Japan is one of the largest global markets for SaaS businesses. Yet selling software products there remains a little-understood process for many international founders and operators.
In this post, we talk to Yuga Koda at Nihonium, a firm that helps SaaS companies enter and grow in the Japanese market, about what actually works, what fails, and how to approach Japan correctly.
In one sentence, what’s the difference between selling SaaS in Japan vs. in other countries?
The process is different. You just can’t treat sales and go-to-market as a whole in Japan the same as you would in North America or Europe.
The SaaS sales process in Japan is structurally different from the U.S. and other Western markets, primarily in terms of pace, decision-making style, and buyer behavior. It’s not that Japanese companies are unwilling to try new software, but rather that they prefer to do significant research before engaging directly with a vendor.
So, many successful SaaS companies in Japan structure their websites with two primary calls to action: 1) one for downloading product documentation and 2) another for booking a demo or starting a free trial. Most Japanese leads enter through the documentation path first.
In the U.S., the typical flow is that a prospect visits a website, books a demo on their own, or drops off and is followed up aggressively by sales. A conversation happens quickly, a proof of concept or trial begins, and the deal either closes or the buyer moves on to a competitor. The cycle is fast and transactional. Buyers are comfortable testing tools, replacing them, and switching vendors if something does not work.
In Japan, the process is slower and more deliberate. A company will usually download product materials first. The vendor then reaches out and begins a longer engagement process focused on education and relationship building. Rather than pushing for an immediate demo or trial, the goal is to support the buyer’s internal evaluation process. The lead will take the information back to their organization and begin internal discussions about whether and how to proceed.
Photo by Hennie Stander on Unsplash
Can you elaborate on the decision-making process inside Japanese companies, when it comes to choosing a software product to use?
Decision-making inside Japanese companies typically involves a formal internal proposal, multiple stakeholder meetings, and a consensus-based approval process. Only after this internal alignment is reached will the company formally re-engage with the vendor and move forward.
Because of this structure, aggressive follow-up tactics like calling multiple times in a short time span is generally ineffective. The process requires patience and long-term engagement.
The result is a much longer sales cycle, but also a much more stable customer relationship. Japanese buyers tend to be highly attentive and diligent during evaluation, and once a decision is made, they are less likely to churn.
Western customers tend to adopt and replace tools quickly, whereas Japanese buyers aim to make the right decision from the beginning. This leads to higher retention, longer customer lifetimes, and stronger loyalty. The downside, from the SaaS company’s perspective, is that it makes the entire sales process much longer.
How do you gain trust from the Japanese market?
Part of it is showing your commitment to the Japanese market, where simple things matter: is your product localized, is your documentation localized? Do you have a support person that I can speak Japanese with?
That’s one layer. And the other layer, which is a little harder to potentially navigate at first, is the social proof aspect.
How can foreign SaaS companies show social proof to Japanese companies?
Case studies are the most important sales collateral in Japan. There was a survey a little while back and it was the most requested document. Even above the company deck itself. Social proof beats the company introduction information – that’s how important it is.
So to reach the Japanese buyer, you have to not only show that you are committed to Japan. That’s one layer of trust, and you show your commitment through doing marketing in Japan, showing that you’re present in Japan, doing sales in Japan,, and so on. Or if you aren’t physically in Japan, at least have content in Japanese, have Japanese-speaking staff, and so on.
Ultimately, Japanese companies would prefer to work with Japanese companies, and there’s a limitation to that because there aren’t that many software companies in Japan. So they work with foreign companies, making this trust and social proof extra important. A lot of foreign companies have entered Japan, and then left Japan, leaving their customers in a tough spot. So there can be some inherent skepticism there.
The other layer is the social proof of companies – preferably Japanese companies – using your product.
Photo by Nopparuj Lamaikul on Unsplash
In concrete terms, what does that look like on the website, in marketing materials, etc.?
It functions on a really basic level: how the website is designed and how case study PDFs are accessed. CTAs are a good example.
Most countries that might be “Book a Demo.” But in Japan, the initial CTA is typically “Download Documents,” not “Book a Demo.”
Like I mentioned earlier, this is because the buying process is different in Japan: Japanese buyers like to do their research before actually engaging the provider.
So the first instinct isn’t, “Let me hop on a demo and ask this person a bunch of questions.” Instead, it’s, “Let me do a bunch of research, kind of get internal feedback to see if this would be a fit – and then book a demo.”
So you can have the website structure, everything localized, but if you don’t have the right call to actions in Japan, you’re probably going to lose out on a lot of leads.
Let’s say you’re a SaaS with 20, 50, or 80 employees – and you’re thinking that Japan might be a good market. What’s something you can do to figure out if it’s worth entering?
So the first thing that we suggest companies do is to actually look at their own analytics. Trends are great – and often they’re a deciding factor. Some companies that have engaged us have significant traffic coming in from Japan.
This can be indicative of real potential, but an even more ideal case is when you have real leads coming in from Japan, but you just aren’t equipped to handle the Japanese sales process.
The best case scenario is when you already have a Japanese customer or two. Then you know that there is some validation that there is a need for your product in Japan.
These indicators are important – because you really don’t want to jump into Japan for the sake of jumping into Japan. If you don’t have a strong reason to enter the country’s market, I wouldn’t touch localization or local marketing. Market entry for any market, not just Japan, is not a side project.
If you are going to do Japan properly, you’re going to have to dedicate a decent amount of your resources, both budget wise and head count wise to Japan. So, unless you have a specific reason to do Japan,I wouldn’t do it unless you have some leading indicators or trends.
Are there some easy, low-cost tests a foreign SaaS company can do to get more data on this?
Sure, you can get the website localized, you can spin up a quick sales page. That shouldn’t take too many resources.
But, with any product process, you want to test and iterate. And unfortunately, when it comes to Japan, it seems like a lot of companies are all or nothing – and not very iterative in their process. That’s also why Nihonium exists: we want to help companies validate Japan first, instead of hiring a full-time salesperson or a full-time marketing person in Japan without any indicators.
Do you think there’s any value in a foreign SaaS company going to a trade show or event in Japan?
I think it’s a really good idea to go to a trade in Japan to see what kind of software is available in the market. And if you feel like you can have an edge over what’s there, that can be solid market research.
So, I would suggest going as an attendee purely as market research, but I would not expect actual sales and acquisition there – unless you have a Japanese speaker with you. There’s going to be very little English spoken, unless you go to a bilingual event. All of the documentation is also going to be in Japanese, too, so… you could collect all the informational flyers, collect all the information, collect all the company names and then do research on your own.
The actual event is also a little different from Western trade shows. In Japan, the lead capture really happens at booths, using a Japanese business card app. In my experience, paper business cards aren’t used at software / tech trade shows. It’s all in the app.
Also, it would be hard to navigate a trade show or an event without having someone that can actually support you, both language and cultural knowledge. Which is something that Nihonium can help you with, including the management of a booth.
Image from Nihonium.io
When should a SaaS company consider reaching out to Nihonium?
The short answer is: when you’re already seeing some demand from Japan, but you’re not quite ready to set up a full local entity yet. That in-between stage is exactly where we come in.
What Nihonium does is basically act as a fractional Japan team. We handle sales, marketing, go-to-market, and customer support for companies that know Japan is interesting, but don’t yet want to hire locally or incorporate.
A lot of companies already have inbound leads from Japan but don’t have the language or structure to really follow up properly. Others just want to test a few ideas first. For example, whether a localized page will convert better, whether SEO can drive pipelines, or what keywords people are actually searching for in Japan. We help with all of that.
Localization and SEO are big strengths for us. We help build Japanese landing pages, research search behavior, and test positioning. We also help with trade shows, as I mentioned before, choosing the right events, setting up booths, preparing marketing materials, and even standing there and explaining the product to prospects. The idea is to give companies a real presence in Japan without forcing them to immediately commit to hiring a full team.
We also do other Japan go-to-market, including localization and creating sales and marketing collateral (including case studies). Tradeshows is one aspect within the overall GTM strategy. And for each company, we provide a custom GTM plan, as different SaaS products have different channels.
So in practice, we work as an on-the-ground extension of your company while you figure out whether Japan is a market you want to go all-in on. If you decide to move forward, we have trusted partners that help with incorporation and trusted back office support.
What’s the typical size of a SaaS company you work with?
We work with companies that are big enough to take Japan seriously, but not yet ready to build a full subsidiary.
Most of our clients are doing more than a few million in annual recurring revenue. Typically it’s somewhere in the 5 to 20 million range. Below 5 million, it’s often just too early. There usually isn’t enough budget or bandwidth. Above 20 million, a lot of companies start thinking about setting up their own entity and hiring locally.
Final piece of advice for SaaS companies considering an entrance into the Japanese market?
Japan isn’t a market you can just casually test. It takes real budget, real execution, and a long-term mindset. If you aren’t willing to commit time and resources, it might not be worth it.
Kiefer is Developer Content Lead at Embed Workflow, where he helps SaaS companies integrate automation directly into their apps, all without Zapier or custom backend builds. He brings 10+ years of experience turning complex systems into clear, actionable content across SaaS, WordPress, and plugin ecosystems. At Embed Workflow, he leads docs, tutorials, and product messaging to drive adoption and reduce developer friction.