• - Marketing leads cannot be purchased in Japan.
• - Exhibitions provide valuable touchpoints with prospects who cannot be reached through online content.
• - Know When Budgets Are Allocated.
• - List of IT Exhibitions in Tokyo area.

Why are exhibitions one of the most important components of a B2B marketing strategy in Japan?
Simply put:

You cannot buy marketing leads in Japan.

Due to strict privacy and personal data protection laws, companies are not allowed to purchase or use personally identifiable information without explicit permission from the individual. This means that all leads used for marketing or sales outreach must be acquired through your own marketing efforts, with clear consent from the prospect.

In Japan, people attend exhibitions primarily to gather information—not to engage in immediate business discussions.
Their main purpose is to learn about products, solutions, and trends that may benefit their organization in the future.

Exhibitions create opportunities to connect with audiences who cannot be reached through online content alone.
They serve as a platform to build brand awareness and introduce your solutions, services, and company to potential customers in a tangible, face-to-face environment.

Why do companies choose to exhibit at events held between September and November?
Regardless of the season, exhibitions remain one of the most effective B2B marketing activities in Japan.
However, choosing to exhibit in autumn is often tied to specific strategic goals—especially in relation to the corporate planning cycle.

Understanding the Japanese approval workflow
To understand this timing, it is important to recognize how approval processes work in Japanese organizations.

When adopting a new system or service, Japanese companies often require agreement from all relevant stakeholders. The larger the organization, the more complex and time-consuming the approval process becomes. In many cases, it can take more than a year from proposal to final approval.

While some companies have long used workflow management systems, many others only adopted them in or after 2020. Even with these systems in place, approval still requires extensive internal alignment across multiple departments. As a result, the process remains complex, non-standardized, and often slow.

In Japan, approximately 75% of companies begin their fiscal year in April. Most annual budgets are submitted and finalized in January. Therefore, if a company plans to introduce a new system, service, or product, a draft proposal must usually be prepared before the budget request period begins.

So, Why Exhibit Between September and November?
As you may already have guessed, many prospective visitors attend exhibitions during September to November in order to collect information ahead of the next fiscal year’s budget planning. RX Japan, one of Japan’s largest IT exhibition organizers, highlights on its October event website that:

Exhibitors and visitors engage in concrete discussions leading to product and service sales, IT project consultations, quotations, and implementation planning.

In other words, exhibitions held during this period attract visitors who are not merely browsing — they are preparing for real purchasing decisions.

Let’s explore the exhibitions planned for next year — 2026.

• ■ Japan Marketing Week (RX Japan)
  • April 22 ~ 24 in Tokyo [Expected number:exhibitors 300, visitors 26,000
  • June 24 ~ 26 in Tokyo [Expected number: exhibitors 370, visitors 28,000]
  • October 7 ~ 9 in Tokyo [Expected number: exhibitors 150, visitors 11,000]
• ■ Factory Innovation Week (RX Japan)
  Since the scale of this event is larger in the Kansai region, we will also add information about events outside of Tokyo to the list.
  • May 13 ~ 15 in Osaka [Expected number: exhibitors 700, visitors 42,000]
  • September 9 ~ 11 in Makuhari, Chiba [Expected number: exhibitors 380, visitors 28,000]
  • November 25 ~ 27 in Nagoya, Aichi [Expected number: exhibitors 620, visitors 34,000]
• ■ Japan IT Week / Japan DX Week (RX Japan)
  • April 8 ~ 10 in Tokyo [Expected number: exhibitors 1,100, visitors 60,000]
  • October 21 ~ 23 in Makuhari, Chiba [Expected number: exhibitors 700, visitors 31,000]
• ■ Next Tech Week (RX Japan)
  • April 15 ~ 17 in Tokyo *The number of exhibitors and visitors at this event is not disclosed.
• ■ Smart faxtory Japan
  Coming soon
• ■ Security Show (Nikkei)
  • March 3 ~ 6 in Tokyo [Expected number: visitors 35,000]

This post is a refreshed and updated edition of our earlier article titled:
“Why exhibit at an exhibition held from September to November? What kind of exhibition is it?”