Japanese Influencers 101

Influencer marketing has been steadily gaining popularity in Japan since 2016, and expenditure is forecast to hit more than 70 billion yen in 2025. This is no wonder, because influencer marketing is one of the best ways to find your target audience in a new market. Marketing in Japan is traditionally a bit different from elsewhere, but influencer marketing can serve as an effective shortcut in getting your brand to the attention of the subset of the population who is most likely to become your customer. There are, however, several ways in which working with Japanese influencers differs from working with influencers elsewhere. Here are some of the most important points to keep in mind when engaging influencers in Japan.

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Why Use Influencer Marketing in Japan

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While spend on traditional advertising like TV ads, newspaper advertising, and outdoor promotion is still high in Japan, this type of marketing doesn’t work as well for smaller foreign companies who are still (relatively) unknown in Japan. Traditional advertising doesn’t target specific audiences as precisely as internet advertising does. Social media advertising is already much better at targeting certain demographics, but influencer marketing goes one step further with that precision targeting; followers of influencers follow them because of specific interests. 

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In fact, many people who follow influencers are low-key fans who have high levels of trust in their favorite influencers. They are likely to follow their recommendations and be interested in influencer-endorsed brands. With smaller influencersBecause of this, influencer marketing in Japan has an impressive ROI of $ 6,50 for every dollar spent. While famous large influencers like Naomi Watanabe and Rola have very large audiences with a wide reach, they are expensive to use and smaller foreign companies often do better with micro-influencers or mid-size influencers. Some important advantages of smaller influencers are high-grade precision targeting, a high level of trust, and a good cost-performance.

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How are Japanese Influencers Different?

There are a few areas where Japanese influencers require a different approach than elsewhere.

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• No emphasis on ‘showing off’: Japanese people are often stereotyped by other cultures as being shy. There is a bit of truth in it, as Japanese culture puts emphasis on group harmony and not trying to stand out as an individual. This trickles down to influencer marketing, which can be seen in the way influencers tend to depict themselves less conspicuously compared to influencers in many other countries
• Sensitivity to faux pas: also due to Japan’s collectivist culture is a heightened sensitivity to faux pas and a more careful approach in order to avoid them. If an influencer or a collaborating brand makes a misstep, even if it only seems like a small mistake in foreign eyes, the public tends to judge harshly because they don’t want to be associated with the person embarrassing themselves
• Design and style preference: the way products and services are marketed in Japan differs on certain points. For example, there is a great emphasis on safety and security, and the quality and details of a product or service matter a lot. These features need to be prominently shown in commercials targeting the Japanese market. It is especially important to look into current trends in influencer marketing in Japan when you are aiming for Japanese speakers in the domestic market
• The meaning of numbers: because the Japanese market is smaller compared to the English-speaking market, smaller numbers of followers still signify a comparatively larger percentage of the population reached. Furthermore, because people are dishing out likes, comments, and follows quite sparingly due to the cultural sensitivity to other people’s opinions, even a low number of likes, followers, or comments can be significant in determining a campaign’s success or influencers’ attractiveness to work with

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Reaching Out to Japanese Influencers

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The earlier mention of the importance of trust is a large component of the challenges many foreign companies face when reaching out to Japanese influencers. The lack of initial trust in unknown businesses is the number one reason why it can be hard to get in touch with and start up a collaboration with Japanese influencers. While keeping an untarnished image is important for influencers around the world, in Japan, this is paramount.

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Starting a collaboration with an unknown brand is always a risk, and Japanese influencers tend to do thorough research to make sure the brand is a good fit with their values and is unlikely to cause damage to their image. With a foreign brand, the risk is even greater because many influencers in Japan can’t do their research in English. This leads to many influencers not even looking into working with an unknown foreign brand.

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Collaborating with Japanese Influencers

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Thankfully, there is an easy way to get around the challenge of finding and getting Japanese influencers to work with you. Hiring a boutique influencer agency in Japan who is specialized in working with smaller foreign companies that want to enter the Japanese market can take away many barriers and help you maximize your results. It starts with finding potential influencers in the first place, which is difficult if you can’t search in Japanese and are unfamiliar with the latest trends in the Japanese social media landscape. Agencies have a portfolio of tried and trusted influencers and can find a good match for your company in their database.

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Once the collaboration has started, the agency can facilitate easy bilingual communication and give you pointers for content that is likely to work well for your (Japanese) audience. They can help you choose the optimal platform for your campaign whether that is Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, or Twitch. Moreover, they can advice on promotion formats such as live product launches, live streams, short videos, picture series. You will be supported every step of the way, and your investment is likely to pay off well.

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