Understand Japanese Consumers
Discover how potential customers perceive your product, what appeals to them and what concerns they have.
Test Your Product
with Japanese
Consumers
Before You Launch.
See how people use it, understand what appeals to them and uncover the concerns that could prevent a purchase.
We get your products into relevant Japanese consumers’ hands, capture their experiences and turn their feedback into recommendations for a potential Japan launch.
Japanese families trying Gerber at home.
See how they use the products.
See the work in practiceRead the Gerber case studySee the videos, parent feedback and recommendations.No full Amazon launch requiredNo bulk inventory commitmentStart by learning from real Japanese consumers
What you receive
Japan Product Testing
& Consumer Insights
Hands-on product testing
How participants unpack, understand and use the product, with comparisons where relevant.
Consumer feedback
Recorded experiences, questionnaires and follow-up questions covering appeal, usability, value and purchase concerns.
Recommendations
What to adapt, how to present the product and what to investigate before investing further.
Additional opportunities
Suitable published content, audience reactions and potential creator relationships. Content reuse depends on agreed rights.
Start with your questionsWhat do you need to know
Discuss Your ProductWhat do you need to know
before selling in Japan?
Tell us about your product and your plans for Japan.
Why test first?
Entering Japan Is a Big Decision.
Testing Doesn't Have to Be.
“Understand how Japanese consumers respond before making those commitments.”
Japan offers opportunities for international brands, but launching into a new market involves significant investment and uncertainty.
Alongside inventory, localisation, advertising and ongoing management, a full launch can involve compliance testing, tax obligations, shipping and storage logistics, and customs clearance for large shipments.
Understand how Japanese consumers respond before making those commitments. Our product testing service gives you practical feedback from real people in Japan, helping you make more informed decisions about your next steps.
Identify Opportunities and Obstacles
Explore potential use cases, positioning opportunities, usability issues and barriers to purchase.
Make Better-Informed Decisions
Use real consumer feedback to help decide whether and how to take your product into the Japanese market.
How it works
From Your Product to Real
Japanese Consumer Feedback
Tell Us About Your Product
We agree who should test your product and what you need to learn. This might include positioning, instructions, pricing, pack sizes or what to offer Japanese customers first.
We Find Relevant Japanese Participants
We recruit people who fit your intended audience and already use similar products. Where suitable, we work with creators who can document their experience and share their thoughts publicly.
Your Products Are Tested in Japan
Participants try your product at home and record relevant parts of the experience: unpacking, first use, following instructions and, where applicable, comparisons with products they already use. Shipping and product requirements are assessed before testing.
We Gather Feedback and Report Our Findings
We review the videos and questionnaires, follow up with participants and recommend what to improve or investigate before launching.
Start with your questionsWhat do you need to know
Discuss Your ProductWhat do you need to know
before selling in Japan?
Tell us about your product and your plans for Japan.
What you'll learn
Discover What Japanese
Consumers Really Think
First Impressions
How do Japanese consumers respond when they first encounter your product?
Product Experience
What do people actually do when they unpack and use it? Where do they hesitate, misunderstand instructions or find a benefit?
Perceived Value
How do participants perceive the product's quality, benefits and value? What are their initial reactions to potential pricing?
Purchase Considerations
What would encourage someone to buy the product? What concerns or unanswered questions might prevent a purchase?
Positioning Opportunities
Which benefits, features and use cases resonate most strongly with participants?
Localisation Feedback
Are there aspects of the product, instructions, presentation or messaging that could be better adapted for Japanese consumers?
This is qualitative consumer research designed to identify useful insights and potential opportunities. It is not a statistically representative market study or a guarantee of commercial demand.
Simple international fulfilment
No Need to Commit
to a Full Japan Launch
For suitable product categories, testing can begin with a small number of products shipped individually to selected participants in Japan.
This can avoid the need to arrange bulk commercial inventory, Amazon listings or Japanese warehousing simply to conduct an initial product test.
Your brand→Selected participants
in Japan
in Japan
Start small.
Learn before you launch.
Rising Sun Commerce coordinates the research process while your brand supplies the products.
Product-specific shipping, customs and regulatory requirements are assessed before testing begins.
Learn how people respond to your product before making a major investment.
Start with your questionsWhat do you need to know
Discuss Your ProductWhat do you need to know
before selling in Japan?
Tell us about your product and your plans for Japan.
What you receive
What Your Product
Test Includes
You receive videos, questionnaire responses and our recommendations on what the findings mean for your Japan plans.
The report identifies changes to consider, questions to investigate and the evidence you still need before investing.
- Product testing with selected Japanese consumers or creators
- Recorded product experiences and structured questionnaires
- Follow-up questions or interviews on key findings
- Key positive reactions and objections
- Observations on first use, instructions and usability
- Potential positioning and messaging opportunities
- Prioritised recommendations for your Japan plans
Why recorded experiences matter
Watch how people
use your product.
Watch participants open and use your product, then hear them explain what worked and what was confusing. Their questionnaire responses add detail you can follow up on.
What makes sense immediately?
Observe first impressions, packaging and the questions people ask before they start.
What is easy or difficult to use?
See how they handle the product, follow instructions and encounter points of confusion or frustration.
How does it compare with what they use?
Where relevant, ask them to compare it with what they already use and explain which they would choose.
Useful beyond the initial test
Content and relationships
to build on in Japan.
Show the product in use.
Videos and photographs from the project can support future product pages, demonstrations and marketing. We agree content deliverables and usage rights in advance.
Find creators to work with again.
The project can help identify creators for focused demonstrations, specialist partnerships or longer-term sponsorships to build awareness. Follow-on work is scoped separately.
A programme built around your productWhat would you like
Discuss a Testing ProgrammeWhat would you like
participants to test?
We’ll discuss the audience, testing brief and scope.
Gerber / Japan
Parent feedback & product experiences
What Japanese parents
told us about Gerber.
An established American brand.
Understanding Japanese families’ needs.
The brand
Gerber is an American baby and toddler food brand with roots in Michigan dating to 1927. Feedback from Japanese parents helped identify how its products fitted local feeding routines and what could make buying easier.
The workDuring a Gerber product-gifting project, Japanese parents and their babies tried the products at home. We collected structured feedback alongside published videos, Instagram posts and blogs. Their audiences added further reactions and questions.
Why local feedback matters
What would help a Japanese parent choose Gerber?
In this project, parents described products their children enjoyed while also raising questions about information, value and everyday use.
Understand what’s inside.
Some participants wanted clearer Japanese ingredients, origin details and product information.
Fit family feeding routines.
Portion sizes, storage after opening and how products fit meals or snacks all gave Gerber points to investigate.
Make the value clear.
Positive experiences did not remove every price concern. Parents’ explanations helped identify what could make repeat buying difficult.
The feedback points to changes Gerber could test in its Japanese product pages, pack sizes and trial offers.
50+published pieces of content
48questionnaire submissions
43responses used in the charts
This larger project included 50+ published pieces of content and 48 questionnaire submissions. The charts below use 43 responses after removing repeats. We agree the scope of each new programme with the client.
From responses to insight
Would parents recommend it?
Would they buy it?
Parents could be happy to recommend Gerber while feeling less certain about buying it themselves. Their written answers help explain the gap.
01 / The overall picture43 responses
Recommendation & purchase interest
Average recorded score for each question
These are stated intentions after product testing, rather than measured purchases.
02 / Explore the responses43 responses
Behind the averages
Counts by recorded score. Switch between the two questions.
About the sample and chart calculations
The original questionnaire contains 48 submissions from August to October 2020. We removed four repeated submissions and conservatively excluded one anonymous probable repeat, leaving 43 responses for these charts. Where a named participant submitted repeatedly, the later record was retained. Including the anonymous probable repeat would give 44 records, with rounded averages of 7.5 for purchase interest and 8.7 for recommendation.
Questions: “How likely are you to purchase Gerber Organic in future?” and “Would you recommend Gerber Organic to a friend?” The export preserves numeric answers, but not the original scale anchors. Charts show recorded scores on a 0 to 10 axis; observed answers range from 4 to 10.
This is feedback from selected product recipients, including some existing Gerber users. It is not a representative sample of Japanese parents, a sales forecast or evidence of market-wide demand. Recommendations below are our present interpretation, not documented actions taken by Gerber.
| Recorded score | Purchase interest | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | 1 | 0 |
| 5 | 9 | 2 |
| 6 | 3 | 2 |
| 7 | 6 | 3 |
| 8 | 11 | 10 |
| 9 | 4 | 9 |
| 10 | 9 | 17 |
Source: Gerber parent questionnaire, August to October 2020.
In parents’ own words
What parents liked and what concerned them.
Selected parent feedback, translated from Japanese.
Product appeal
“Even my son, who is a picky eater, ate this well.”
Parent participant · translated from Japanese
Read original Japanese
好き嫌いの多い息子でも、これはよく食べた
Price barrier
“My concern is that the price is high for our household budget. I would like to buy it again, but the unit price is high.”
Parent participant · translated from Japanese
Read original Japanese
懸念点は我が家の生活水準には価格が高い（リピート買いしたいところですが単価が高い）
Portion size
“The pouch contains too much. At the weaning stage, it was disappointing that we could not finish it within 24 hours of opening.”
Parent participant · translated from Japanese
Read original Japanese
パウチの内容量が多い点。離乳期の食事量では、開封後24時間で食べきれない量なのが残念でした
Japanese information
“For Japanese consumers, Japanese labelling and ingredient information presented to Japanese standards would lower the barrier to buying.”
Parent participant · translated from Japanese
Read original Japanese
やはり、日本人向けなら日本語の表記と、日本基準での成分表示などの書き方があると、買う時のハードルが下がります。
Published experiences / Instagram
Gerber in Japanese
family life.
These Instagram posts and video screenshots show Japanese families trying Gerber pouches and snacks at home. Click any image to see the full Instagram screenshot and read more details.
Engagement figures shown were captured at the time of the screenshots.
Published product experiences
Feedback first.
Additional visibility is a bonus.
Selected participants can also share their experiences publicly, introducing products to their audiences and opening up another source of reactions and questions.
What the wider audience noticed
Across the Gerber creator videos, viewers commented on convenience, recognised the brand across channels and, in one case, described looking for somewhere to buy it.
Practical benefits
“Being able to serve it just by twisting the cap is such a help.”
Read original Japanese
キュップをひねるだけで食べれるって
凄く助かりますよね👍
Recognition across channels
“Oh, another baby channel featured Gerber too. Is it becoming popular?”
Read original Japanese
おっ、別の赤ちゃんチャンネルでもガーバーやってたから流行ってるのかな？ぴーちゃん美味しそうに食べるね😊
Stated buying intent
“I’m definitely going to try Gerber too! It was sold out on Amazon Japan, so I’ll try buying it on iHerb.”
Read original Japanese
ママの食べさせてるものいつも気になってたので、ガーバー絶対真似します✨💕日本のAmazonでは売り切れてたので💦iherbで買ってみます😍
Viewer comments translated from Japanese. These are audience reactions, separate from participant testing. The buying comment expresses an intention, not a verified purchase.
From evidence to Japan strategy
What could Gerber
do with these findings?
Parents described products their children enjoyed, but also raised concerns about price, portion sizes and Japanese information. Gerber could use these findings to test changes to its range, pricing and product pages.
Our recommendations based on the feedback. These are proposed next steps, not actions Gerber is reported to have taken.
01Improve information
Give parents the information they need to choose.
What we heard
Parents asked for clearer Japanese ingredients, origin details and product information.
What Gerber could do
Review Japanese listings, labels and instructions. Address verified gaps with accurate ingredients, age suitability and storage guidance.
How to check whether it helps
Check whether new parents can judge suitability and explain how to use the product after reading the revised information.
02Test the first offer
Make trying Gerber a smaller commitment.
What we heard
Some parents liked the food but found the price high; others hesitated to buy a multipack their child might not eat.
What Gerber could do
Test a small trial selection against the existing offer, with Japanese prices clearly stated and fulfilment costs accounted for.
How to check whether it helps
Compare first purchases, profit after fulfilment costs and subsequent full-price orders.
03Investigate portions
Find out whether pack sizes fit feeding routines.
What we heard
Several parents said pouches or snack containers were too large, inconvenient to carry or difficult to finish after opening.
What Gerber could do
Test available smaller formats and ask parents to record quantities used, leftovers and feeding occasions before commissioning new packaging.
How to check whether it helps
Check whether smaller packs reduce waste and can sell at a profitable price before changing the packaging.
04Test positioning
Give each product a clear place in family life.
What we heard
Portable pouches were valued. Some parents liked fruit combinations; others found sweet products less suited to rice-based meals.
What Gerber could do
Test messages and range presentation around specific occasions, such as snacks and outings. Keep fruit products distinct from savoury meal options.
How to check whether it helps
Compare which products parents choose for different occasions and feeding stages.
05Improve demonstrations
Show the benefits people actually notice.
What we heard
Parents praised ease of feeding; viewers specifically noticed portability and opening a pouch by twisting the cap.
What Gerber could do
Build Japanese demonstrations and product-page content around those practical uses. In further testing, capture first-use footage to identify unclear steps.
How to check whether it helps
Check whether new users understand the benefit and use the product as intended. Public edited footage alone cannot establish the full experience.
06Measure the next step
Help interested viewers find and buy the product.
What we heard
One viewer described looking for Gerber on Amazon Japan and intending to try iHerb after finding it unavailable.
What Gerber could do
Check product links and availability around publication. For a pre-launch test, a Japanese landing page and optional LINE signup could capture interest.
How to check whether it helps
Track visits and completed signups by source, then paid purchases when available. Treat signups as interest, not confirmed demand.
Where to start
- Address confirmed information gaps. Review the Japanese buying experience and the questions parents could not answer.
- Test the offer and positioning. Find out whether people will pay for a manageable first purchase, and which occasions give the products a clear role.
- Use the results to guide bigger commitments. Consider range or packaging investment once repeat behaviour and commercial viability support it.
What this gives a brand
A clearer plan for Japan: the benefits to lead with, the barriers to address and the changes to test before committing to new products, packaging or inventory.
The Gerber project also produced published videos and photographs and established relationships with parent creators. With suitable usage rights, selected content could support future sales pages. Creators whose work and audiences fit the brand could be approached for more focused demonstrations or longer-term partnerships.
Apply this to your productWhat would you like to learn
Discuss Your ProductWhat would you like to learn
before launching in Japan?
What would you change about your Japan plans after seeing how people use and respond to your product?
Discuss Your ProductBeyond product testing
Ready to Take the Next Step?
If you decide to launch, Rising Sun Commerce can help you sell on Amazon Japan and reach Japanese customers through creators and local media.
Amazon Japan
Launch & Management
From product listings and advertising to ongoing account management, we help international brands launch and grow sales on Amazon Japan.
Japanese Creator Marketing
& Brand Growth
Build awareness and trust through Japanese YouTube creators, specialist publications, independent content, websites and LINE.
About Rising Sun Commerce
Japan Expertise.
Practical Execution.
Rising Sun Commerce is a specialist agency helping international brands enter and grow in the Japanese market.
Supporting international brands in Japan
Our experience spans Amazon Japan, Japanese-language ecommerce, creator partnerships and local brand development.
We coordinate Japanese participants, review their feedback and help your team decide what to do next.
Your next step
Curious How Your Product
Would Perform in Japan?
You don't need to commit to a full market launch to start learning about Japanese consumers.
Tell us about your product and what you'd like to discover.
Discuss Your Product
Start a conversation with Rising Sun Commerce.