a negative view of the WWW trend towards heavier use of graphics via Java, VRML and Shockwave, because "It takes too long to download" and "The content itself rather than design should be improved." The majority of complaints concern user's dissatisfaction with slow download, high communication costs and the unavailability of the lines.  Nevertheless, more than a minority of the respondents held that, "These interesting technologies should be used more" and "It's a standard to use these technologies today." 

	Users are mostly satisfied with the information they obtain about their hobbies and interests. They also enjoy the Internet itself as an entertainment medium. The majority of users desire two-way communication utilizing built-in options to reply to email, participate in user surveys and get on mailing lists. 
 
On-line Shopping 
	Approximately 20% of users have purchased a product on the Internet.  More than half of those who have not yet done so expressed a desire to try it in the future.  The typical on-line shopper is a 25-34 year old man or a twenty-something woman.  76% of the shoppers bought non-software products, 10% downloaded software and 5% downloaded information. The most typical purchase was for Y1,000-5,000 ($10-50), followed by Y5,000-10,000 ($50-100). 
     70% of those who have never shopped on-line cited security concerns as the primary reason. Other reasons included, "The variety of products available is small," "I prefer to shop in person," "Payment transactions are troublesome," and "Too few shops are available."  For payment options, 42% think a new mode of transaction, such as cybercash, is more appropriate for the Internet, followed by credit cards   (28%).  Currently, bank and postal transfers are the most preferred methods, along with COD.  To a question about their willingness to purchase information on the Internet, 41% said, "Depends on the content" and 31% said, "Depends on the price." 27% insist that, "Information should be free." 
   The majority of the respondents,  surveyed by the Electronic Commerce Promotion Council of Japan (ECOM) at a direct marketing fair in Tokyo in September, were willing to spend not more than Y10,000 ($100) at a time shopping on-line. The products they wish to purchase include entertainment tickets (movies, plays and the like), books and magazines, information (news, business information, product information), transportation tickets, overseas products, and software.  
    The demographics of Internet users and the trends are generally consistent with those in the US. As more women and older users, those employed in non-technical occupations and the less affluent and educated find their way into Cyberspace, the world-wide expansion of the Cybermarket can only continue.
  Notes:   (a) Survey conducted by Nikkei Multimedia;  (b) Survey conducted by  Electronic Commerce Network;  (c) Survey conducted by Nomura Research Institute jointly with the Institute of Socio-Information and Communication Studies at the University of Tokyo.

MARKET JAPAN IN JAPANESE

     While roaming around in October at Comdex, I was informed by an Internet content vendor there that his company planned to develop a web site for Japanese tourists. "They read guidebooks before they go on a trip." I asked, "So you'll be developing the site in Japanese." "No," he said.  "Those Japanese tourists who visit here can understand English." 
	But that's wrong!  Polling friends and associates in Japan who speak some English, I asked, "Would you visit English sites and read the travel information there?"  The unanimous response was no. They have a basic acquaintance with English but can read only with the help of a dictionary. It doesn't come easily to them or to any but a very few in Japan.  This reminded me of a case from a couple of years ago.   A California company that had developed a particular software application wanted to sell it in Japan.  But they were somewhat clueless as to how to go about this with real effectiveness. Not only were they innocent of any understanding of the concept of localization, they asked us in all seriousness whether any of this software would have to be converted into Japanese.  They also demanded that training of the sales force in Japan be conducted in English. 
	At Comdex, the president of a company that develops a multi-lingual browser said, "We tend to think of the Internet as the English Net, but for some crazy reason a lot of people out there prefer to read and write in another language, and American corporations should be interested in reaching them."  The richest and most informative sites on the Internet about the Japanese market are generally in Japanese.*  And for similar reasons, the mass market in Japan is not accessible unless you reach it in Japanese.

*Helpful sites on how to read Japanese web pages:
http://www.tok-use.com/japanize.htm
http://www.ntt.co.jp/japan/note-on-JP/browsers.html
http://www.lfw.org/shodouka
The following are a few useful sites about Japan available in English:
http://www.ntt.co.jp/whatsnew/index.html
http://www.ntt.co.jp/japan/index.html 
http://www-japan.mit.edu/japan-on-web/index.html
http://www.panix.com/~tn/japan.html
	http://darkning.oregon.edu/~felsing/ceal/japanweb.html

ENTREPRENEURS AROUND THE WORLD

     For two years, we interviewed entrepreneurs in 24 countries from China to Hungary, from Colombia to Thailand, for the series, "Entrepreneurs around the World" in Venture Link, a Japanese entrepreneurial magazine with a circulation of 110,000 copies.  The series began with a story about an American fitness guru in December 1994 and ended with a story about an Irish entrepreneur who carried out a start-up of Ireland痴 first whisky distillery in 150 years.  
     All the articles are posted on GlobalLINK's Japanese web site.  Selected stories from the series will be published in a book in Japan in 1997.	

AMERICAN ENTREPRENEURS

     For Venture Link, we致e launched a new series, "New Business in the U.S," featuring a new US business every month.  If your company has successfully implemented a unique business idea, please let us know!	
     Mitsuyo is also writing a new monthly column about current trends on the West Coast for NO (The Next One), a magazine for young business owners in Japan.  She continues to write for Nikkei Woman, a Japanese equivalent of Working Woman.

WHAT'S NEW?

 	Two books by Mitsuyo hit the bookstores in Japan this yearKanojo tachi ga Seiko Shite Riyu (Achievements and Struggles: Japanese Women Working Abroad), and Eibun Rirekisho no Kakikata (Successful Resume Writing), published this month by the Japan Times. The former has been reviewed by many Japanese magazines and newspapers, some of which have interviewed her as well.      
	She is currently authoring a book on effective international business skills, targeting Japanese business people.