Asking the Wrong Questions Part 2: "Is This a Good Logo?"

Fujiyama, Geisha, Anime, & “Cool” Japan: How Japanese Businesses’ Reliance on Cultural Stereotypes Weakens Their Brands

Japanese logos designed for Japanese markets are often nuanced, creative, and highly effective.

Japanese graphic designers rank among the most talented in the world, producing work that reflects sophistication and originality.

But when Japanese companies create logos for products or brands to be sold in the U.S., the result often veers into embarrassing territory.

What we see are caricatures: ninja, kanji, sakura, and other overused "Gaijin love this" motifs, slapped together with outdated stereotypes by Japanese designers or agencies who have no genuine understanding of the American market.

The outcome? Logos that feel cheap and disconnected, a flat parody of Japan’s rich cultural identity, created by people who assume the U.S. audience views Japan as a monolith.

Worse, these logos frequently ignore their target demographic entirely, which is a common and baffling misstep for Japanese companies.

A National Obsession with External Perception

From my first visit to Japan as a teenager during Showa 64 / Heisei 1, I noticed how fixated Japan was on how other countries viewed it.

As an American, I found this novel.

In the U.S., we’re so oblivious to the “external gaze” that we rarely stop to consider how we’re perceived abroad, embarrassingly so and it's a real issue.

The juxtaposition to this is Japan, I remember watching news programs highlighting clips of foreign media talking about Japan—a constant reflection of the outside world’s perception, and thinking how constant the concern with how the outside world perceived and noticed them was.

In my decade or so living in Japan and my then nearly 20-year career working with Japanese corporations, it became clear: Japan’s image abroad is a national obsession. Or at least that they're being notice.

Because despite all this attention, there’s often a striking lack of understanding of ACTUAL perception.

For many Japanese businesses I’ve worked with—and even more so for the contractors they hire—this preoccupation with their image is paired with a glaring blind spot.

It’s a paradox: an intense focus on external perception, coupled with an inability to accurately gauge what foreign markets actually want or think.

A Historically Understandable Blind Spot

This obsession is rooted in history. Japan’s need to maintain sovereignty and fend off European colonialism made observing the external Western world a cultural imperative. The country’s success in navigating international politics since the 1600s(?) has relied heavily on observing and responding to outside influences.

But today, this instinct often manifests in ineffective ways.

The problem? Japanese companies often fail to identify and promote their real strengths. Instead, they lean on shallow stereotypes that appeal to no one.

And a big problem becomes that instead of building an individual brand here in the U.S., they’re overly reliant on “JAPANESE” being their entire brand and think that means something to consumers who have very little loyalty to anything or the weight behind that “brand” they think it has.

While Japanese skincare is arguably the best in the world, Korean skincare has dominated the American marketplace and made in-roads in ways the J-Beauty brands should have.

On top of that, take, for example, the massive success of Tatcha, a brand marketed as Japanese skincare in the U.S. While its branding leverages the allure of “traditional Japanese beauty secrets,” the brand itself was created by a Taiwanese-American entrepreneur and later acquired by Unilever. Tatcha isn’t Japanese at all—it’s smart marketing by someone who understands how to sell Japan to (generally White) Americans better than Japanese companies themselves.

The Good Logos vs. the Bad Ones

What makes a logo good?

If you’ve read my article about “good” photos, the same principles apply.

Let me share an example:

A client once brought us a glossy booklet with several proposed logos from a Japanese design agency. The agency’s portfolio looked solid. Their website appeared professional. They even had a few non-Japanese staff listed on their “About Us” page.

For a first-time business owner, they must have seemed like a reputable agency. The client had paid for mockups of several logos, and we could tell she loved them.

But from a professional perspective, the logos were disastrous.

Each one was worse than the next—cheesy, stereotypical designs more suited to a rural Kentucky sushi restaurant than a high-end women’s cosmetics shop.

Why?

Because the agency lacked a deep understanding of the target demographic and market. They relied on outdated tropes that didn’t resonate with the modern U.S. audience.

Hiring random non-Japanese staff to provide vague “Western” feedback doesn’t fix the problem.

Real expertise in branding and market demographics is essential, as is having a clear, authentic brand identity.

Understanding the Market—Or Failing to Do So

When it comes to selling in the U.S. market, a good number of Japanese companies suffer from identity issues.

They forget who they are, and who they aren't, and it turns into a mess of an identity crisis.

So let me help a little here and be blunt.

Who you’re not: Japan is not Korean brands with their deep understanding of how to capture the American youth market on a broad level. Popular American katsu chains? Mochi donuts just like from Mister Donuts? Korean-run. K-dramas, K-pop, Korean skincare? It could have been Japanese, but it’s not. They’ve taken the best of Japanese and Korean popular culture, Americanized it, priced it competitively, and sold it back to Americans as part of our cool youth culture. Japan assumed it had to be "Made in Japan" to sell like hotcakes, but we're as happy with Samsung as we are with Sony.

Much more if you consider our electronics market which you are no longer part of.

Who else you’re not: Japan is not China, able to change a product—or an entire production line—in a week, with the ability to pivot in a flash. Flexible, affordable, and not too proud to have zero branding, zero brand, just be a d-to-c product on some random platform and have that speed and affordability nobody else in the world can match.

Direct-to-consumer Chinese products flood Amazon and TikTok, often with limited branding and minimal customer support. They’re cheap versions of branded goods—or even more intriguing, products straight out of Chinese youth culture—adapted constantly based on reviews and feedback from American consumers who are tired of paying for brands and want to buy directly from the source.

So that’s who you aren’t, Japanese companies and products.

If you don’t know who your audience is or what they want—and many Japanese companies truly don’t—my advice is simple:

Know yourself: A fake identity designed to cater to an audience you don’t understand is the fastest path to failure.

If you can’t replicate the clever market positioning of Korean brands or the agile, low-cost strategies of Chinese brands, AND MOST OF YOU CAN'T, lean into your real strengths as Japanese companies.

Be a good Japanese brand, and do what you’d do to succeed in Japan:

• Showcase authenticity.
• Develop real brand advocates.
• Build a clear identity that highlights your genuine value.
• Be a valuable product or service.
• Be passionate about your business.

Stop trying to create a version of yourself tailored to Americans when you don’t actually understand us.

And stop trusting contractors or agencies who claim they do, but clearly don’t.

Because if your logo—or your brand—feels fake, it won’t just fail to connect. It will actively drive your audience away.

Does that answer your question about what I think about your logo?

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