The exclusive distribution rights in Japan that I get from overseas manufacturers have an acquisition cost of 0 yen.
When people hear this, they say, "It must cost money." It doesn't. You can get it for free. Moreover, you can even make the purchase quota zero.
I was told, "I want to buy that right I got for free for 60 million yen."
I had a talk with business influencer Mr. Kobayashi.
I'll be honest upfront. A right that is just a piece of paper is not worth a single yen.
Something you get for free has no price. That's obvious.
So, what was added to it? There are four reasons. I will write them all today.
I wrote this for:
- Those who want to start a new business but don't know where to begin.
- Advertising, marketing, and affiliate companies that have the power to sell but no in-house products.
- Business owners looking for their next pillar.
- Those who want to build a business that won't be replaced in the AI era.
This article is a write-up of a talk video with business influencer Mr. Kobayashi.
If you want to watch the video, click here ↓
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfp-aBi__3s
Premise: Rights can really be obtained for free
Before getting into the reasons, let's clear this up.
The right to sell exclusively in Japan can basically be obtained for free. And purchase quotas can often be set to zero.
Why? Because from the perspective of an overseas manufacturer, it's not worth a single yen unless someone sells it in Japan.
They are looking at only one thing:
"How much will you sell in Japan?"
If an unknown company from Sri Lanka contacted you and said, "This candle is the best, so we'll sell it with all our might. We'll even make a landing page in the local language."
Even if their Japanese is poor, wouldn't you let them try selling it for now?
Since you're not making them hold inventory, there's zero risk for the other party. If they sell a few thousand, you continue. That's all there is to it.
The entry ticket is being distributed for free.
Reason 1: Negotiated terms cannot be changed later
This is the biggest reason.
What you decide when taking the rights is not just signing a paper. It's wholesale price, lot size, and delivery time. These three things.
And these conditions cannot be moved later.
We make sure we can set the cost at 30% of the selling price. That's a 70% gross profit. We also bring the purchase quota close to zero.
From the buyer's perspective, this was decisive.
Even for the same product, a right that allows you to stock at 30% cost and a right at 50% cost are completely different assets.
The former continues to generate profit. The latter is thin. Even if the paper is the same, the value of the content is more than double.
The first hour of negotiation determines the price one year later.
Reason 2: There is a difference between having numbers and not having them
The second reason is actually generating sales in Japan.
There is an unbridgeable gap between "it should sell" and "it sold."
Here are the numbers for the brands we launched:
- Wine-related gadget: 15 million yen in the first month
- Ice maker for highballs: Approx. 20 million yen from two crowdfunding rounds
- Coffee maker: 17 million yen in the first month
- (Supported AI) gadget: 37 million yen in one week
The buyer is buying these numbers.
Even if just given the rights, the buyer has to verify for themselves "whether it will really sell in Japan." You can hand over the entire state where that verification is finished.
That's why it gets a price.
Reason 3: Customer lists do not need to be returned to the manufacturer
Thirdly. This is often overlooked, but it's the most effective in the long run.
The list of customers accumulated after selling is not the manufacturer's. It's yours. (Of course, it depends on the contract, but basically, the Japanese side bears the cost.)
Even if the contract ends, the list remains.
In other words, what you are handing over when transferring the rights is not just the right to buy the product. It's also the list of Japanese people who bought that product.
And from the buyer's perspective, you can sell the next product to this list.
If you bought the rights to coffee, you can sell beans and drip equipment to those customers. One right becomes the entrance to the next business.
Reason 4: Included the operational know-how
Fourth. Operational know-how.
Where to sell, when to run ads, how to set up crowdfunding, and how to design pre-sales.
The transfer includes a period where we accompany them in this way.
I'll be honest. It's not a story of just handing over a piece of paper for 60 million yen.
Because what the buyer wanted was the "state where it can be run from tomorrow," not the right itself.
In short, the right is the entrance, and from there it's a game of increasing asset value
When you line up these four, the structure becomes clear:
- Conditions (cannot be changed later)
- Results (verification is finished)
- Customer list (remains with you)
- Operations (can be run from tomorrow)
Only when these four are added does it get a price.
That's why I don't expect much from people who start just by hearing that "you can get it for free."
It's a fact that you can get it for free. But if it stays free, it stays worth zero yen.
The entry ticket is free. What you do inside is everything.
So, how do you get that entry ticket?
Now for the practical part.
Almost everyone tells me, "I can't do it because I can't speak English."
I'll answer with numbers. 95% of the people entering this business cannot speak English.
The member who launched the coffee maker with 17 million yen in the first month at my company couldn't do English or EC either. They negotiated from scratch.
What's needed is not English ability, but the power to sell and the power to build relationships. For translation alone, you can hire a cloud worker for about 3,000 yen. Sometimes I join the business negotiations as an interpreter.
English is not a barrier to entry.
What to choose? The answer lies with the consumer
It's not that "it sells because it's from overseas." The essence is product power.
There are two ways to find them:
1. Surround yourself with people who are unusually knowledgeable in that field
In the coffee market, there are people who are incredibly knowledgeable about overseas coffee goods. They tweet on X. Surround yourself with such people and keep yourself in a state where information always comes in. Layering AI verification on top of that, you won't miss much.
2. Look for products that Japanese people are buying even though they are "scared"
This is the strongest judgment.
For the AI gadget that sold 37 million yen in one week, there were people on X saying "this product is crazy" and buying it even before it landed in Japan.
It must be normally scary for Japanese consumers to directly buy an overseas product that no one is handling. It goes through an overseas card, and support is in English.
Even so, they buy it.
At that point, the proof of product power is finished.
It starts with 30,000 yen
After finding it, don't bet big right away.
First, run ads for just 30,000 yen. If the results look good, continue. If they're bad, stop and choose again.
This is decisively different from OEM (in-house brand manufacturing where you have a factory make it).
- OEM: You pay money before making it. You can't choose again.
- Overseas License: Choosing is free. You can choose the best one from countless candidates.
I'll do the math in front of you.
With OEM, development costs tens of millions of yen, and the period is half a year. During those six months, sales are zero.
With an overseas license, rights are 0 yen + test ads are 30,000 yen. Even if you miss, it's 30,000 yen.
In the same six months, the number of times you can try is completely different.
Why I started this
Let me tell a story from a while ago.
When I was a student, I was studying abroad in Germany. For a year, I didn't get a single credit and just went around drinking.
After that, I happened to have a chance to go to Mongolia.
There I met Mr. Asashoryu, and the moment I said, "I want to do some business in Mongolia," he said, "You're interesting," and we exchanged LINE. This isn't a boast; it just shows how little competition there is.
There are few Japanese people trying to do something overseas in the first place. That's why the competition is weak. It was a blue ocean.
At the time, tents were popular due to COVID, and when I consulted with a nearby resale CEO, he said this:
"There are people normally hitting 500 million or 1 billion with pre-sales for that."
"And they are all one-person CEOs."
From there, I sold Mongolian gers (nomadic tents) for about 20 million yen via pre-sales. Payment comes in before stocking.
That was 7 years ago. And the structure hasn't changed at all today.
Out of 100 companies that come, we discard 98
I'll be honest.
There are too many inquiries from overseas manufacturers.
Even if 100 companies come, because we have channels we concentrate on, we can only actually handle about 2.
We discard the remaining 98.
This has always been a waste. Sometimes the discarded ones flow to Japanese resellers or flippers.
In that case, it's better to partner with proper business operators.
People often ask, "Why do you provide support when you're doing it in-house?" but it's simply because we're getting a volume we can't process ourselves.
Even if Mitsubishi Corporation comes, the rights are here
Major trading companies don't deal with overseas companies that haven't sold a single yen in Japan.
It doesn't matter if they sell 100 billion locally. Because there's no track record in Japan. And the scale is too small for them to even notice.
In other words, we can sell for that 100 billion company first.
By the time a track record is established in Japan and the majors notice it's "interesting," we already hold the exclusive rights. They have no choice but to buy from us.
And from the overseas companies we've done favors for, referrals won't stop. It becomes a state of "if it's Japan, it's that guy."
In fact, I've been told without even looking, "I'll entrust you with 3 million first, so please do test marketing."
Goods, overseas networks, and concessions. These three will not be replaced by AI.
However, I'll also write about the time I almost died
In these 7 years, I've made many mistakes and almost died.
I once sold without looking at a sample and had to refund the full amount. It was about 20 million yen.
I also hit a scam-like company. There was a Chinese company that said, "I worked with Elon Musk," and it was something related to space, and honestly, it looked like it might sell a bit.
Accidents happen after you find the product.
- Check the sample so thoroughly it's like you're making holes in it.
- Check local reviews (Amazon, SNS).
- Check existing inventory and production lead times.
- Check import regulations.
If you can clear these, the risk becomes really low. What I'm handing over is a list of failures.
The content so far is what I talked about in the interview with Mr. Kobayashi.
The story about Mitsubishi Corporation can also be heard in his own voice from 15:22 in the video ↓
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfp-aBi__3s&t=922s
Where to look
In mid-October, large-scale exhibitions will be held in Hong Kong.
Among them are two major exhibitions I highly recommend and always go to. One has over 4,000 exhibition booths. The floor area exceeds 70,000 square meters.
I'll give you real numbers. The reply rate for negotiations is 10-20%. Only 2-3 out of 100 companies reach an exclusive contract. In other words, you need a list of 30-50 companies to secure one brand.
4,000 ÷ 50 = 80.
By simple calculation, a population of 80 brands is standing inside one building.
Moreover, all companies have brought samples. You can touch the actual items on the spot. The reason I refunded 20 million yen was that I skipped the sample check.
Costs are about the same as one trip. There are cases where subsidies and grants from local governments or support agencies can be used for overseas expansion and inspections.
Mid-October · Hong Kong
I will also accompany you. I will also do the interpreting for negotiations.
Translation alone can be outsourced cheaply, but interpreting for negotiations is not enough if you can just translate. Because they won't make judgments like "if you ask that now, the other party will pull back" or "you can push here."
And as I wrote at the beginning, wholesale price, lot size, and delivery time cannot be changed later.
This one hour determines the price one year later. Only here, I or a trusted partner will solidify it.
The limit is 10 companies. Since I will enter the interpretation for each company, I physically cannot see more than this.
Information
If you are interested in the exhibition, please send "Exhibition" to the official LINE.
I will send details for October (Hong Kong), how to move on the day, and participation conditions. The limit is 10 companies.
For other consultations, please send "Individual Consultation."
I will diagnose the overseas brands, categories, and countries that suit you and create a roadmap to generating sales. I will handle it directly. It's free.
Official LINE:
On the day I took the rights, that paper had zero yen of value.
Something you get for free has no price.
It got a price because I passed the conditions, created numbers, accumulated customers, and even had the way to run it.
The entry ticket is free. What you do inside is everything.
There are still infinite good products overseas. What's lacking is only the Japanese window.
Which overseas brand's "Japan representative" will you become?
Reference
- All Humanity 100 Million M&A Plan "If you're going to start a business, 'don't make products, take overseas sales rights' | Exclusive license business starting without development costs" (Talk with Mr. Kobayashi) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfp-aBi__3s
