Go-to-market · Japan · Southeast Asia
Fifteen years launching companies in Japan from zero, as the permanent hire each time — Japan Regional Manager at TradingView, General Manager at Standard Cognition, Head of Business Development at Mashgin. Earlier, advising the Chairman of VNPAY in Vietnam.
Previously
All four have passed $1B valuations.
Japan is not a hard market. It is a market with a hiring problem disguised as a strategy problem.
01
Benchmarks for proven Japan country managers cluster around ¥70M cash OTE, and the strongest candidates won't join a company that hasn't committed a real mandate. Most entries lose two quarters before anyone sells anything.
02
In JETRO's survey of foreign-affiliated companies in Japan, 60% named sales and marketing as their hardest roles to recruit — ahead of IT and technical roles at 40%. Roughly 76% of companies report difficulty hiring bilingual professionals at all.
03
Around 70% of software revenue in Japan moves through partner channels rather than direct. Japanese enterprise buying optimises for relationship durability, not velocity. A high-performing US outbound motion frequently alienates Japanese buyers on the first call.
Sources: JETRO survey of foreign-affiliated companies in Japan (recruitment difficulty by function); Robert Walters Japan Salary Survey 2026 (skills shortage); Japan executive search compensation benchmarks (country manager OTE); Japan B2B software channel mix.
None of this is solved by a deck. It is solved by someone who has closed in the market, on the ground, with a number attached.
Computer vision → retail & foodservice
Automated checkout platforms sold to operators who measure every second of throughput and every point of shrink.
Global markets platform
A worldwide markets and charting platform, taken to Japanese brokerage and media partners.
Payments at national scale
Vietnamese digital payments, where distribution is decided by banks, telcos, and regulators.
Notes on selling into Japan and Southeast Asia.
NVIDIA, Fujitsu, SoftBank, NEC, Sony, Honda. When a market assembles its AI infrastructure by consortium, a foreign vendor is not competing on product. It is competing for a slot.
Read →METI is not only funding Rapidus. It is manufacturing the demand side. For a foreign deep-tech company, that changes what public money actually is.
Read →The amended Payment Services Act took operational effect on 13 June. It is the clearest example I know of regulation functioning as a channel strategy.
Read →A short breakdown of why Japan's GTM hiring market behaves the way it does, what the anchor hire actually costs, and the sequence that gets to first revenue without one. Occasional notes after that — no more than monthly.
I'm always glad to talk with people working on Japan or Southeast Asia.
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