Starting a business in Japan – Small is beautiful

Hi everyone,

I know that I have sent this blog to nowheresville from my long absence. I do, like all bloggers have some form of excuse. Since I last blogged extensively, I have changed jobs and am now working on what could be the  beginnings of a new business with a friend. The business is a foreign language used bookstore, called Mondo Books (問答書店 in Japanese) and we are located on Otsu-dori (大津通り), a busy street in Nagoya’s Osu neighborhood.

So far as I can tell, we are the only business of our type in the region. That said, it doesn’t guarantee our success. There is the small fact of getting the word out… which is complicated by the fact that we are starting in the middle of the summer holidays, a time when many foreign residents (our target customers) are on vacation elsewhere in the world.

We are lucky enough to have found a central yet cheapish location on Otsu-dori, one of the main shopping streets in the area. Unfortunately, our store is not directly facing the street, and we have to fight for pedestrians’ attention with nothing more than a few sidewalk signs.

It is  “trial shop” though, and the rent is cheap enough to get us started. I will try and fill you in on the continuing developments. Or why not come by, say “hi”  and I can tell you about them in person?

Until next time….