Sell in Japan — without a Japanese entity.

Yes. Fujiya Trade acts as the importer of record and the domestic seller in Japan, so you do not need a Japanese subsidiary, branch office or local warehouse. We are the legal counterparty for transactions, invoicing, tax and customer service inside Japan.

To distribute cosmetics in Japan, a domestic company holding a cosmetics manufacturing/marketing-authorization licence must take legal responsibility as the marketing authorization holder. Fujiya Trade holds that licence, so we can carry out PMD Act ingredient checks, produce Japanese labelling and clear customs under our own name. You do not need to obtain a Japanese licence yourself.

A foreign entity can sometimes register directly, but the practical barriers are significant: a Japanese bank account, Japanese-language customer service, a domestic returns address and the disclosures required by the Act on Specified Commercial Transactions. With Fujiya Trade as the Japanese seller of record, store setup, product pages, inventory integration, advertising and customer support are all handled in Japanese.

It depends on the model. Under a wholesale buyout there is no cost to you — it is built into our purchase price. Under a sales agency agreement we combine a monthly fee with a performance fee on sales, quoted per project. One-off trade show support starts at ¥250,000 excluding tax. The initial market assessment is free.

It depends on the category and on licensing, but 2–3 months from the first conversation to the first shipment is a realistic benchmark. Regulated categories such as cosmetics and food take longer because of ingredient review and Japanese labelling, so we recommend planning for 4–6 months.

Yes. Fujiya Trade has a network of 1,000+ retail stores and around 300 sellers in Japan, and we make buyer proposals to variety stores, drugstores and lifestyle retailers. We also handle full-service exhibiting at Japanese trade shows, in-store fixtures and POP materials, and crowdfunding campaigns that create buzz before the shelf conversation.

Yes. We operate our own commerce-focused advertising agency. We run in-marketplace advertising such as Amazon Ads and Rakuten RPP alongside Google Ads, Meta (Instagram and Facebook), TikTok, LINE and Yahoo! Japan. The person running it is a practitioner who grew beauty commerce to ¥12 billion in annual sales, so everything is designed backwards from ROAS.

Cosmetics and beauty, food and beverage, alcoholic drinks, household and lifestyle goods, gifts and small appliances. Cosmetics is a particular strength because we hold the Japanese marketing-authorization licence and operate our own K-beauty B2B platform, COSTRE. We do not handle pharmaceuticals or medical devices.

Japanese, English, Korean and Chinese (Traditional and Simplified). Contracts are drawn up bilingually — Japanese/English, Japanese/Korean or Japanese/Chinese.

No. Both the sales agency and wholesale buyout models start without exclusivity. Many partners move to a long-term exclusive distributorship only after the Japanese numbers prove themselves. We recommend starting small, looking at the data, and deciding afterwards.

Two things: the strictness of quality and labelling standards, and the fact that Japanese buyers judge your supply capability before they judge your product. Reliable lead times, a defect-handling process, Japanese-language documentation and a clear returns flow. Overseas brands that lack these four rarely make it onto a shelf, no matter how good the product is. Fujiya Trade supplies exactly that layer on the Japanese side.

Send us your product information through the contact form — category, intended price point and your track record at home. We will run a free initial assessment of competitors, price points, channel fit and regulatory feasibility in Japan, and tell you honestly whether entry makes sense. If it does not, we will tell you why.