Text100 shuts Japan office

Text100 opened in Japan in 1998 and services clients such as Kraft, Lenovo, Rakuten, NHN Line, Autodesk and Gartner.  

Anne Costello, regional director for Text100, attributed the decision to evolving client needs and high operational costs in Japan. “Our clients were asking for integrated communication services that cross earned, owned, paid and social channels, and we can meet these requirements in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, India and China but unfortunately, these could not be met under the current Japan structure.”

The closure is also part of Text100’s global strategy to invest more resources in growth markets India and China, Costello said.
 
The agency will work with partners in the market. “Japan is a very fragmented market characterized by specialist agencies,” Costello said. “We believe that partnering with select independent agencies will best suit the needs of our multinational clients.”

Text100 has picked Inoue Public Relations and J-Spin as its partners in the country. The company said it has communicated the changes to clients. While some of them will work with Inoue and J-Spin, others have decided to find new partners or take their communications in-house.