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    Can only large companies expand abroad?　This is a question often asked. →Answer！？.

    Akira Tsuchiya(en)
    Akira Tsuchiya(en)

    We are a company that supports the overseas expansion of various Japanese businesses, shops and products through franchise schemes. 2011: we started this business in 2011 and have around 260 shops in 28 countries. 2011: we are directly managed only in Singapore, which was the first expansion site when we initially started the business. Other than that, the business operates entirely through a franchise scheme.

    Overseas expansion boom?

    Recent news reports indicate that overseas orientation is becoming very strong. It could be called the second boom in overseas expansion, or a fire under the butt. Both large and small companies are going overseas. They are expanding overseas as if to relieve the frustration caused by the Corona disaster. There are various reasons for this. The decline in buying power due to the falling birthrate and ageing population, the shortage of workers, soaring labour costs, domestic inflation due to the weak yen, soaring raw material prices, soaring rents, soaring construction costs due to the wood shock etc., everything is going up, but what is not going up are salaries and the unit price of goods in the restaurant and retail industry. The air in the balloon is getting more and more expensive, but if you can't change the size of the balloon, it has to burst. Compared to a period of time, price increases on goods to match inflation have occurred, but they are still cheap in the eyes of the rest of the world.

    When we asked a variety of companies, large and small, to expand overseas around 2010, the answer was almost always ‘We can still do it in Japan! I can still do it in Japan!

    After 14-15 years, I wonder what the managers of those days are thinking 😁Even the first company we supported took more than a year to make a decision to expand. It took two years to open the restaurant. I guess it was partly because they were directly managed.

    Around 2011, I gave a lecture entitled ‘The era of Japanese going abroad to make a living’ 😁. I think the fact that virtual borders are disappearing and information from all over the world is coming in through SNS and other means is a big factor. With the internet alone, you have to be positive to get information, but with SNS, information comes in even if you are passive, because it is forced into your eyes.

    Thoughts on being asked to speak at FOODEX

    In 2019, when I was asked to speak at FOODEX, I thought: ‘Don't sell products, sell intellectual property!’ which was. The plan was based on the fact that the audience was mostly food manufacturers.

    Food manufacturers typically think: I want to sell my products abroad → exhibit at an overseas exhibition → connect with buyers → display in overseas retailers. This is a common way of doing this.

    Whenever I am overseas, I always think that the only food products people buy in that country are things they have eaten before, things they have always eaten. I don't think they would buy things they have never eaten before, such as miso or this and that peculiar to Japan. For example, if there were ingredients for Moroccan tajine and couscous in a Japanese supermarket, how many people would buy them? On New Year's Eve 2016, I was in Paris. In the crowded local supermarket MONOPRIX, it was the only empty shelf. Yes, soy sauce, sauce, shichimi, the so-called Japanese food shelf.

    Food is called food culture because it is connected to culture, and that connection cannot be ignored.

    So, for example, with miso, you don't sell miso, you commercialise it and develop it. Develop a miso ramen shop and sell miso. If you eat it and it tastes good, you will buy it.

    I want to sell automatic self-tailoring machines to beauty salons. Instead of selling the machine, create a nail salon and let people experience it, develop the business and create a mechanism to sell the machine as well.

    Change the way of thinking from product sales to business sales.

    Products, things and franchises

    Products are only things, they have a form, so no matter how much you explain them, you cannot go back to the stereotypes of the people you are selling to, which are based on visual perception. Businesses are koto. We felt it was necessary to convert things into kotos and sell them.

    Food manufacturer's conversion of things into kotos Nail machine sales company's conversion of things into kotos

    Selling all kinds of things by converting them into kotos. The same is true of IKEA. As you can see from their shops, they don't sell things, they sell furniture based on the image of a room (koto-isation).

    Franchising means selling intellectual property.

    What we are selling in the world is a thing. We think it is necessary to commercialise it in the form of a franchise, to turn it into intellectual property（IP) and to sell it.

    Some people think of IP as difficult. Patents, trademarks, tangible assets.

    It is simpler and can be called ‘know-how’ that has been built up in your company through past experience. Know-how that has been built up over a long period of work in the manufacturing sector, in the sales sector and in the administration department. This tacit knowledge tends to be latent within people and is often considered ordinary, but from an outsider's point of view, it can be amazing.

    The tacit knowledge that has been latent is made manifest and turned into formal knowledge, which is what franchise packaging is all about. And the production efficiency and reproducibility of the output generated by that IP is increased.

    Every company has it, that's what IP is.

    The answer to the title is no😊.

    Any company of any size can expand overseas. The miso ramen company mentioned earlier was also a company with only one shop in Japan at the time. Now we have two shops in Mongolia and one in Paris, all franchised. We are receiving offers from other EU countries in the future.

    Overseas expansion is risky for small and medium-sized enterprises and companies that are not strong enough, but if you use the franchise scheme and take the idea of having overseas franchisees develop the business, even a one-store company can expand overseas.

    When you sell goods, you sell them and that is the end. If you sell goods, you will continue to receive regular monthly fees (royalties) for your IP.

    What is your company's IP? What can you turn into a thing in your company?

    We would like to support your company's overseas expansion by considering these questions together with you.


    AssentiaHoldings Pte.Ltd.
    Assentia Holdings Inc. 
    CEO  Akira Tsuchiya
    Akira Tsuchiya(en)

    Akira Tsuchiya(en)

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    Our background In 1991, we started the business that was not yet found in Japan, or even in the world. That business was to become an agency who provides franchise store-development service. We came up with the idea to persuade companies to join a franchise as their new business; our target was not individuals, but the small and medium-sized enterprises who already established with their businesses. With that as a start, we managed to expand over 30 franchise brands including various restaurant brands i.e. Bakery Restaurant St.Marc(650 uint in Japan, BBQ “Gyu-kaku”(850 unit in Japan), Katsudon “Katsuya”(350 unit in Japan), Sushi delivery “Gin-no Sara”(730 unit in Japan), and from other hospitality business categories i.e. Second-hand automobile dealer “Gulliver”(450 unit in Japan), Second-hand golf club dealer “Golf Partner”(350 unit in Japan), Women’s fitness club “Curves” (2,000 unit in Japan as a master franchisor of the American brand), by selling new businesses to small to medium-sized enterprises in Japan. Number of the stores we successfully opened are over 8000 ! During this time, in 1996, Akira has established a company, Prime Link Co.Ltd., to start a business that we become franchisee ourselves to grow the business. In 2001, Prime Link Co, Ltd., became the very first franchise business company that is listed on the stock market(Nasdaq Japan). In 2006, Akira left Prime Link and started our company, Assentia Holdings, Inc. In 2010, Akira has established Assentia Holdings PTE. Ltd. in Singapore, and started the business to connect Japan and the world. During the last 5 years, our client’s franchise stores have spread in 19 countries（180 unit) in the world. Japanese food business and Japanese-style service are catching a great deal of attention from the world. Our work is spreading out from Asia to Oceania, Middle Eastern, Europe and North, Central and South America. Published a business book "Gain F&B franchise business opportunities in Asia"