The Business Times
business-time-50
Global Enterprise logo
BROUGHT TO YOU BYUOB logo

Breaking into Japan? Start with Facebook, not LinkedIn

Summarise
google-preferred-sourceAdd BT as a preferred source
    • In many countries, outreach, prospecting and even pitching can be done cold, digitally and at scale. But that’s rarely the case in Japan, where relationships lead the technology, not the other way around.
    • In many countries, outreach, prospecting and even pitching can be done cold, digitally and at scale. But that’s rarely the case in Japan, where relationships lead the technology, not the other way around. PHOTO: AFP

    Paul Ashton

    Published Sat, Jul 12, 2025 · 07:55 AM

    [SINGAPORE] If you’re planning to grow a business in Japan and you’re betting on LinkedIn, you might want to take a beat. Despite what global playbooks tell you, LinkedIn is still a niche platform in Japan.

    The numbers paint a stark picture: LinkedIn has roughly five million users in a country of over 125 million people – that’s just 4 per cent of the total population. A bit of quick and dirty arithmetic shows that even among Japan’s 16 to 65-year-olds, which consists of around 70 million people, LinkedIn only has a market penetration of 7 per cent.

    In comparison, LinkedIn has 260 million users in the US and nearly 350 million across Asia-Pacific. If Japan looks like an outlier here, that’s because it is.

    Decoding Asia newsletter: your guide to navigating Asia in a new global order. Sign up here to get Decoding Asia newsletter. Delivered to your inbox. Free.

    FacebookLinkedIn

    Share with us your feedback on BT's products and services

    Feedback

    TRENDING NOW

    UOB group chief financial officer Leong Yung Chee (left) and AllianzGI CEO Tobias Pross at the signing of the strategic distribution partnership.

    UOB to sell asset management arm to Allianz Global Investors for S$555 million, sharpen wealth advisory focus

    Grant Wee built Hideaway as a massage-and-bathhouse concept centred on solitude and recovery.

    UOB CEO’s youngest child Grant Wee turns burnout into a wellness business

    Out of the 18,000 fresh graduates, 9,100 have found employment and 5,400 are outside the labour force, mainly for voluntary reasons.

    1 in 5 fresh graduates from autonomous universities still seeking employment: MOM

    Yeoh Pei Xien is the youngest grandchild of Yeoh Tiong Lay, who founded Malaysian multinational conglomerate YTL Corporation.

    Yeoh Pei Xien: YTL’s third-gen scion with a pastor’s heart

    Latest T-bills Treasury Bills Results & Interest NewsLatest SSB Singapore Savings Bonds NewsLatest COE Certificate of Entitlement News
    Latest Johor-Singapore SEZ NewsLatest BTO Build To Order & Sales of Balance NewsLatest STI Straits Times Index NewsLatest SGX Dividends, Share Price NewsLatest Bonds Market NewsLatest Singapore Stocks To Buy NewsLatest Singapore Economy News
    View More