Your First Team in Japan
Japan market validation & entry partnerJapan market validation & entry partner
Your first team in Japan.
Validate the market, meet Japanese buyers and build your first pipeline — before you hire a Country Manager.
- For
- Overseas startups, Series A–C
- Focus
- B2B and enterprise technology
- Approach
- Explore → Validate → Sell → Launch
Where Japan entry actually stalls
The bottleneck is not the market — it is internal approval
A friendly first meeting is relatively easy to get. Between that meeting and a purchase order sits a chain of internal gates that cannot be cleared remotely.
- ChampionBusiness unit that wants it
- ITSecurity review
- LegalJapanese-style contract
- ProcurementVendor and credit check
- RingiWritten internal approval
- Budget cycleFiscal-year timing
The gap between the first meeting and the purchase order is where we work. We have written the proposals and the ringi documents from the buyer’s side.
Where we fit
Most support ends at incorporation, not at the first contract
Japan has excellent public support for getting incorporated. We focus on what comes after: getting to your first contract with a Japanese enterprise.
| Market validation | Incorporation | First customer | Sales organization | Capital & alliances | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Research only | ● | ||||
| Incorporation only | ● | ||||
| Sales only | ◐ | ◐ | |||
| Start Innovation | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● |
● Full coverage ◐ Partial. Types of support are described by function and do not refer to any specific provider.
How we work
Explore → Validate → Sell → Launch
Every stage ends in a decision, not a document. With evidence in hand, you choose to stop, continue or expand.
- 01 ExploreUnderstand JapanMarket size, competitors, business practice and barriers to entry.Your decision: Is Japan worth a serious attempt?
- 02 ValidateTalk to customersTest ICP, pain points, value proposition and willingness to pay with real buyers.Your decision: Will they buy — and at what price?
- 03 SellBuild the pipelineTarget accounts, meetings, PoC opportunities and partner conversations.Your decision: Can we repeat this acquisition?
- 04 LaunchBuild the teamCountry Manager, entity, partners and local operations — with a full handover pack.Your decision: Who will lead Japan?
Packages
Start small. Commit more only as the evidence grows
Japan Fit
Should we enter Japan at all?
3–4 weeks · fixed fee
Market size, competitors, entry barriers and an ICP hypothesis, ending in a Go / No-Go recommendation.
Japan Validation
Will Japanese customers really buy?
6–8 weeks · fixed fee
Interviews with real Japanese buyers, named target accounts, a pricing test and a 90-day go-to-market plan.
Pre-Country Manager
Build your first business in Japan.
Monthly · minimum 6 months
We act as your Japan team: target accounts, meetings we attend in Japanese, PoC structuring and weekly reports to HQ in English.
Japan Launch is designed per client: Country Manager hiring, local team, entity setup and specialist coordination, through to full handover. Capital & Alliance can run alongside any stage.
- Based on one dedicated person. Additional members are quoted separately.
- One person-month is 160 hours, following standard Japanese working practice.
- Fees are, as a rule, paid in advance.
Pricing and full package details are in our deck, which we send after a first conversation.
Selected work
Recent Japan entry engagements
Client names are withheld. Further details can be shared under NDA.
Switzerland
Deep-tech startup
Fundraising and business development in Japan
- CHALLENGE
- A seed-stage deep-tech company wanted a route into the Japanese market alongside its fundraising.
- WHAT WE DID
- Brought the data room and investor materials up to Japanese due-diligence standards, built and prioritized a list of Japanese VCs and CVCs and ran the outreach, and arranged business matching with Japanese enterprises.
- RESULT
- Discussions with the open-innovation team of a major Japanese enterprise are underway.
South Korea
Technology startup
From PoC search to CEO meetings
- CHALLENGE
- A startup with a strong track record at home needed a partner to open doors in Japan.
- WHAT WE DID
- Identified and prioritized Japanese PoC candidates ahead of launch, joined the PoC strategy discussions, contacted target companies directly and set up meetings with their CEOs.
- RESULT
- Concrete commercial discussions with one of those companies are in progress.
Our team in Japan
The people you work with
Go Enokida
Partner, Japan Market Entry, Start Innovation Inc.
He has run the Japan business of four global companies, from a zero-to-one launch to nationwide sales teams of up to 20. Today he helps overseas startups make the same move.
Spent over a decade at Nintendo in Germany and Kyoto, adapting products to European cultures and regulations. He then moved to the other side of the border, building Japan businesses for global companies.
At Expedia, led sales across four regions of Japan with a team of 16, growing hotel and ryokan supply for inbound travelers. Went on to lead Japan sales at HomeAway and AirAsia Japan and a 20-person team at Amazon Japan, closing partnerships with Rakuten Travel, IKEA and other major brands. As Japan General Manager of Singapore fintech Pace, launched its buy-now-pay-later business in Japan from zero. He built a 10-person team across five functions, localized the app with headquarters and led talks with Japanese VCs.
Since 2022, he has focused on market entry, managing a local-government program that brings overseas startups to Japan and overseeing consultants against KPIs from business matching through incorporation. Since 2025, he has also led Japan go-to-market for an overseas construction-AI startup, from localizing its SaaS product to negotiating contracts with major Japanese general contractors. Works in Japanese, English and German.
Start with validation
Before you build a Japan team, find out whether Japan works.
Begin with a focused market validation. Move into sales and local execution when the evidence supports it.