How to promote your crypto, ICO, IEO, DeFi project in Japan in 2021

The Japanese market is full of exciting possibilities. There is nothing surprising in the fact that blockchain startups from different parts of the world are attracted to this country and want to promote their products or services in it. However, there are many pitfalls in the way. Despite its huge potential, Japan is one of the most difficult markets in Asia. It is caused by conservatism and the domestic product lobby, which flourish here. The Japanese would rather invest in a local project than in a foreign one, albeit with the same product. The native product is always better in their perception by default. They will not rack their brain over the question of higher quality in such a competition.  

Almost all aspiring projects try hard to find their way to the market of the country. They know that the path is challenging but they agree to compete with local companies and global entrants. 

The token sales are illegal in Japan in case there are no special licenses for the activity. All projects and exchanges incorporated outside of the country, function as entities providing info about crypto projects. This is what you should do as well: deliver the information. It can concern the team developing the crypto project, your exceptional technology, the benefits of using your product and other features that grow your customer base organically. It is not allowed to advertise the token sale. When the person comes to the website, he discovers about it naturally. 

It is considered to think that the Japanese are workaholics. It seems so because they work slowly. As they are not very productive they have to spend more time at work. The same task is performed by a Chinese PR specialist faster than his Japanese colleague. 

Also, permission from the FSA regulator is required to start a promotion or PR campaign. Alternatively, the coin should be listed in a local exchange for that. How can the cryptocurrency be listed before token sale – is not quite clear. Japanese regulators seem not to care about it. 

Though cryptocurrency funds are rather wealthy in Japan, it’s better to negotiate with them at conferences in Hong Kong and Singapore and later close the deal by arriving in Tokyo. 

This is just meaningless to start working with Japan without local advisors. Even if you and your employees speak Japanese perfectly, it is more efficient to use the services of a local adviser. Problems will be solved easier in this case. 

If we look at the characteristics of the Japanese investor, we will see they are mostly male (90%). More than 40% of Japanese investors are 25-34 years old. More than 35% of investors fall to the age group 35-44 years old. 

It is absolutely necessary to know the audience well before you start the promotion crypto campaign. In Japan, the average user is a middle aged man who is not married and spends much time at work. This person likes anonymity and privacy. He uses Line and Twitter for crypto-related news. Being conservative, these people prefer to use cryptocurrencies from the top 10. 

The problem with the Japanese market is that they prefer to use their native language even if they speak English well and this creates a problem for foreign companies that came to a new market. It means that the website should have a version in a native language as well as a mobile app.  However, it is all different in the situation with a whitepaper. Even if you provide it in Japanese, the investor will read its English version. The reason for it is a big number of poor translations therefore they prefer to read English whitepaper at once. 

What is necessary for the promotion of the crypto project in Japan:

• Website
• One-pager including a whitepaper summary 
• Twitter (users prefer to speak Japanese)
• Telegram (a special channel should be created for the country)
• Discord in Japanese
• Newsletter in Japanese. Provided in English, it will be ignored. 

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