
5 lessons I learned from starting a business in Japan - ian_in_osaka
Hey everyone, Not too long ago I quit my full-time job to start some small businesses in Japan. It&#x27;s been an amazing adventure so far with plenty of ups and downs. I recently wrote a blog post about my experiences which you might find interesting:<p>https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.innerspeakerconsulting.com&#x2F;5-lessons-start-business-japan<p>Let me know if you guys have any feedback or similar experiences.<p>Thanks!
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tixocloud
Thanks for sharing your experience. I've been to Japan a few times and
absolutely love it. I hope one day, I'll get the opportunity to live and run
my business from there. Do you an email where I can reach out? I'd love to
learn more about your business.

My only experience is as a tourist observing the workers and it does look as
what you described with longer hours and great importance placed on work but
that companies will also reward you with loyalty. I've also heard that
hiearchy and respect is important. I feel like there could be certain values
that could be extracted as part of Western society - we recently had a
retailer reporting bankruptcy and being unable to afford the
pensions/severances of employees but somehow the management team was retained
and were provided with decent bonuses. Something seems broken there.

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ian_in_osaka
Thanks for reading and that's great you are interested in living and setting
up your business here. You can email me from the contact box or from the
address on this link:

[https://www.innerspeakerconsulting.com/contact](https://www.innerspeakerconsulting.com/contact)

Yes the long hours, hierarchy and respect are all true. I used to work for a
Japanese company and some of the hours were brutal but it was great experience
to be fair. Like you say, Western countries could learn a fair bit from
Japanese values (respect, being in control of emotions, integrity etc).

It's certainly a very interesting place to live and work and I highly
recommend coming over if you get the chance. Feel free to reach out via mail
if you have further questions about living and working in Japan. Also check my
blog as I'll be posting articles about my experiences over here which might be
interesting for you.

Thanks for reading!

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mycat
How is the startup scene now in Japan 2017?

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ian_in_osaka
Yeah I think the start up landscape is slowly changing in Japan with more and
more people starting small businesses and trying to make it on their own.

They've recently made it easier to create a company (lots of capital was
required in the past but not anymore) and it's actually really easy to start a
sole proprietor business. A lot of entrepreneurs over here now are setting us
as a sole proprietor as it's really easy to get going and also open a bank
account under the business name.

Also a lot of events happening in the start up scene especially in Tokyo. It's
always good meeting with other entrepreneurs, hearing about their experiences
and of course expanding your network.

Thanks for reading the blog and be sure to check back as I'll have some new
content up there soon.

