India has a tremendous potential to do business with Japan provided Indian exporters ensure quality products and win over the trust of the Japanese importers, internationally acclaimed motivational speaker Nupur Tewari said Friday while addressing an interactive session on ‘Doing Business with Japan – An Emerging Business Destination for Indians’ at Punjab State Chapter of PHDCCI.
Nupur, who hails from a village in West Bengal, had moved to Japan about two decades ago and apart from being a motivational speaker, she is also well-known for teaching yoga and meditation in Tokyo. Nupur is the founder of Heal Tokyo and also has the distinction of being an inner transformation and mindfulness coach.
Nupur is visiting various cities in India, hard selling the concept to do business with Japan which is focusing on outsourcing material from other countries.
Nupur said trust, loyalty and quality were the keywords to tap the Japanese market. “Once they (Japanese) trust you, it is like a permanent marriage. They take time to make decisions,” said Nupur, adding that the decisions are well-calculated and long-lasting.
“They (Japanese) had bad experiences in the past. We have to deliver what we promise. But the impression is that Indian exporters say that they will ensure compliance of quality parameters. But eventually, it does not happen. A bad impression about even a single product then has a cascading effect on the entire nation,” said Nupur, urging the select gathering of industrialists to “deliver” what is promised.
Talking about the work culture in Japan, Nupur said, the Japanese believed in growing together – as an individual, as a team, as an organisation and as a country. “We need to imbibe such values of growing together,” she said.
Nupur said, “The Japanese start teaching their kids right from the primary school level that we have to grow together. The same philosophy is replicated in the corporate world too.”
She also pointed out that Japanese industrialist firms had set up as many as 20,000 units in China as compared to a meagre 1,500 in India. “As far as the textile industry is concerned, Japan imports merely one percent of it from India. It is only because they want quality products.”
“We will have to ensure quality. We are new India, a new generation. We need to be brave and innovative. And they (Japanese) will never betray you. We need to grow as a nation,” said Nupur, adding that Indian businessmen need to project the nation beyond “curry, naan, elephants and cows on roads”.
She pointed out that there was huge potential to export automobile parts, ayurvedic products and several other items from India and the Indian exporters should explore what all they can provide to Japan. Nupur said that Japan had been recently focusing on Vietnam and Thailand to import various items and products.
“The Japanese are there to help you out. (Former Japan Prime Minister Shinzo) Abe (who was recently assassinated in Japan) had cordial ties with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The leaders took the relations between the two countries to a new level as if the two countries are brothers.
Nupur said both leaders stressed on ‘Strong India and Strong Japan’ to ‘change the world’.
She said Indian businessmen should also learn about the culture in Japan, as to how they behave in public and what protocols they follow while conducting themselves in public.
“They are spiritual in how they carry out themselves in public. They are very sober, speak in a very low tone and at the same time very professional when it comes to business,” said Nupur, adding that Japanese take pride in calling them ‘Nihonjin’, the Japanese word for a native.
Nupur said that tourism in Punjab has a massive potential since the Japanese celebrate nature and various seasons. However, Punjab needs to focus on its rivers which are known to attract tourists.
She was dismissive of a question by one of the panelists who sought to know if there could be any subsidies if some movie crews went to Japan for shooting. “There are no subsidies in Japan,” she said.
Nupur also said that unlike India where anyone who has acquaintances with the Chief Minister or a cabinet minister gets favours, Japan follows a policy of equality and there is no political interference in business decisions or otherwise.
Responding to a query during the interactive session, she asked PHDCCI to prepare a list of potential export items which she would take up with JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization), so as to obtain a detailed report about the export potential of such particular commodities in Japan.
