🇯🇵 Japan → CanadaCPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership)
Export to Canada from Japan, English sales representation & market entry
The CPTPP gives Japanese exporters preferential access to Canada. Japanese product quality is already trusted here; what is usually missing is a local commercial presence that can move at North American speed.
Replies within 24 hours. The number goes straight to me, not a switchboard.
The obstacle
What stops most exporters
Japanese head offices often require consensus before decisions, while Canadian buyers expect same-week responses. A local representative bridges that gap by holding the relationship while the internal process runs.
Trade agreement
CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership)
Agencies and chambers
- JETRO Toronto (Japan External Trade Organization)
- Canada: Japan Society / Japanese Chamber of Commerce
Engagements
How a market entry actually runs
Market Entry Sprint
90 days, First look at the Canadian / North American market
- Market and competitor assessment in your category
- Pricing, duty and landed-cost reality check
- Target account list with named decision-makers
- 20+ first conversations held in English on your behalf
- Written go / no-go recommendation for your board
Ongoing English Representation
Monthly retainer, Companies actively selling into North America
- Named English-speaking representative with Canadian phone and email
- Active B2B outside sales and account management
- Distributor and dealer management
- Quotation, order and logistics coordination
- Monthly written and video report to head office
Trade Show Representation
Per event, Exhibitors who cannot send a full team overseas
- Booth design, construction, install and teardown
- Pre-show appointment setting with buyers
- On-floor selling and demonstrations in English
- Qualified lead capture with structured notes
- Post-show follow-up sequence and debrief
Process
Step by step
1. Discovery call
One video call in plain, slow, clear English. Your product, your target buyer, your price, your capacity.
2. Market brief
A written brief covering realistic Canadian and North American demand, competitors, pricing and the fastest route to first revenue.
3. Representation agreement
A simple written scope: what I represent, in which territory, for how long, at what fee and against which targets.
4. Sell, ship, report
I work the market and send head office a clear monthly report: conversations held, quotes issued, orders won, obstacles hit.
Questions
Straight answers
Do we need a Canadian company to export from Japan?
No. Most Japanese exporters begin with representation only, you continue invoicing from Japan while I generate demand, hold customer relationships and coordinate delivery inside Canada.
What tariffs apply to Japanese goods entering Canada?
Japan trades with Canada under CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership). Duty treatment varies by HS code, so landed cost is confirmed with a customs broker during the market brief before you quote a Canadian buyer.
Can you attend Canadian trade shows on our behalf?
Yes. Booth design and construction, install and teardown, on-floor selling in English, qualified lead capture and a written post-show debrief, the standard route for Japanese exhibitors who cannot send a full team overseas.
How do you get paid?
Typically a monthly retainer plus performance commission, or a fixed fee per trade show or 90-day market entry sprint. Territory, scope, term, fee and targets are written down before work starts.
Further reading
Doing business in Canada, the 10 rules nobody writes down
The payment terms, customs habits and negotiating conventions that catch foreign suppliers out in their first year here. Free to read, nothing to sign up for.
Contact
Tell me what you are hiring for
- Call: +1 519 278 5085
- Email: tim@timarmstrong.ca
- Based: London & Southwestern Ontario, Ontario, America/Toronto (Eastern Time)
- Availability: Available nationally across Canada, on-site, hybrid or remote
- Serving: London, Stratford, Woodstock, Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, Guelph, Brantford, Sarnia, Chatham-Kent, Windsor, Toronto, Mississauga and Canada-wide
Replies within 24 hours. The number goes straight to me, not a switchboard.