Hi there! ORANGE FOX K.K. was established because we had this project! Our advertiser was based in the U.S. but had local legal entity in Japan since nineteen-fifties. The industry landscape of the radio is quite different in Japan compared to the states regarding following points.
- I heard the radio is quite “niche media” in the U.S. and there are hundreds or thousands of the radio stations there while in Japan we don’t have so many. In JP, the radio is still “big media” (of course depends on which station we work with, but anyways..) and therefore strictly regulated by the government.
- Big station has very broad audience all over Japan. Thus, the small budget promotion does not work unless you work with small local station. Sizable budget is required for radio advertising.
- Some stations have special “designated broadcaster license” granted by the government. This license can actually protect them from getting acquired by big companies. In return, those designated broadcasters (Nippon Broadcasting, etc) can’t do deals with any foreign entities. They can do deal with only Japanese entities who has the corporate registry in Japan.
Requirements from Japan’s radio stations
Under that environment described above, it really depends on which station you work with. In case you want to advertise over “designated broadcasters” like Nippon Broadcasting or TBS Radio, you have to submit the local corporate registry document (need the presence or local legal entities) and need to go through their advertiser screening.
In case you work with non-designated broadcasters like “Tokyo FM”, there should be no such a strict screening process for the advertisers so the process should go smoother.