A second view,before you commit.

Companies moving into and out of Japan: global companies entering or growing in Japan, and Japanese companies expanding abroad or already operating there. We work with CEOs and the executives who hold the authority to commit, across industries, provided the leadership team is directly involved.

Yes. Weak local sales, a brand that has not taken hold, decisions stalled between headquarters and the market — issues in an overseas business that is already running are within scope. We begin with a diagnostic and establish where the issues lie.

No. You can engage on just one: strategy, marketing or organisation. Where to begin is agreed in the first conversation.

Yes, through introductions. For legal, tax, logistics, employment or recruitment matters, we can introduce specialists; for production, media buying or software development, agencies and development partners. Our own work stays with strategy and the decisions that follow from it.

We start with the commercial question — which segment, at what price, and why a Japanese buyer would choose you over the incumbent — and plan the go-to-market from there. Where the organisation matters, we examine how decisions travel between headquarters and Tokyo and help make explicit the unwritten rules of Japanese organisations. Where distribution matters, we support partner and distributor selection and can take part in negotiations in Japanese.

We cannot promise an outcome. What we agree, before the work starts, is what counts as progress: for strategy, an agreed view of market size, attainable share, cost of entry and payback; for marketing, awareness, enquiries, conversion to opportunity and acquisition cost; for the organisation, time to get the local team running, decision lead time and the number of decisions awaiting headquarters.

In two respects. First, focus: rather than offering everything, we concentrate on the three areas our founder has handled in operating roles — and unlike an agency, we do not sell production or media. Second, the founder works with you directly. He spent 14 years at Google, latterly as Head of the International Growth Team for Asia, leading a business with US$6.5B in annual revenue; before that, three years in equity research at Deutsche Bank and three at NTT DOCOMO.

No. Arcbridge Japan Partners is not a development firm and employs no engineers. We advise on where AI belongs, how it is run, the internal rules for confidential material, and how it is embedded in daily work. Where implementation is needed, your team or a development partner carries it out; we can introduce one if useful.

No. We work in English and Japanese, conducting each discussion in the language each side needs, so that little is lost between headquarters and the local team. We do not provide language or cultural training.

It begins with a free 30-minute conversation; no preparation is required. There are three forms of engagement: a monthly advisory retainer, a project of three to six months, or a part-time Fractional CXO role. Where a diagnostic is useful, it takes two to three weeks; working sessions then run two to four times a month.

Fees depend on scope and duration and are quoted after the first conversation, once the scope is clear. The first conversation is free of charge. The practice is led by one person, so the number of concurrent engagements is limited. We are registered in Singapore, but our work is not tied to one region: we support Japanese companies expanding abroad and global companies entering Japan, mainly online, with on-site visits where required.