Important things to succeed business in Japan

Japan is one of the most advanced countries in the world and “Tokyo” is a very famous district name worldwide. Tokyo will hold the Olympic / Paralympic games in 2020 and a lot of global companies are reaching out to Japan because of its safe and well performing economy.

If you look at “Tokyo” from a global point of view, you might feel it is a very small district, but Tokyo is actually a very big metropolis as well as a prefecture. Each Tokyo district has its own features and characteristics such as good transportation, how big the businesses are, whether it’s a business district or residential district, bustling or quiet, etc... It is very difficult for foreign business challengers unfamiliar with the area to select the right location of their first office in Japan.

Troubles in selecting the right office in Tokyo

If a foreign company would like to establish a branch in Japan, the story might not always be so difficult. In the case that they have a native coworker, this person will simulate which area can be convenient for their business and propose the locations. If this is the case, then how can the companies without a Japanese local coworker find the right offices? You might need to type “serviced office Tokyo” in search engines, or you might need to contact global office agencies. But it is a big burden needing to compare each offices web site one by one and your global office agent might not be familiar with actual Tokyo. Maybe you will encounter so much information through the internet and cannot find the right choice. A lucky person might have advice from a friend who knows Japan and get an introduction of the office. Even then, you don’t know if that friend really led you to the best choice or not.

Key points in searching for an office in Tokyo

You have some basic measurements you can apply. 1^st thing is, there are places you can get advice close to your office. It might be an embassy or the chamber of commerce of your country.

Search for “embassy in Tokyo” in Google Maps. You can find so many embassies located throughout any particular area in Tokyo. You can also search for “chamber of commerce in Tokyo”. You can confirm they are located in a separate area. It is very important that you decide what can help your business and when searching for your office, taking into consideration its location is a very important step in starting your business in Japan. Also, you might want to move your office after gathering some experience in Japan, so you should have a contract with an office in which a short term agreement is available (it might be difficult for foreigners to get a legacy real state rental contract, so serviced offices would be good fit).

Secondly, it is important that you find a convenient station nearby. In Tokyo, in most cases you will go to the office by train or subways, not by a car. It is the right choice as well to save the cost and avoid the risk of driving a car in an unfamiliar country (especially since in most countries the car lane is opposite from that in Japan). Because of this, you may want to search for the offices that are close to the mega stations like “Shibuya”, “Tokyo”, “Shinagawa”, “Shinjuku”, and “Roppongi”.

But while it is true that those stations have attractive sub-cultures, those stations are incredibly big for daily use and you will lose time merely exiting from the station. You may need to walk more than Google Maps says. In addition, people are pushing each other strongly in Japan’s famous “Rush-hour” so they can get on the train, instead of waiting for the next one. This kind of chaos is happening every day in most of the mega stations and it makes it difficult to even walk straight, resulting in it taking more time just to change trains. It causes train delays or difficulty in reaching the platform because of over-capacity and you might not be able to reach the destination on time. The offices around the mega-stations are of course expensive as well.

It is difficult to avoid taking trains or “rush-hour” as long as you would like to have an office in Tokyo. If you get an office in a suburb to escape from the overpopulation and to take advantage of the cheaper office rates, you will have to spend time traveling just to reach your customers and clients, since most of the companies are centralized in Tokyo.

Avoiding mega-stations reduces your daily stress to go to work. The station to your office can be smaller and the population there will be limited, and you can go outside quickly.  You can save office fees in most cases (or you can get a bigger size office for the same cost).

Selecting an office close to the train station is also important. It makes your commute shorter and there are a lot of shops and restaurants around the station.