How To Work With Japanese Influencers

Nowadays, the impact of influencer marketing can hardly be ignored by any company who is trying to find and connect with their target audience. With the size of the global influencer marketing market growing year on year, it looks like more companies are yielding the benefits of influencers to introduce their products and services to their intended audience. In Japan, annual expenditure on influencer marketing is forecast to reach more than 72 billion JPY in 2025. Working with Japanese influencers, however, can be a challenge for foreign companies because things tend to work just a bit differently in the Land of the Rising Sun. How to work with Japanese influencers and bridge the language and cultural gaps?

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Platforms for Influencer Marketing in Japan

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First, let’s have a look at how various channels are used for influencer marketing in Japan. The social media landscape in Japan looks slightly different compared to other countries, after all.

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• Instagram: this is the most popular social media channel for influencer marketing because of its highly visual focus and large audience
• YouTube: with more users in Japan than any other social media, YouTube is an interesting medium for brands whose products or services benefit from longer-format video presentation
• Twitch: this live streaming platform was initially meant for gamers and esports, but in Japan it also has the potential to be a great platform for influencers who don’t only play games but also show their daily life as they build a fan base and use products and services that are especially interesting for fellow gamers
• Facebook: mainly used by Millenials and Generation X, Facebook is a good medium to reach consumers with higher disposable incomes
• Twitter: while Twitter is a hugely popular social media channel that can reach a large part of the Japanese population, it is not always an influencer-friendly medium because of the option to remain anonymous that can attract ‘trolling’ 
• Tiktok: this short-video platform is mainly used to raise brand awareness amongst teenagers

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When you are making your marketing campaign plan, it is good to keep in mind what the various social media are used for and what kind of audiences they can potentially reach. Another important point to consider is what kind of influencer you want to collaborate with in terms of number of followers.

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Famous Influencers vs Smaller Influencers

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It is easy to figure out who are the most famous influencers with the largest reach in Japan, but they come at a hefty cost and have unyielding management agencies behind them that can make it hard to work with them. Very famous influencers also usually lack that feeling of closeness with their audience, while this is actually one of influencer marketing’s greatest benefits. 

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Many products and services are a good fit for grassroot influencers (<10.000 followers), micro influencers (10.000-100.000 followers), mid-sized influencers (100.000-500.000 followers), or top-tier (non celebrity) influencers (>500.000 followers). These smaller, unsigned influencers are not only more budget-friendly, they also service specific interests such as gaming, lifestyle, travel, sports, etc. and tend to have a close relationship with their followers. Their followers are not so much fans who look up to their idol, but they feel more that the influencer is their peer or friend with similar interests, struggles, and passions as themselves. When their favorite influencers introduce them to a product or service, while still being open about it being a sponsored collaboration, they will often take their advice regarding the product or service to heart.

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Cultural Barriers in Influencer Marketing in Japan

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Image is extremely important for influencers all over the world and teaming up with a brand that doesn’t fit can create a bad backlash. In Japan, this fact causes a host of extra challenges for foreign brands looking to work with Japanese influencers. Trust is a very important factor of doing business in Japan, and it takes a lot of time to build. For this reason, many Japanese influencers only want to work with brands that are already established in the Japanese market to minimize the chance of accidentally working with a brand that hurts their reputation. An unknown foreign brand therefore gets a ‘no’ straight away most of the time. 

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Moreover, anyone who has ever seen Japanese TV ads knows that the way of advertising is heavily influenced by Japanese culture and rather different from what we are used to in other countries. Good examples of these cultural quirks are posts that show influencers exerting themselves with the support of the promoted product, in line with the Japanese appreciation of obviously shown ‘hard work’. Another example is the popularity of live shopping marketing (livestream e-commerce) in Japan. Japanese consumers like to take an especially detailed look at products with plenty of close-ups, so they can easily imagine what it would be like to use the product themselves. Live shopping lends itself perfectly to indulge in the need to see the smallest details slowly and up close.

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Influencer Agency in Japan

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In addition to cultural barriers, there is a huge language barrier as well. Many influencers don’t speak English, and even if they do, with a lot of communication in Japan you have to read between the lines. This alone makes many influencers in Japan reluctant to work with foreign companies. Many Japanese influencers would need to be extensively reassured of the image and intentions of the foreign company before even considering a collaboration.

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Does this make you want to give up on using influencers in Japan and missing out on potentially great results? Fret not, as working with a bilingual influencer agency in Japan will take away most, if not all, of the potential challenges mentioned before. An internationally-minded influencer agency will not only be able to translate language and culture, they also have a wealth of micro, mid-sized, and larger influencers on their books who are vetted and happy to work with foreign companies who are a good fit for their niches. They first consult with you about your ideas and marketing goals and then propose several influencers who would suit your campaign. Influencer agencies in Japan are also abreast of all the newest developments and understand how to bridge cultural gaps between foreign companies and Japanese audiences.

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