Helpful information

Japan Market Research

When conducting global market research, you always need to consider the "country specifics", and this is not any different for Japan. Below are some information which may be helpful for you when considering market research in Japan These are general information, thus if you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. (Note: Some information below are SSRI specific, and thus capability may differ depending on the company)

Duration of interviews:

In general, conducting interviews in Japanese take longer compared to when conducted in English due to cultural and grammatical differences. Especially for in-depths interviews, the interview time can last 10-15 minutes longer when conducted in Japanese. For this reason, we recommend the guide to be approximately 50 minutes in English in order to make the interview duration 60 minutes in Japanese.

In terms of online surveys, we generally limit the duration to within 30 minutes due to decreased cooperation rates and decreased quality of responses if any longer.

We also limit the duration of telephone interviews to within 30 minutes, as interviews over the telephone are not considered very polite in Japan.

Number of interviews/groups in studio:

In general, the doctors in Japan are only willing to come to the studios at evenings after their practice. Therefore, the maximum number of one-on-one interviews we can conduct in a studio a day is 3 doctors, or if 2 hour focus groups, 1 group a night. However, there are exceptions in which we can conduct more interviews/groups per day.

We can conduct more interviews/groups if we can include Saturdays
We can conduct more interviews/groups on Wednesdays and Thursdays if the target includes office-based physicians - Office-based physicians tend to take one of these days off.
If mini-groups or triads, and if the duration is within 90 minutes, we can conduct 2 groups per evening.

No "oncologists" in Japan

As noted in the Japan healthcare market information page, we have no "oncologists" in Japan and cancer is treated by physicians/surgeons specializing in the respective body parts. Thus for projects involving "oncologists", we will need to know the targeting cancer type in order for us to recommend the appropriate physician/surgeon types for Japan.

No "payors" in Japan

As noted in the Japan healthcare market information page, we have a universal health insurance system; therefore, we have no "payors" in Japan.

scroll top