Japan’s Top Ten Powerhouse Brands (and How They Got There) (2024)

If you want to be big in Japan, an essential step in your market research should be learning from the most successful Japanese brands. There are all sorts ofbrightlenses forexaminingthe worth and status ofcompaniesout there.

Lists of the Most Successful Japanese Brands

Several lists reveal the dominance ofJapanese car giant Toyota,whichranked tenth onFortune’s 2019Global 500 based onreach,economic wellbeing, andsheer brandclout.FortunealsonamedToyotaone of the world’s mostadmired brands at #30,andin January 2020 astheglobe’stop automaker for the sixth year running.

Meanwhile, anewlymintedBrandZreporton Japan—fromthe world’s leading data, insights and consulting companyKantar, part ofWPP—pegsToyota as the country’s premier brand.So does branding behemoth Interbrandin itsglobalranking.

Interbrand’sglobal list, by the way,is heavy on the traditional manufacturing side—four carmakers, threeproduct-focusedconglomerateswith a heavy accent on electronicsand a clothing manufacturer, along with a game company and a bank.Japanese brands clearly maintain their powerful appeal abroad asfabricators.

JapaneseGlobalTop Brands(Interbrand)

1. Toyota
2. Honda
3. Nissan
4. Canon
5. Sony
6. MUFG
7. Panasonic
8. Uniqlo
9. Nintendo
10. Subaru

A totally different takeon what makes a successful Japanese brand

Interbrand also offers a domestic take on Japan’s top ten,and the results arestarkly different from the global rankings:nobrandsin commonanda focuson services,telecomsandfood and bev.(Oddly enough, Toyotaisnowhere to be foundamongthe forty firmsidentified.)

JapaneseDomesticTop Brands (Interbrand)

1. NTT DoCoMo
2. SoftBank
3. au
4. Recruit
5. Rakuten
6. Suntory
7. Asahi
8. Kirin
9. Nissin
10. JAL

Japanese consumers are a toughcrowd

Japanese consumers aredemanding, sophisticated andrisk-averse as we have found during our over 20 years of working with them.If they don’t trust you, they won’t buy from you.According to the2019 Edelman Trust Barometer, only 44 percent of Japanese trust in businessin theoverallsense, but 69 percent trust local brands—and that’s up 9 percent from 2018.They alsolikebrandsthatareestablished, respectable and popular—in short,witha solid pedigree. Our best advice on how you can become such a trusted brand in Japanis in this piece.

That said, they don’t mind a bit of market disruption, whichboth Apple and Starbucks didin upending the table in the consumer electronics and coffeeindustries, respectively. If rule 1 of market entry in Japan is gain trust, rule 2 of the book is use your differences to your advantage and re-set the agenda in your industry, like Apple, Starbucks and some other players did in Japan. Again, take a look atour rule book on market entry in Japan.

The successful players have done it in ways that continue to intrigue local consumers—with powerful,novel featuresand functionson iPhones and other gadgets, for example, and redefining the idea of what a coffee shop should be and incorporating local flavors into their drinks.

So whatelsedo you have to do toestablish yourselfintheJapanese market? Here are a fewclues based on some of the above brands.

Toyota

The BrandZ report says that consumers love Toyota for having a clear sense of purpose, being innovative, and the brand experience it offers. In addition to exhibiting old school continuous improvementandmanufacturing excellence,the carmaker has an obsession with reducing waste and inefficiency,asthis storyreveals.Toyota’slonghistory and stability are also much admired, which is part of rule 1, build trust.

Then there are the future-orientedinvestmentsToyota is makingin hybrid vehicles like the Prius anditsrecent$500 millionbeton Uber. The latter includes addingself-driving Toyota Sienna ridesharing vehicles to Uber’s ridesharing network, which will shore up sales in a weakening domestic market.Toyota is also collaborating with Honda and SoftBank on autonomous driving research.Collaboration is a promising avenue, and it’s significant that large players like these are linking up.

Nintendo

According to the BrandZ report, Nintendoearned respectforitsperseverance and resilience,introducingthe massively popular Switch consoledespite pressure fromthe surge inmobile gaming andaftera less than stellar Wii U launch.The inventive, immersive worlds the company creates have earned it generations of dedicated fans.Japanese consumers also view Nintendo as a brand that shakes things up.While most people probably assume the company is rather new because of its focus on game entertainment, it’s been around since 1889.A long history, real or fake, lets Japanese consumers make the leap to giving you a try.

SoftBank

SoftBankand founder Masayoshi Son areadmired for being bold,resilientand resolutely future-oriented.The company lost tens of billions in the dot.com debacle in 2000butsoared back up with a prescient investment inChina’s e-commerce firmAlibaba, andcontinues to back variousstartupsthrough its Vision Fund, including Uber, Slack, and DoorDash. The latestventureis a billion-dollar tie-up with Toyota and DENSO on Uber to push the development and deployment of automated ridesharing services.SoftBank’s avowed universal mission: “Use the information revolution to make people happy.”

Big Brand Energy:Panasonic,Sony,and Honda

Holistic brand building that goes beyond specs and facts and gets into storytelling israther new to Japan, butthese firms had the advantage oflarger-than-lifepersonalities at the helm.Panasonic’sorigin story, for example,includes founder Konosuke Matsush*ta making and selling light bulb sockets from a rented house.His manydown-to-earthbooks on business philosophy endeared this business icon to generations of working people and executives alike.That affection still resonates.

Founded in a bombed-out Tokyo department store after World War II, Sony and its cofounders, Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka, turned “Made in Japan” from a term of derision to praise internationally.The company isstill admired for the sheer power of its innovation and marketing.

Honda and found Soichiro Honda bolstered their story of two- and four-wheeled glory by supporting Indy and Formula 1 racing.Now the company hasturned a sharp corner by getting into robotics, mobility, aircraftand renewable energy.Like Panasonic and Sony, Honda has reinvented itself on the fly, which earns the companygreat respect.

One more thingto learn from Japan’s most successful brands

Just for fun, let’s flip the lens. What do workers think of the companies they work for?According to a2019 poll by Openworkto find outwhich firmsin Japanhave the happiestworkers, Suntory ranked seventh, gettinghigh marks for salary satisfaction, employee respect, and employee motivation.

In the 2020 list,however,Suntory had slipped to twelfth, and seven ofthe top tenfirmswere foreign, included Google,Prudential Life,the Boston Consulting Group and Cisco Systems.They’re valued for traits such as respecting individuality and ideas, a cooperative environment, and ease of working for women.That’s promising news for non-Japanese companies andthe workplace is increasingly important according to our latest research in 2019.

So lay the proper groundwork. Pay attention tolocal sentiment. Offer products, services,and experiences thatare different yet still geared for Japanese tastes. And if you can find a local partner with a stellar reputation—like Disney did with Oriental Landwhen creating Tokyo Disneyland—consider astrategicalliance.