Innovators in Japan Podcast: Riki Yoshinaga

Hello everyone, and thanks for joining us for another episode of the Innovators in Japan Podcast with me, Shohei Narron.

Any international expansion effort is hard; there are no two ways about it. You’ll need someone with local knowledge, a local network, and enough experience to build up a foundation from scratch to gain momentum in a new territory. And that’s where today’s guest, Riki Yoshinaga, comes in.

Riki is a Seattle-native who decided to make the move to Japan after graduating from Harvard. He first learned about Japanese business on the job, working for a few different firms and odd jobs along the way. He ended up going independent with Jenerate Partners, a Japan business expansion consulting firm he cofounded with a former Japanese colleague. Jenerate Partners has helped a number of non-Japanese companies, notably Honestbee, get a foothold in the Japanese market from scratch. He’s experienced both great successes and setbacks from which he’s learned quite a bit, and he was generous enough to share his thoughts on moving into the Japanese market with us. Hope you enjoy the show.

Some highlights of the conversation include:

• How Riki, a Seattle-native, ended up starting a Japan entry / expansion business through networking and grit
• How Jenerate Partners conducts product market fit specifically for Japan (and you absolutely need to establish PMF again in Japan)
• What Japanese companies look for in a non-Japanese companies before they buy
• How non-Japanese companies can be lean when they enter and expand into Japan