Doing business as foreign designer in Japan

Link: Article at PingMag

On the website of PingMag I an interesting interview with Parissa Haghirian from Austria, who is Associate Professor of International Management at Sophia University in Tokyo. She’s writing about business opportunities in Japan, the title of her book is “Markteintritt in Japan” (Market Entry in Japan). PingMag visited her at Sophia Uni for tips about how to bring your product to Japan, how to work there as foreigner and what kind of fundamental differences you might encounter.

The book of Parissa Haghirian is based on personal experiences entering Japan and making a career. It contains research projects, such as how do small and medium-sized companies enter Japan, how do German and Japanese managers see each other, and how do they work together. Basically, all the stages of a market entry were investigated, such as how do people make up the idea of going to Japan, what happens when they start opening a business, how do they find a Japanese partner, and which problems do they encounter in different stages.

For Parissa Haghirian’s course at Sophia Uni, students from Sophia Uni Tokyo interviewed companies in Japan about their experiences with critical incidents in cross-cultural business relations. German illustrator Oda Ruthe made a drawing from one story by student Christina Wright. Her niceartwork can also be seen on this page of PingMag.