Hobonichi Co., Ltd.

Kyosuke Takeshita

Q. Please tell us about your company's business, especially your business overseas.

Our company mainly sells planner notebooks, both in Japan and overseas, through wholesale, our official online store and Amazon.

We sell a wide variety of planners, including page-a-day planners, wallet-sized planners, and planners in collaboration with popular characters such as Doraemon and Astro Boy.

Our sales overseas are steadily increasing. Currently, our main product, "Hobonichi Techo 2021," is selling well overseas, exceeding last year’s sales. In particular, the "Hobonichi 5-Year Techo," which lets you write about five years of your life in one planner, has been very popular overseas, and sales this year have increased 2.4 times compared to the previous year.
There is also an unofficial Hobonichi overseas fan page on Facebook with over 5,000 members.

Q. Why did you choose us?

We used to ask a European firm to handle our VAT returns, but we were dissatisfied with their service, such as the firm not responding to our calls, and contacting us at the last minute for VAT returns. In the end, our Amazon account was suspended, and we consulted with JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization). They introduced us to OPTI and we decided to transfer to them.

After we transferred, OPTI started by finding out why our Amazon account was suspended　and recovered the account. After that, things gradually started to go smoothly.
When we applied for VAT returns, all we had to do was submit the specified Japanese data and documents and follow what OPTI said, so we were able to concentrate on our core business. Furthermore, when we needed a VAT refund, OPTI directly contacted and negotiated with the overseas tax authorities, and we succeeded in getting our money back.
We are glad that we asked OPTI to help us because they are kind and quick to respond.

Q. What are your future aspirations for overseas business, and are there any requests you have for OPTI?

We would like to continue to steadily expand our overseas business. Currently, we mainly sell our products through our official online store and through Amazon, but we would like to expand our sales to eBay and other e-commerce sites that are commonly used abroad.

As for our request to OPTI, this may be outside their area of expertise, but there are many things we find inconvenient regarding overseas delivery - for example, the countries we can send to differ depending on the shipping company, so it would be helpful if you could help us with that as well.