What Japanese consumers
actually say — in English.
ORCA Labs reads what Japanese consumers post, review and complain about, then tells you what they want and how they talk about it. We do not tell you whether to enter Japan. We give you the material to decide.
Based in Tokyo. Read in Japanese, delivered in English, usually within three weeks.
Collecting data is the easy part.
The harder question we work on is what those voices actually mean.
Japan is a market where the published research rarely matches what people say to each other. Translation tools give you the words but not the register, the hesitation or the unspoken comparison to a domestic brand. ORCA Labs is a small lab that specialises in that reading.
About the company →How Japan talks right now.
An illustration of the kind of thing Japanese consumers say across categories. Our work is turning each of these into an interpretation you can act on.
Japan is harder to read
than the data suggests.
Machine translation loses the point
Japanese consumer writing is indirect. Complaints arrive as politeness and praise arrives as understatement. Translated verbatim, the sentiment reads flat and the real objection disappears.
Agency research is slow and expensive
A full-scope study in Japan takes months and costs millions of yen. By the time it lands, the shelf conversation has already moved.
Listening tools stop at the data
Social listening platforms will hand you Japanese-language volume charts. Turning those into a decision still needs someone who reads Japanese and understands your category.
We sell decisions,
not dashboards.
If you only need Japanese posts collected, a listening tool will do it. What we provide is the reading: what the voices mean and what you should do next.
Read the Japanese source
We work through Japanese social platforms and e-commerce reviews in the original language.
Interpret the subtext
Beyond sentiment and trend counts, we surface what Japanese consumers are actually asking for.
Write the hypotheses
Three to five strategic hypotheses your leadership can act on, in English, not a list of figures.
Set the next moves
What to do in the next 30, 60 and 90 days. You should be able to act the moment you finish reading.
Categories we cover
Any consumer category. You name it; we collect and interpret. Same three packs.
- Beauty
- Hair / oral / body
- Supplements
- OTC
- Baby & maternity
- Pet
- Packaged food
- Snacks
- Drinks
- Alcohol
- Restaurants
- Apparel
- Luxury
- Household
- Furniture
Four services.
① or ④ by scope.
Japan demand
check pack
- Pick one category from the list
- Standard sources, one interpreted pack
- Named SKUs or extra countries are ④
Custom collect
& analysis
- You name countries, sources, SKUs or titles
- We cut the dictionary before we read
- One interpreted pack. Quoted after a call
Japan competitor
monitoring
- Monthly or fortnightly movement hypotheses
- More than a volume dashboard
- A continuous read on how your brand is discussed in Japan
Japanese copy
and message assets
- Message hypotheses grounded in real Japanese phrasing
- Candidate wording in natural Japanese
- Available as an add-on to monitoring
Pricing
No setup fee. All reports delivered in English. Quoted and invoiced in USD.
| Service | Price | Term |
|---|---|---|
| ① Japan demand check pack (standard) | $7,500 | One-off |
| ④ Custom collect & analysis | From $12,000 | One-off |
| ② Monitoring — Light | $1,900 / mo | 3 months min. |
| ② Monitoring — Standard (most chosen) | $2,900 / mo | 3 months min. |
| ② Monitoring — Premium | $4,500 / mo | 3 months min. |
| ③ Japanese copy assets | $4,900, or +$900 / mo | One-off or add-on |
Subscriptions run for a minimum of three months, then cancel any time with one month’s notice. Prices are in USD and are held for 30 days from the quote. Japanese consumption tax treatment depends on where your company is established and is confirmed in writing before the first invoice.
Start with
a free sample report.
A short August 2026 read of public Amazon.co.jp and @cosme listings for sensitive-skin lotions in Japan — interpretation only, not a full review dump. Company, name and email only. No sales calls.
- What Japanese shoppers actually score: sting, scent, stickiness
- How Curel and Minon are described versus an import
- Five hypotheses, not a go / no-go
- Three checks you can run in 30 days
How this compares to the alternatives.
Between a research project that is too heavy and a listening tool nobody has time to operate, there is a readable strategic brief in English.
| Dimension | Large research firms | Social listening SaaS | ORCA Labs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Millions of yen per project | Monthly licence fee | $7,500 / from $12,000 one-off · $1,900–4,500 monthly |
| Output | Custom research report | Raw data and dashboards | A strategic brief written in English |
| Interpretation | Depends on the assigned analyst | None — you interpret it | Included, with recommended next moves |
| Entry decision | Sometimes included | None | We do not make it for you |
Frequently asked questions
Is custom collect a separate service from the demand check?
Where does the Japanese data come from?
What language are the reports written in?
What are the contract terms?
Can you sign an NDA?
How does invoicing work for a company outside Japan?
Do you also cover markets other than Japan?
About ORCA Labs
| Legal name | ORCA Labs Inc. (a wholly owned subsidiary of Provenance Inc.) |
|---|---|
| Representative | Hideaki Mori |
| Business | Operation of ORCA, a consumer insight database |
| Address | 6F Onarimon PREX, 6-14-3 Shimbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0004, Japan |
ORCA Labs collects consumer voices and turns them into a knowledge base that brands can act on. Rather than a research firm that starts looking once you commission a study, we maintain a continuously collected and continuously analysed insight database, so that an answer exists at the moment you need it.
For overseas brands, that means reading Japan properly: not the translated surface, but what consumers here are really asking for.
Start with a free sample.
Company, name and email only — about one minute. No sales calls.
Get the free sample report