Exporting is difficult since Japanese people are traditionally loyal to domestic products and competitiveness in price has decreased owing to the weakened Yen. However, their efforts to capture the mind of Japanese consumers come into effect by highly customized products and excellent performance.
Recently hood, food waste processor and bidet companies are successfully finding a niche market.
According to the industry, a hood manufacturer Haatz Inc has completed development of products customized to Japan and it is negotiating to supply the products directly to the dealers under its own brand name. The company broke from the convention to produce products for a large big Japanese construction company and simply provided its product on its own.
"Though Italian hoods are preferred, we noticed that Japanese people prefer Japanese products that are functional. Thus, we developed products for Japan which has a large fan but makes less noise, and it appeals to the dealers," said a Haatz official.
The company incorporated its business at the end of last year after 5 years in Japan.
Food waste processor company Loofenry Co., Ltd has made a contract with 4 Japanese companies to export 50,000 units of food waste processors for the home and 10,000 units for restaurants. As food waste recycling has become a law, the company strategically developed a product which is 50% cheaper than Japanese products. Product rental businesses are also dealing with local Japanese companies.
"The contract with Japan this time creates 70 billion won [US$75.8 million] a year. Loofenry's products will quickly replace Japanese products which are complicated and us much power," explained CEO Lee Hee-ja.
Novita has been exporting bidets to Toshiba Japan since 2003, and it forecasted that it would export 10,000 units a month, up to 150,000 units a year. The goal is a 25% increase from 120,000 units which is last year's sales.
"Novita OEM bidet is number one at Toshiba stores in terms of sales volume per model," said a Novita official.
