# Market T-shirts in Japan and China



## UrbanRenaissance (Mar 11, 2008)

wadup everybody on the forum.

Im from Jamaica and I need to reach the world with my T-shirts so i need marketing ideas. I thought of china and japan as main challenges and i also know those places love Jamaica and our culture.

I have designed a website which everybody knows is for reaching the global market however, countires like china and japan speak different langauges and i definately would not want to forget about them in promoting my clothing. What is the best way to reach such people and in other foreign countries ??

I have thought about putting a language converter on my site but i think i need more marketing options and ideas...


* Any ideas anyone??*


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## Jeepwidow (Feb 12, 2008)

Welcome to the forum! 

Keep in mind that China is still a *Communist *country-government tells them what to watch-see-hear. All foreign cartoons (Sponge Bob, Scooby Doo and Pokeman) are banned from China. 

So you are right about China being a challenge. Japanese seem a bit more tuned to the Western culture. For now I would suggest keeping the language you have on your site. English still seems the predominate language. And you can convert later.

Good Luck!


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## UrbanRenaissance (Mar 11, 2008)

thanks, i forgot that china was communist. for a fact though, i know that the japanese love our culture, they join our dancehall queen contests and even win, they are at parties, even in the ghetto, they love jamaica, weed and everything like that... so i want to reach them.

I'm generalizing here so no offense to any Japanese reading. 

its all about making money.* this could benefit a lot of people in this business and it seems no one has thought about this yet... if i'm wrong hit me up!!! *and remember i'm not only targeting japan, but other foreign countries outside the US and Canada, the UK. I'm targeting non-English speaking countries.

thanks for your comment jeepwidow, do you have any other ideas or does anybody else have any ideas?


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## MiNGLED (Aug 22, 2007)

You may have problems even getting your site seen in China as there are many sites blocked there, sometimes are no understandable reason. If you can get past that, then it shouldn't be too bad. As long as what you sell isn't offensive to the authorities than they are not to bothered (no Free Tibet T-shirts for example), for a communist country they are very keep on shopping.


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## UrbanRenaissance (Mar 11, 2008)

thanks for the info mingled. now Rachel, would it be a good idea to try and sell tees in China? how would i do that? and what type of stuff do they like? do they like stuff from Jamaica? and i definitely would also like to reach *Japan* as well. everyone has said China would be hard to reach but nothing about marketing in Japan. if anyone has knowledge on marketing for Japan, getting them to know about my clothing line please let me know.


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## Peace2TheRest (Feb 6, 2008)

I am not sure, but it seems like you would need to find an in country source to send some of your shirts to and trust that they would show them around for you. 
Maybe hire an english/japanese speaking sales rep for the japanese market to go around with sample a line sheet and try and wholesale you into stores.


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## UrbanRenaissance (Mar 11, 2008)

seems like some trouble for those countries. is there any way to do this on the internet?(maketing shirts into the Japanese market) kinda giving up so i think that is my last question...


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## Peace2TheRest (Feb 6, 2008)

Hey I am not quite sure.....if you figure it out be sure to let us know ok.


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## MiNGLED (Aug 22, 2007)

Seeing as relatively few Japanese speak English, you would need at least part of your site in Japanese. Foe any attempt to crack their market, you would at least need to know from someone who lives there what publications/websites to advertise in. I would guess it would be a good idea to cultivate a number of contacts over there, via the net, just to get an idea of what's a cool place to advertise in. These people need not be related to selling/marketing t-shirts but just people who live there. VibeJapan: Meet Japanese Friends is a site for Westerners to meet Japanese people while in Japan. May not be perfect but I'm sure it would be a good place to start. Good luck.


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