When considering a business opportunity in Japan or Korea it is important to know exactly who you are dealing with. Obtaining accurate information can be difficult due to complicated cultural barriers, limited availability of public records and the opaque relationship between business and organized crime. Whether conducting pre IPO due diligence, entering new international joint ventures, engaging new business partners or conducting client and vendor account screening, the best way to ensure you know who you are dealing with is to employ a comprehensive screening program.
In a global business environment, the need to know your partner is more vital than ever. Investigative Due Diligence is a crucial part of the evaluation process before any major transaction such as pre-merger and acquisition inquiries, pre-IPO due diligence, entering into new international joint ventures or engaging overseas business partners. Essentially it identifies “off balance sheet risk” or other business risks that are not visible from financial or legal reviews. IVDD focuses on the key people and entities in a given transaction or joint venture, their background, reputation, business scandals, track record, political and criminal connections and litigation history.
Due Diligence Process
The J-Screen screening process is based on the premise of providing comprehensive, actionable and ethically obtained information. Unlike other countries such as the US and UK, the public availability of information in Japan is extremely limited. As such we have developed a five stage due diligence process to ensure that we are able to provide the most comprehensive information on a company or individual in Japan. Our information is collected from 5 distinct sources:
Government records that are available to the general public through various public online or offline databases, such as company registration searches, bankruptcy records, regulatory searches and others.
Private databases/records that are available to the general public through subscription such as comprehensive Japanese Language press search, business databases such as Teikoku, TSR and others.
Private Resources – specific resources that we have developed overtime and are not available to the public, such as JASDAQ recommended organized crime searches, Japanese Reputational Screening utilizing the “black media” and others.
Proprietary Databases / Resources – Databases and Resources that are proprietary to J-Screen, only available to J-Screen clients and have been compiled over the last 14 years of operations. Examples include the Tokyo District Court civil litigation search comprising of over 1 million records, the J-Screen Organized Crime and Criminality search focusing on companies and individuals involved in criminal activities or with links to organized crime, J-Screen Politically Exposed Person database and others.
Local intelligence – Specific industry resources developed over the last 14 years providing insight into company / industry / political reputation.
Using this information we have assisted many of the leading global financial and consulting companies in identifying potential financially and reputational damaging business relationships in Japan.
