Embrace Failure: The Real Secret to Business Success in Japan

English Jul 14, 2025

Don't worry, you'll fail eventually.

This message is for myself, and for all friends who have moved to Japan on a business manager visa.

Recently, many people have been discussing how it's becoming increasingly difficult to obtain initial approval for the business manager visa, renewals are getting stricter, and thresholds might be raised.

I haven't wanted to join the anxiety bandwagon, but as friends keep asking me about it, let me share my thoughts.

The Core of Business Manager Visa

No matter how policies and thresholds change, from when I first started writing on Xiaohongshu until now, the core requirements of the business manager visa haven't changed.

Run a business. Pay taxes. Both are indispensable.

Not running a business but only paying taxes. Or running a business but paying minimal taxes. In the past, immigration might have turned a blind eye.

Unfortunately, in recent years, Chinese applicants have thoroughly exploited this initially low-threshold visa, making tightening an inevitable trend.

So we must return to the core issues of the business manager visa:

Run a legitimate business.

Pay taxes honestly.

Stories of Failure

In the two-plus years I've been here, I've heard numerous cases:

Lost tens of millions on a minpaku (vacation rental) scam
Lost hundreds of thousands in 6 months running a Chinese restaurant
Fined hundreds of thousands for daigou (personal shopping service)
Lost everything on a franchise restaurant

Meanwhile, people constantly ask me questions from the other side:

Is it still viable to do Amazon business in 2025?
I've never run a coffee shop—can I open one in Japan?
I don't know what to do—can I start with daigou/social media?
What does your company do?

Honestly, these are questions I cannot answer.

What I can do, you might not be able to.

Similarly, what you can do, I might not be able to either.

Lean Startup and Error Tolerance

The concepts of "lean startup" and "error tolerance" that I've repeatedly mentioned in my previous articles are actually addressing these questions.

If you don't try something, you certainly won't fail.

But once you start, failure becomes possible—even probable.

Our coffee shop is entering its third year. We've failed with many products over the years, but so what? We've learned Japanese market preferences and customer pain points. We continue launching new products this year, raising prices, and our customer conversion rates keep improving.

I just opened an Amazon store three months ago. The first product I listed received the most effort and investment. But looking at the results, it's been the biggest failure among all products—not even selling as well as products I randomly selected.

From failed product selections, I can identify problems: Was the pricing too high? Were the images poor? Was the packaging inadequate? Product quality issues?

Since leaving a state-owned enterprise to start my business in 2014, over ten years have passed. I haven't seen a single company that never failed, nor a single person who made all correct decisions.