Public relations in Japan: a primer; Making news work for you in Japan.

THE key to success in PR in Japan is to have a good story. If you do not have one, you need to create one. Either way, you need something to give to the media. Relationships with reporters--whether you are in Tokyo, New York, or Mumbai--will get you nowhere unless there is something in it for them.

I advise clients not to make too much of local culture or protocol. While culture matters, it is peripheral to knowing one's industry, target audience and media landscape.

All communications must be in Japanese, of course.

A top editor at a leading technology publication once said to me: "I'm not interested in your products.

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They're boring. They're like everyone else's. Tell me something interesting, like how your CEO would sell Internet software to the Japanese government." Now there's a story, if not a book.

PR in Japan

What's different about doing PR in Japan? Again, the Japanese media is not that different from the Western media. Reporters want news, not relationships.

If the Japanese media--especially the business press--is different, it is in its structure, which is monolithic and regimented. The numbers are incredible. The top five news dailies in Japan are read by close to 30 million people, out of a population of 127 million. This is a per capita readership of almost 25 percent, which is by far the largest in the world. Per capita readership of the top five dailies in the UK is less than one percent, and in the US, it is even smaller.

Among the business press, the Nikkei Shimbun, a business daily with 3 million readers, has the largest circulation of any business newspaper in the world. (By contrast, The Wall Street Journal has a readership of 2 million.) The Nikkei holds a virtually unassailable position as a purveyor of business news in Japan. Getting coverage in the Nikker requires good information, creativity and sound tactics.

Selecting an agency

There's no point paying for agencies with fancy glossies when all you need is a few write-ups. Make sure the agency has experience in your industry, less for media contracts than for industry knowledge. The agency should know the competitive dynamics of your industry--what's hot and where it's going. They should know your business. This is essential if they are going to tell stories about you.

Going global

Should global companies choose a global agency? I don't think an agency has to be "global" per se, though it certainly helps to have native Japanese speakers with global experience and strong English skills, especially if they need to access content that is in English, or if they need to work with visiting executives. Also, if you need to report the results of your PR back to a corporate office in English, then you should definitely go with an agency that has native English writers--and good ones at that. You do not want to have to personally edit reports you are paying a lot of money for.

If there is a chance you may expand your PR activities into other markets in Asia or elsewhere, then you probably should look into global agencies. You want your message to be consistent all over the world.

RELATED ARTICLE: WHY WORK IN PR?

YOU GET TO MEET many interesting people. Depending on the kind of PR you do, you interact with CEOs, political leaders, entertainers, community activists, brilliant engineers ... you name it. The range of people--not to mention the personalities--is incredible.

Also, it is a great job if you enjoy orchestrating big events or stories. This can be very, very stressful, but it is a great feeling to see all the different components come together in the end. If the coverage you generate ties directly into sales for your client, that's even better.

The right stuff

WHAT DOES IT TAKE to succeed in PR?

You need to be an excellent writer. Sales people talk, marketers write. If your communications are in Japanese, then you need to be a native Japanese speaker and writer. I have yet to meet a non-Japanese who can write professionally in Japanese.

Also, you have to be resourceful and have a positive "can do" approach. In the end, you are dealing with people, so you have to be very flexible. You can't freak out over every little thing. You have to have a sense of humor, too.

On one occasion, our CEO canceled his trip to Japan when we had the chairman of a huge Japanese company scheduled to appear with him onstage in front of 1,000 people. Our Japanese counterparts went ballistic. All we could do was apologize. We had to reschedule the entire event. But the event did happen, and it was a great success. You have to be a perpetual optimist.

Always on

WHAT KIND of people do we look for?

We seek people who are bilingual in Japanese and English, and preferably bicultural. We look for great writers. We look for people with a great sense of humor. Most importantly, though, we look for people who are "always on"--people who are always thinking of ways to do things better.

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Joseph Schmidt is managing director of Text 100 Japan, a global technology public relations consultancy. He has over 15 years of technology PR and marketing experience in the US and Japan, having worked with many leading multinational technology companies.