Insights & Guides
Practical knowledge on Japan market entry — from company setup and visas to trade logistics and branding.
Japan Market Entry Budget: What IOR, EOR, and ACP Actually Cost in Year One (2026)
Most companies planning a Japan launch reach the "which structure" decision before they reach the finance team. By the time a CFO or controller gets asked to approve the plan, the question has...
Japan EOR Payroll and Tax Withholding Guide: How Employer of Record Runs Payroll for Your Japan Hire
Deciding to hire a Japan-based employee through an Employer of Record (EOR) structure resolves the question of who bears legal employer liability. It does not, by itself, explain what happens...
Japan IOR Service Agreement and SLA: What Should Be in Your Importer of Record Contract
A foreign company evaluating Importer of Record (IOR) providers in Japan usually spends most of its diligence effort on price and turnaround time, and very little on the contract itself. That is...
Japan IOR for Health Supplements, Vitamins, and Nutraceuticals: The Food Sanitation Act Layer Foreign Brands Miss
Foreign supplement brands arriving in Japan tend to carry one assumption from their home market: that a "supplement" or "nutraceutical" is a distinct regulatory category with its own approval...
Japan IOR for 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing Equipment
Foreign manufacturers of 3D printers and additive manufacturing systems selling into Japan, whether to distributors, research institutions, or manufacturing customers, face the same threshold...
Japan EOR vs Secondment (出向): Which Structure Actually Fits Sending Staff to Japan
Foreign companies planning to place staff in Japan frequently reach for secondment (出向) first, because it is the model most familiar from other markets and from their own group's existing HR...
Importer of Record vs Freight Forwarder vs Customs Broker vs ACP: What Each Role Actually Does in a Japan Import
Foreign companies planning their first shipment into Japan almost always start their research with the same four terms tangled together: Importer of Record, freight forwarder, customs broker, and...
Japan IOR, EOR, and ACP: Frequently Asked Questions (2026)
This post collects the questions foreign companies ask most often when they first encounter IOR, EOR, and ACP as terms describing how to move goods into Japan or hire staff there without a Japan...
What Happens If You Import Into Japan Without an IOR or ACP (2026)
Some foreign companies never make a deliberate decision about how to structure their Japan imports. A freight forwarder offers to "handle everything," a distributor agrees to receive the goods on...
How Much Does ACP Cost in Japan? Setup, Per-Shipment, and Package Fees Explained (2026)
Non-resident manufacturers who have decided they want to remain the named importer on their own Japan customs declarations, rather than handing that role to an Importer of Record, almost always...