Thought Leadership

International - The key to successful PR in Japan is knowing PR

Contrary to conventional wisdom, knowledge of Japanese media protocol or business culture plays a small part in successful public relations in Japan. While the Japanese media is certainly different from press in other mature economies, it is different primarily in its structure. While the Japanese media (especially the business press) tend to be more monolithic and regimented than their Western counterparts, and communication with reporters must be in Japanese, news bureaus are generally open, independent, and fair.

For Western PR people, therefore, although knowledge of local protocol matters, it is peripheral to knowing one's industry, target audience, and media landscape. Global firms should communicate clearly in Japanese and focus on benefits. They should localize their messages, but without diluting their global positioning. They should feel free to work with editors to create news. At the end of the news day, it's their story that will drive coverage, not their diplomatic skills.

There's the Nikkei and there's the Nikkei
Compared to Western markets, the Japanese media are highly monolithic and centralized in structure. In Japan, the top five news dailies are read by close to 30 million people out of a population of 127 million. This is a per capita readership of almost 25 percent, which is by far the largest in the world. Per capita readership of the top five dailies in the UK, for example, is less than one percent; the United States' readership is even smaller.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun ("The Nikkei"), a business daily with three million readers, has the largest circulation of any business daily in the world (The Wall Street Journal is read by two million people). The Nikkei, along with a few other business titles, holds a virtually unassailable position as the purveyor of business news in Japan. They are rarely challenged by upstarts. Even the top-tier technology press is dominated by a few titles--and they are all Nikkei group publications! Needless to say, all Nikkei publications are also available online.

Because so much PR activity is focused on the top-tier press, capturing coverage in these publications can be a challenge. Placing stories in the Nikkei publications requires fresh information, creativity, and sound tactics. In terms of quality of reporting, the Nikkei publications are on equal footing with The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and among technology trades, Information Week. Nikkei reporters are generally sharp and discriminating. They represent the elite of the Japanese business media. An interview with the Nikkei does not always result in coverage.

Penetrating the second- and third-tier business and trade media is not as challenging. While younger and more enterprising reporters will fight for news, they often are relegated to being trend followers, not setters. They simply cannot compete. Such a dynamic surely exists in the West, but to a much lesser degree. Pay for play is still common at the lower tiers of media in Japan.

The scoop on scoops
On the surface, media relations can appear highly personalized in Japan. Reporters usually appreciate face-to-face meetings over phone interviews. While this is often attributed to Japanese culture, which is said to value more formal, personalized relationships, it is also true that reporters like to meet in person simply because they can--most of them work in Tokyo.

More importantly, reporters like to meet in person because they want original stories, and often photos. If they want follow-up information, however, they will accept it via e-mail, phone, or fax. Leaks are accepted via email, phone, fax--or paper napkins. Reporters around the world live for scoops. Japanese reporters are no different.

PR people can also pitch stories to Japanese editors. While editorial calendars are usually unavailable, this doesn't mean editors don't want to hear from PR people. They do, especially if they have news. Japanese editors, like editors in New York or London, want stories all to themselves, whether a case study with a branded customer or an interview with a high-profile CEO. Neither Japanese editors nor their publishers want to read their stories in competitive publications.

Finally, a word about press clubs in Japan. Much has been written in English about press clubs in Japan, perhaps because many of them are closed to Western reporters. Press clubs are essentially an office where reporters following certain sectors are stationed. Press clubs were initially designed to provide timely and equitable distribution of information. They still serve this function and thus can be of value to reporters and PR people alike. That said, many Japanese media people would claim that press clubs in Japan are an antiquated institution. In the age of online news, press clubs are perhaps known more for their secondhand smoke than a place to get firsthand information.

Use Japanese
If there are any barriers to foreign firms conducting PR in Japan, it is the Japanese language. News must be provided to the media in Japanese. Ninety-nine percent of business communication in Japan is conducted in Japanese. While elite Japanese correspondents based in New York or Silicon Valley may welcome news in English, the vast majority of Japanese reporters would prefer to get news in their native tongue. An English-language press release or phone call is more likely to generate a headache than a headline.

Never hesitate to pay a premium for a first-class interpreter or translator. After all, it is your message and reputation that are at stake.

Foreign PR organizations can succeed in Japan if they have a good story and they tell it in clear Japanese. They need to know their industry, target audience, and media landscape. In short, they need to know PR. While the Japanese media are more regimented than other first-world media, there are few cultural barriers that get in the way of foreigners working effectively with the press in Japan.

Nationalist rhetoric--common among Japanese and Westerners alike--claiming that Japan is "unique" and that one must do things "the Japanese way" to succeed is simply not true, at least in PR. Protocol will not make reporters' careers. Stories will.

For more information, contact Tomoko Akizawa in Text 100's Tokyo office.