Lead nurturing is one important strategy out of a variety of important marketing strategies. When marketing in Japan, one option that many consider is the purchase of a list with information on possible leads.

You can’t buy a roster list in Japan?!

Personal information is protected by the Rules for the Act on the Protection of Personal Information, and therefore it is not possible to obtain information that can be used to identify an individual through the purchase of a roster list.^*1

The buying, selling, and use of personal information required through a purchased list is prohibited by law in Japan, and both sellers and purchasers can be punished by law.^*2 Basically, in order to disclose personal information to 3rd parties, consent is required. So, you cannot disclose the personal information of someone without their consent.

Furthermore, most people whose email address would be in said list do not want to receive emails from some company they did not know of beforehand.

Sending out emails to people whose information was required through unclear means can lead to the receiver questioning  the way you acquired their information and can leave a negative image of your company and your company can be marked as a sender of spam mail (hurting your brand image and IP address).

When email marketing in Japan, we recommend using an Opt-In address list instead of an Opt-Out list.

How does a company go about nurturing leads in the Japanese market?

If you are just establishing your business in Japan, we recommend starting with building awareness before going directly into lead awareness. You can find out more details in our blog here.

In the case of email marketing in Japan, you should send emails to those who are interested in your business and its services. The contents of the emails should include things like offers and information that would be useful to the receiver and build both interest and trust in your company.

Privacy Mark

In Japan, there is a certification called the Private Mark^*3 issued by JIPDEC. By having this certification, it means your company follows a set of strict rules regarding the handling of personal information and you are taking the necessaty means to protect it. Bigbeat received the Privacy Mark in 2008 and has been working on appropriate personal information protection and management since then. For more than 10 years, we have been managing and operating personal information for our clients. As a result, many clients who rely on us to handle personal information can do so with piece of mind.

*1 FAQ at Personal Information Protection Commission JAPAN (Japanese only) : https://www.ppc.go.jp/personalinfo/faq/kojin/#k3-2
*2 Laws relating to personal information protection (No.57, 2003) (Japanese only): https://www.ppc.go.jp/files/pdf/290530_personal_law.pdf
*3 The PrivacyMark system helps enterprises to improve their management systems of personal information protection by the reliable, transparent assessment. It is managed by JIPTEC. Please see more detail https://privacymark.org/.