'About Japan' webinar series 272: First Meetings and Sales - Building Trust and Presenting Your Business

Why do first meetings with Japanese companies so often go well, and then go nowhere?

A first meeting with a Japanese company is rarely lost in the room. It is lost in the preparation, in the documents that circulate afterwards, and in the weeks of silence that follow, while the decision is built without you. The Europeans who get to a second meeting prepare differently: they send the right people, they write for the reader who was not in the room, and they keep a steady presence between meetings instead of waiting for an answer. This session shows how that is done, with real European cases.

The webinar covers five things in fifty minutes. First, preparing the first meeting: who you send, what goes ahead of you, and what the first call is for. Second, how much etiquette really matters, and the few forms that do: the business card, the seating, the timing of gifts and meals. Third, presenting your proposal so it survives inside the buyer's organisation: the reader it must convince is usually not in the room. Fourth, nemawashi in practice: how agreement is built between meetings, and the contact rhythm that keeps you part of it. Fifth, reading the room: what the silence, the nodding and the polite yes actually mean, and the signals that tell you where you stand.

The webinar is targeted to EU founders, sales leaders and marketing managers preparing a first meeting with a Japanese counterpart, following up after one, or wondering why a promising contact went quiet. This is the second of three sessions: entry, then first meetings and sales, then negotiation and long-term partnership. Attendees leave with a preparation list for their next first meeting and a follow-up rhythm they can start the same week.

In 50 minutes from your desk, discover:

- What to prepare, send and ask before a first meeting in Japan.
- Which etiquette matters, and which worries you can drop.
- How to build a proposal that works when you are not in the room.
- How agreement really forms between meetings, and how to stay part of it.
- How to read silence, nodding and the polite yes.

Programme:

• Introduction
• Expert’s presentation
• Q&A Session

Registration deadline: 12/10/2026

Speaker: Patric Sawada / Head of Growth / Silkdrive

Patric Sawada is the founder of Silkdrive, a cross-cultural growth marketing agency in Amsterdam, that helps European companies enter and grow across markets in Europe and East Asia. Silkdrive provides international digital growth marketing, cross-cultural insights and training for market entry into Japan and doing business with Japanese partners.
He now has eleven years of international marketing experience, with over fifty clients in more than thirty industries across Europe and East Asia.
 

Moderator: Sofia Smerzi, Business Support Coordinator, EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation

Organiser: EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation - Brussels Office

Deliverables 

Coming soon...