Zhou Yang: Japan Is a 'Slow Market' But Fully Worth Long-Term Development

[Ebrun Original] On August 28, at the "2026 Brand Supply Chain Innovation Private Board Meeting and 'ZTO Cloud Warehouse Night' Brand Salon", Zhou Yang, Chairman and General Manager of Rakuten Cross-border E-commerce (China) Co., Ltd., delivered a speech titled "New Growth Path for Global Brands Entering the Japanese Market".

Zhou Yang noted that the operating rhythm of the Japanese market is relatively slow, but consumers have strong awareness of providing feedback and high brand loyalty. Once a brand builds consumer trust through products and services, it can often form more stable, long-term user relationships.

With the entry of new platforms such as TikTok, SHEIN and Temu into Japan, the market is still in the stage of collectively expanding the scale of e-commerce consumption. For Chinese brands, entering the Japanese market requires more than just listing products; they also need to build long-term operational capabilities in product positioning, store operation, local marketing, consumer communication and logistics fulfillment.

Rakuten connects with Japanese consumers through its platform scale, points ecosystem, and data and AI capabilities, and provides support for Chinese enterprises entering the Japanese market around growth, marketing, merchant incubation and other links.

This article is compiled based on the guest's on-site speech, with edits and deletions that do not alter the original meaning.

The following is the full speech:

Distinguished guests and leaders, good afternoon.

Thank you to ZTO Cloud Warehouse Technology and Ebrun for the invitation. It is a great honor to have the opportunity to share with you about the Japanese market and Rakuten Japan.

I went to Japan in 1996, and this year marks exactly 30 years since then. After joining the Rakuten Group in 2019, I have been focusing on one thing for the past seven years: helping Chinese enterprises expand overseas.

The Japanese market is often perceived as relatively slow, with many matters taking a long time to advance. But at the same time, Japan is also a market with very high consumer loyalty.

Today, I would like to share some of my observations and practices from the past seven years with all of you.

01

The Japanese market is slow, but it has long-term operational value

Chinese enterprises generally view the Japanese market in three different ways.

The first is to treat Japan as the home country, that is, the core market of the enterprise. From the establishment of the company, Japan is taken as the main target market, and products are developed and researched around Japanese consumers.

The second is to use Japan as a benchmark market to test product and brand capabilities. Japanese consumers have high requirements for products and services. If an enterprise can withstand the test of the Japanese market, it may have a better foundation when entering other countries and regions.

The third is to take Japan as a new option to diversify market risks against the backdrop of changes in the European and American market environment.

No matter which perspective enterprises consider from, Japan is an attractive market. This attractiveness is mainly reflected in three aspects.

First, Japan still has strong consumption power. Both average order value and consumption frequency have certain advantages. Some products sold for more than ten dollars in European and American markets may achieve higher selling prices in the Japanese market.

Second, Japan is a feedback-driven market.

Japanese consumers value product reviews. When they develop a good impression and affinity for a product, they are often willing to leave comments voluntarily. These comments appear not only on e-commerce platforms, but also on different social media.

The authentic feedback from consumers can help enterprises identify product problems, understand local needs, and drive continuous product innovation.

Third, Japanese consumers have high brand loyalty.

Once a brand builds awareness and trust in the minds of consumers, users usually do not switch brands easily. This also means that early-stage development in the Japanese market takes time, but once brand mindshare is established, enterprises may obtain more stable long-term returns.

Therefore, although Japan is a "slow market", it is fully worth long-term development.

In terms of market size, the scale of Japan's B2C e-commerce market in 2024 was approximately 26.1 trillion yen. According to the statistical caliber cited in this speech, Japan is the world's fourth largest e-commerce market.

Japan's overall e-commerce penetration rate is currently around 10%, leaving considerable room for development. The entry of platforms such as TikTok, SHEIN and Temu into Japan is also helping more consumers form online shopping habits.

We believe that Japan's e-commerce sector has not yet entered the stage of simply competing for existing market share, and different platforms can still work together to expand the overall market capacity.

In terms of categories, categories where Chinese enterprises have supply chain advantages, such as home appliances, household goods, and apparel, already have relatively high e-commerce penetration rates in Japan. These categories are also key markets where Rakuten has long operated and holds competitive advantages.

02

Rakuten's three core capabilities: platform scale, points ecosystem and data intelligence

Many Chinese consumers confuse Rakuten Japan with Lotte from South Korea. In fact, the English name of the South Korean conglomerate is Lotte, while the Japanese company is Rakuten. The two companies have no direct relationship in terms of founders, capital structure or other aspects.

Rakuten Japan was founded in 1997, starting initially as an online mall business. After nearly 30 years of development, Rakuten's business has expanded from e-commerce to finance, mobile communications and other fields, with operations in multiple countries and regions.

Rakuten's core capabilities and strategic layout can be summarized into three main aspects.

First, platform scale covering Japan's mainstream consumer groups.

Rakuten Ichiba has a large transaction scale in Japan, with a domestic gross merchandise value of approximately 6.3 trillion yen in 2025. Its market influence extends beyond the e-commerce sector, surpassing that of many offline supermarkets and department store channels.

If Chinese enterprises have sufficient resources, we recommend adopting a multi-platform layout in Japan; but if enterprises are just entering the Japanese market and temporarily lack the capacity to operate multiple platforms simultaneously, Rakuten can serve as an important starting point.

The platform's scale provides merchants with baseline traffic, allowing brands to connect with Japan's mainstream online consumer groups more quickly. But scale is just the starting point. Rakuten's real differentiated capability lies in the connection between different consumption scenarios.

Second, connecting more than 70 services through points and a unified ID.

Japanese consumers are very fond of points. Rakuten Points can be used not only across Rakuten Group's online and offline businesses, but also are deeply integrated into some offline supermarkets, convenience stores, restaurants, drugstores and other consumption scenarios.

Rakuten Points has been ranked first in customer satisfaction among point services in Japan for many consecutive years. Almost every user of Rakuten Group services uses Rakuten Points, with a penetration rate of 73%, meaning approximately 60% of Japanese consumers currently use Rakuten Points.

Rakuten currently operates more than 70 services covering e-commerce, insurance, credit cards, travel, mobile communications and other fields. Different businesses are interconnected through a unified Rakuten ID and points system, collectively forming the Rakuten Ecosystem.

Rakuten has accumulated more than 100 million member IDs in Japan. Consumers' behaviors across different scenarios such as shopping, finance, travel and communications can be connected through the unified ID to form a more complete user profile.

For merchants, the value of Rakuten Ichiba is not just adding another sales channel, but helping brands obtain traffic from more consumption scenarios, continuously understand and serve users, and gradually build long-term consumer relationships.

Third, supporting merchant operations with data, AI and mobile communications.

Rakuten AI is built on data. Businesses such as e-commerce, points, finance and mobile communications continuously generate consumer and merchant data, providing a foundation for the platform to understand user needs, optimize operations and support merchant operations.

Rakuten has been conducting practical exploration in AI commercial applications for many years. Currently, Rakuten has launched a variety of AI tools for merchants, covering scenarios such as product description generation, image processing, consumer inquiry response, comment reply and business data analysis.

These tools can not only reduce repetitive work, but also help merchants understand consumer feedback more quickly, optimize product information and improve operational efficiency.

Mobile communications is another important layout in Rakuten's data and service system. Currently, Rakuten Mobile has approximately 10 million users. Search, shopping and service behaviors generated by consumers through mobile devices can further supplement the platform's understanding of user needs.

Mobile communications also connects merchants' business terminals, allowing Rakuten to accumulate data from both consumers and merchants, and further serve e-commerce, finance and other businesses.

Therefore, Rakuten's three core capabilities are not isolated from each other: the platform scale is responsible for connecting consumers, the points and unified ID are responsible for integrating consumption scenarios, and data and AI further enhance the platform's ability to serve merchants and users.

These three capabilities together form the foundation for Rakuten to support brands in long-term operation in the Japanese market.

03

Chinese brands entering Japan need to shift from simply opening stores to sustainable operation

Rakuten Group's Chinese branch was first established in 2011, and the team responsible for platform merchant recruitment was formed in 2019.

In addition to introducing Japanese products into the Chinese market, we have been continuously promoting Chinese enterprises to enter Japan since 2019. Currently, Rakuten China has offices in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hangzhou, and will further strengthen the Hangzhou team in the future.

We mainly provide three types of services for Chinese enterprises entering the Japanese market.

First, helping enterprises understand and enter the Japanese market

After entering the Japanese market, Chinese brands first need to determine which products are suitable for local consumers, how to position their products, and how to connect with target groups through the platform.

We not only provide solutions for entering Rakuten Ichiba, but also participate in product selection, market connection and product positioning, helping enterprises find suitable operating methods for the Japanese market.

Second, helping enterprises carry out marketing and promotion to achieve growth

Many brands already have high recognition in the Chinese market and are top brands on platforms such as Tmall and Taobao. But after entering Japan, they may still be unfamiliar brands to local consumers.

Therefore, enterprises need to re-complete brand localization and consumer communication. With the different business scenarios covered by the Rakuten Ecosystem, brands can gain more opportunities to reach consumers.

Third, providing merchant incubation services.

Compared with some enterprises with strong e-commerce operation foundations, there are many production-oriented or industry-trade integrated enterprises in East China. They have advantages in products and supply chains, but are not yet familiar with the rules and operation methods of Japanese e-commerce platforms.

For such enterprises, we provide merchant incubation services to help them build up capabilities in platform operation, marketing promotion and local operation.

Currently, there are more than 1,000 overseas stores on Rakuten Ichiba, and the number continues to grow. Over the past year, we have also facilitated more direct communication between Rakuten's relevant teams and Chinese enterprises to understand the actual situation of Chinese brands.

Starting from 2026, Rakuten has further adjusted its entry criteria for Chinese merchants, and has successively launched official operation support, warehousing and logistics services, and projects such as Nations Global for seller ecosystem construction.

These measures aim to address several core problems faced by Chinese merchants when entering the Japanese market: how to successfully settle in, how to complete store operations, how to understand consumers, how to carry out local marketing, and how to improve cross-border fulfillment efficiency.

If enterprises want to enter the Japanese market, online channels can serve as a relatively efficient starting point. For enterprises that have just entered Japan or are just starting to layout online business, Rakuten hopes to help merchants form a more complete operational closed loop through its platform scale, points ecosystem, data and AI tools, and local service system.

Entering the Japanese market should not only aim at completing store opening. What is truly important is whether enterprises can understand local consumers, continuously optimize products, build brand trust, and form long-term operational capabilities.

This article was first published on the official website of Ebrun.