For example:
1. Book Off and Hard Off are owned by different companies
2. The North Face in Japan is different from The North Face in North America.
3. 7-11 used be owned by an American company and was later purchased by a Japanese company.
4. Nutella in Japan has different ingredients compared to Nutella in other countries.
Any others?
43 comments
Uniqlo and GU are owned by same company?!😂
Logitech could not use its brand in Japan because of a company with a similar name. Hence the Logicool branding.
> Book Off and Hard Off are owned by different companies
Then why do they sometimes share a space?
If you look carefully at the Kirin mascot (the stylised giraffe on the front of Kirin beer cans and other drinks) within the design you can see the katakana for Kirin: キリン.
Nutella adjusts its recipe in each market depending on the local breads or toasts. For instance Nutella in Germany is far more “liquid” than Nutella in France because Germans mostly eat rye bread. Try to eat French Nutella with rye bread and you’ll end up with a big mess.
Lots of things in Japan used to be produced or sold under license, such as Oreos and Burberry. At some point (usually after the parent has discovered that “Japan is so incredibly different” isn’t really true) the foreign partner takes over.
However, for the Japanese licensee, this can hurt, so what do they sometimes do? Start their own very similar brand or products! Hence there is Blue Label and Black Label, and stuff like Levain crackers. I’m sure there are more examples of this as well.
Disney America do not have any ownership stake in Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Sea.
The Oriental Land Company, which is in turn owned by Keisei Electric Railway Co., Ltd., Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd., Seibu, and several other Japanese corporations, just [licenses the Disney name](https://attractionsmagazine.com/owns-disney-parks-around-world/) for a couple of points of royalty fees.
Related to 7-11, Lawson’s actually began as a US-based store, came to Japan, failed in the US, flourished in Japan, and just recently returned to the US through shops opened in Hawai’i.
Toppan is a newspaper printing company and they have a side business make lithography masks from chip fabrication.
Nintendo still produces and sells Hanafuda, regular playing cards and Go sets.
If you bring up The North Face, it’s worth mentioning that Under Armour is also sold by a different company called Dome Corporation. While it’s reasonably priced in the US, it’s sold at a premium price in Japan IIRC.
It’s pretty common for companies to enter the market that way. They contract a local distributor to sell their products. Cheaper and less upfront cost before entering the market. Once their local sales is big enough, they oftentimes set up their own legal entity and finish the distributor agreement/buy out or spin off the distributor.
Mister Donut originally came from the US and was a competitor to Dunkin’ Donuts. Dunkin’ Donuts ended up acquiring Mister Donut and allowed the Mister Donut franchises in the US to convert to Dunkin’ Donuts.
Mister Donut was brought to Japan by the founder of Duskin (part of Mitsui conglomerate) and they adjusted the recipes and image to be more ‘high class’.
Apple pays a royalty to the Japanese company named アイホン.
Yahoo! Japan actually uses Google’s search engine technology.
Sony entertainment when moved their headquarters to California, they are no longer a Japanese company.
Geo and Second Street
Duskin – a large company specializing in industrial and residential cleaning plus air conditioning repair services with headquarters in Osaka derives it’s name from “dust” and ぞうきん (a cloth rag).
The founder wanted to originally name the company Zoukin but was persuaded to change his mind after a partner insisted that this name would be bad for the company’s image.
Most of the non-sugar tea and coffee brands sold in Japan are owned by Coca-Cola. I was actually surprised the first time i saw the logo on the bottle caps.
Many foreign foods made here have different ingredients. Cheetos are vastly different. I feel like Red Bull and Doritos are also different.
Japan’s HUNGRY TIGER restaurant chain ripped off the name “Hungry Tiger” from the [California restaurant chain](http://oldlarestaurants.com/the-hungry-tiger/). Now both the US and Japanese chains are failing and are down to a handful of sad, semi-abandoned outlets.
**Speaking of failing…**
Japan’s IHOP (International House of Pancakes) failed in early 2000’s only had one kind of pancakes on their menu much to chagrin to franchise owner [IHOP, based in Glendale, California](https://www.ihop.com/).
Taco Time (Japan) went bankrupt after 3.5 years in the business. Likewise, America’s Taco Bell has been failing to grow after entering the Japanese market in [2015](https://japantruly.com/taco-bell-japan-menu/%5D and it failed once before in the 1980s.
Actually, Japan is the graveyard crappy US franchisees like [Subway Japan](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190212005417/en/Failure-Case-Study-2019-Subway-Japan—Fast-Food-Chain-Losing-Traction-in-Japans-Competitive-Environment—ResearchAndMarkets.com) and franchise giants Burger King and Wendy’s had to leave Japan several times.
Lawson is from within 15 minutes of where I grew up, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. While they are decently known for their chip dip in the USA, it’s nowhere to be found in Japan.
Many international brands have different recipes in different markets. It’s becoming an issue in the EU, where some brands use different (cheaper) ingredients in the poorer east European member countries than in the western ones. It’ll probably end up in the EU court at some point.
Here’s one you can consistently win a bet about: no one will believe you when you tell them that the health supplement company DHC’s initials stand for *Daigaku Honyaku Sentā.* Bet the people that don’t believe you and then have them look at the Wikipedia entry. Drink all night for free.
Probably obvious and common knowledge, but the ‘Georgia’ brand is owned by Coca-cola. Georgia is where the company is from.
Denny’s is a different brand in Japan, owned by the same company as 7/11. They purchased the trademark rights as part of the partnership, but, after they joint venture split up, kept them.
Suzuki instruments and Suzuki motors are different companies. That should be a no brainer, but in Japan companies love being conglomerates
Canned coffee was supposedly invented by Coca Cola Japan (Georgia brand, named after the home state of Coke) and is said to generate twice more revenue than Coke in japan.
“Super Dry Japan” fashion brand is actually a UK company, and outsource all their design and manufacturing to some third party in Hong Kong / Shenzhen.
Any more information on the North Face. Why is it different and what’s is different about it? Different products or just licensed differently?
The brand [Chums Japan](https://www.chums.jp/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwhY-aBhCUARIsALNIC05Bv7Ikkgrts5BUuhcgfHqfqlgOjw7fJkCnqbp338-j1UnNeB2Kn9caAjq5EALw_wcB)it’s produces tons of super fun styles, accessories and other stuff for outdoor enthusiasts. The [Chums USA](https://chums.com/) is mostly known with river rafters to make tethers for sunglasses. I’ve grown to really love the brand because its from a tiny town in my home state and its kinda fun to see Hurricane, Utah represented all the way over here.
Mister Donuts tastes a magnitude better than in the US. No wonder that it is now run independently as a Japan-based enterprise.
Same for Asahi Craft Cola btw. Don’t bother getting Pepsi or Coca-Cola anymore.
Pokari Sweat was a drink that nobody liked – until they handed it out at a sports event. It just gets tasty when your body runs out of minerals while sweating a lot. Mitsui Cider also has a unique history and both aren’t very well-known outside Japan, but why?
Georgia Coffee is a Coca-Cola brand so-named because that’s where Cokes HQ is.
I don’t have any fun facts. I just want to say this is one of my favorite japanlife posts ever. It’s been fun reading all the comments.
Yogibo LLC in America is now owned by Yogibo Inc in Japan
ALSOK stands for “always security okay”.
“beruf” is a Japanese bag/apparel maker with Made in Japan products, despite the German name. “möbus“, which is also a popular brand in Japan known in particular for their bags/backpacks, is actually from Germany.
This is somewhat niche/nerdy information but I notice those brand when commuting and always wondered what’s what.
Toyota was originally a maker of weaving looms, and they continue to have a weaving division to this day.
Daihatsu is Japan’s oldest (still existing?) car brand. They are now owned by Toyota.
Edit: Sanyo was founded in 1947 by the brother-in-law of the founder of Panasonic. Panasonic bought out Sanyo in 2009, mostly to get their battery technology. Sanyo’s consumer electronic business was sold to Haier Group of China in 2012.
Marugame Seimen has more than 200 restaurants abroad, and in all of them I think the udon is always homemade.
Dr. Pepper labels in Japan say “Over 20 flavors” instead of “23 flavors”. Not sure why that marketing choice was made, but I would love to know! Is 23 a bad number? Did they have to remove an illegal artificial flavor or two? Different manufacturers?
Walmart attempted to enter into the Japanese market by buying a 6% stake in Seiyu in 2002, eventually taking it over completely in 2008 until they sold most of their ownership in 2020. You can sometimes see walmart branding (the sun circle logo thing) in their stores.
Pilot, the pen company all US middle schoolers are obsessed with (or at least everyone was at my school), is a Japanese company.
Also, notice 三井住友銀行 (Mitsui Sumitomo) is SMBC (Sumitomo Mutsui) in English. Supposedly, when the two previous banks merged (Sumitomo & Mitsui/Sakara), inversing a names so that each would appear first in at least one language was compromise/sign of respect. But idk might be a wive’s tale so if someone knows better chime in.
Bonus, not sure if it counts, but Takashi Hashiyama, president of Maspro Denkoh Corporation, an electronics company based outside of Nagoya, Japan, couldnt decide whether Christie’s or Sotheby’s should sell the company’s 20 million dollar art collection. So he made each rep rock paper scissor against each other with the winner getting the privilage to sell it. The podcast 99pi did an episode on it.
#3 is also true about Lawson
Mr. Donut, sells non-donut items as well
The founder of Wacoal (Koichi Tsukamoto) also founded Nippon Kaigai.
Nippon Foundation was founded by Ryōichi Sasakawa, which is a very questionable person (IMO)…