Is management still unclear about the decision that must be made?
There may be interest in Japan, but the decision, evidence required, timing or decision owner has not yet been clearly defined.
Validate. Align. Execute.
Entering Japan requires more than information.
It requires evidence management can trust, a coherent business case Japanese stakeholders can understand, and clear ownership of what happens next.
Yasui Consulting helps overseas SMEs and international project teams turn a defined Japan initiative into a decision-ready and execution-ready project through senior, bilingual, Japan-side coordination.
Founder-led in Osaka. Directly accountable. Supporting projects across Japan.
Senior-ledDirect involvement by Ichiro Yasui
EN-JP coordinationManagement communication across borders
IndependentClear scope and direct accountability
Japan-side executionFrom decision preparation to controlled early execution
Recognising the real problem
Is your Japan initiative facing one of these gaps?
Are critical assumptions still untested in Japan?
Customer, channel, partner, localisation or operating assumptions may not yet have been examined against Japan-side realities.
Are headquarters, qualified specialists and local stakeholders progressing separately?
Legal, tax, banking, recruitment, commercial and operational workstreams may be moving without one person connecting the dependencies and management decisions.
Do you need senior Japan-side leadership before appointing a permanent local executive?
The project may require experienced local ownership now, even though the company is not yet ready to appoint a full-time Country Manager or Japan leadership team.
When these gaps remain unresolved, meetings may take place and specialists may complete individual tasks—but the project itself may still fail to reach a credible decision or controlled next phase.
Why I built Yasui Consulting
The gap I repeatedly saw
Across corporate, professional-services and cross-border assignments, I repeatedly saw capable companies lose momentum—not because they lacked ambition, information or specialist expertise, but because no one connected the management decision, local evidence, business documents, specialists, stakeholders and next actions into one accountable process.
A market report alone does not create a decision. An introduction alone does not create a business relationship. Company formation alone does not create an operating business. And a series of meetings does not create execution unless responsibility, evidence and follow-through remain connected.
Breaking limiting cycles.
I built Yasui Consulting to help people and organisations break those limiting cycles—the recurring patterns of unclear decisions, fragmented responsibility and stalled follow-through that prevent cross-border initiatives from moving forward.
I work directly with management to clarify what must be decided, organise the Japan-side work, connect the people involved and maintain visibility over what happens next.
Many specialists address one part of a Japan project.
Yasui Consulting helps management connect the parts that determine whether the project can actually move forward.
“A Japan meeting is not the outcome. The outcome is a credible project that management can understand, evaluate and act on.”
Ichiro Yasui
Founder, Yasui Consulting
Osaka, Japan
Services
From a defined decision to controlled early execution
A client may engage Yasui Consulting for one clearly defined stage or for an agreed sequence of work. Each engagement is senior-led, time-limited and scoped around a specific management decision or execution objective.
Japan Entry Decision Review
Clarify whether, where and how the company should proceed.
Review the management decision, critical assumptions, available evidence, dependencies and major risks.
- Decision criteria and evidence requirements
- Review of critical Japan-side assumptions
- Issue, dependency and risk mapping
- Defined validation priorities
- Proceed, revise, defer, stop—or define what must be validated next
Japan-Ready Business and Operating Preparation
Build a coherent case that Japanese stakeholders can understand and evaluate.
Prepare consistent Japan-facing business and operating information before approaching banks, professional specialists, partners or institutions.
- Company or project briefs
- Business and operating explanations
- Funding and payment-flow explanations where relevant
- Stakeholder Q&A and meeting materials
- Responsibility and decision-rights records
Focused Japan-Side Validation and Targeted Engagement
Test selected assumptions before management commits further time or capital.
Use structured desk research, source comparison, target identification and limited outreach where agreed.
- Market, competitor, channel and stakeholder research
- Target criteria, longlist development and shortlisting
- Partner and stakeholder mapping
- Limited outreach by email, LinkedIn or telephone where agreed
- Meeting preparation, EN-JP support and management conclusions
Initial Execution and Operational Readiness
Connect the critical workstreams required to move from approval to operation.
Coordinate selected establishment and implementation workstreams before handover to the client’s permanent Japan organisation.
- Integrated project planning and management reporting
- Company-establishment and banking preparation
- Coordination with qualified professionals and local service providers
- Office, people, vendor and internal-control readiness
- Documented handover and transition support
Scope and specialist support. Where specialist interviews, technical assessments or sector-specific research are required, suitable external specialists may be proposed, subject to client approval, availability, confidentiality requirements and separate fees. Third-party participation and commercial outcomes cannot be guaranteed.
Experience that supports judgement
Ichiro Yasui
Nearly four decades of cross-border business, project, client-leadership and hands-on operating experience.
My experience spans international technology and ODA projects, support for Japanese companies entering and expanding in Vietnam, overseas companies entering Japan, import-export operations, partner development, strategic-client management, complex risk matters and EN-JP project coordination.
This experience helps management recognise where a cross-border project may lose momentum, what must be clarified and what must be connected before the project can move forward credibly.
Professional services
Deloitte, PwC and Aon
Deloitte, PwC and Aon
Management education
MBA, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
MBA, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Regional experience
Japan, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe
Japan, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe
Delivery
Senior EN-JP coordination, documents, meetings and management reporting
Senior EN-JP coordination, documents, meetings and management reporting
Responsibility in complex, real-world situations
Experience beyond market-entry theory
International technology and ODA
Responsible for overseas solar-energy projects
At SANYO, I was responsible for the proposal and implementation of a solar-powered air-conditioning system in Thailand.
I was also responsible for a Japan ODA project in Senegal involving a solar-powered seawater-pumping and desalination system, including proposal development, negotiation support and contract support.
Japanese companies in Vietnam
Entry information and establishment guidance
At Deloitte, I was responsible for KYC and fact-finding interviews with Japanese companies entering or operating in Vietnam, providing general information on accounting and tax requirements, and explaining the methods, procedures and practical steps involved in establishing a company.
Specialist accounting and tax opinions remained with appropriately qualified professionals.
Strategic client and risk leadership
Business development, client recovery and complex risk matters
At Aon, I was responsible for business development and the management of strategically important Japanese corporate clients in Vietnam.
I won new business, protected major client relationships and recovered a strategically important client that regional and local leadership had regarded as unlikely to return.
My work also covered major factory expansions, large equipment and machinery, corporate insurance requirements, and responses to accidents, fires and natural disasters.
Major infrastructure risk
Comprehensive insurance responsibility
Under the guidance of Aon’s Asia regional director, I was responsible for the comprehensive insurance programme supporting a major urban railway construction and systems-delivery project in Vietnam.
Public details are intentionally limited because of confidentiality obligations.
Selected market-entry assignments
Evidence of execution and professional judgement
Australia to Japan
Supported an Australian activated-carbon company’s Japan market-development activities through exhibition interpreting and Japan-facing materials, and led direct post-exhibition follow-up with prospective Japanese customers.
Japan to Vietnam
Led a Japanese supplement company’s Vietnam market-entry initiative, including import-export preparation, partner identification, marketing and sales initiatives, and commercial-contract coordination.
Vietnam to Japan
Held overall responsibility for a Vietnamese fruit company’s Japan-side import, marketing, sales and business-development activities, including collaboration with a major Japanese produce wholesaler and completion of a test import.
Japan Entry Decision Discipline
Asked to assume a Country Director role if an overseas company proceeded with its planned Japan entry. Before accepting, I requested clearer business and operating assumptions. The resulting management review led the company to defer entry and strengthen its core business first.
Clear qualification before detailed work begins
How the engagement works
Tell me what management needs to decide or unblock.
Confirm the business issue, timing, authority and whether I am the right person to help.
Agree the objective, outputs, responsibilities, limits, timing and fees.
Execute the agreed work and close with a recommendation, handover or defined next phase.
Complimentary 20-minute discussion. The discussion is limited to fit and possible scope. It does not include research, document review, introductions, written advice or regulated professional services.
Practical insights
Japan market entry and execution
Operational credibility
Can the company explain how its Japan business will actually operate?
Read the insight →Documentation as infrastructure
How consistent information connects strategy, professional specialists, banks, partners and execution.
Read the insight →Integrated ownership
Who connects the work when several specialists and stakeholders are involved?
Read the insight →A candid first conversation
Is your Japan initiative ready for a decision—or caught between strategy and execution?
Tell me what management needs to decide, where progress is blocked and the timing involved. I will respond personally and tell you candidly whether Yasui Consulting is the right fit and what a focused engagement could cover.
Initial enquiry
Tell me what management needs to decide or unblock.
The form provides enough context to assess whether a focused discussion may be useful. I respond personally.
LinkedIn
Ichiro Yasui
Submitting an enquiry does not create a consulting engagement.