The long view 🇯🇵 | Partner Content

In a monthly column called Independents' Day, Earned First is partnering with PROI to explore how independent PR firms are navigating industry disruption while preserving their competitive edge.

In the 12th instalment of Independents' Day, Isao Suzuki, president and CEO of PRAP Japan, reflects on how one of the world's longest-established communications consultancies has stayed relevant across half a century of disruption — and why communications counsel has become inseparable from management itself.

1. PRAP has operated continuously since 1970, giving it a vantage point few agencies anywhere in the world can match. How has the nature of communications counsel itself changed, and what do clients fundamentally need from an agency now that they didn't a generation ago?

I believe the biggest change over the past 50-plus years has been not so much in the means of communication themselves, but in the widening range of people and stakeholders companies need to engage with, and the issues they need to address.

When PRAP was founded, one of the main roles of PR was to communicate corporate information accurately and effectively to society through mass media such as newspapers, television and magazines. Today, the landscape is very different. Social and digital media allow companies to communicate directly, while individual consumers have also become communicators in their own right. We now live in an era in which a single statement or action by a company can spread around the world instantly and have a significant impact on trust in its brand.

As a result, compared with a generation ago, what clients expect from agencies is no longer limited to executional support around how to communicate. What they fundamentally need today, I believe, is a partner who can work alongside them to think through how to build the relationship between the company and society.

That means understanding management and business strategy, identifying what society expects and where potential risks and opportunities lie, and considering what a company should communicate, to whom and how—and, at times, even what the company itself should change. It also means using data to evaluate the results of those efforts and applying the insights to future management and communications. PR is no longer confined to the communications function; it now cuts across management, marketing, human resources, sustainability and other areas of the business.

Since our founding in 1970, PRAP Japan has embraced the idea of “making all kinds of relationships in society better.” I believe this idea is even more important today, as stakeholders have become more diverse and society’s expectations of companies have increased.

For that reason, we want to evolve from a traditional PR company into a “communications consulting group” that designs the relationship between companies and society itself, combining PR expertise at its core with digital, data, crisis management and AI.

2. Japanese corporations have traditionally prized discretion over disclosure. How is that culture shifting, and what is driving the change, in terms of regulation, international investor pressure, and generational leadership transition?

I believe Japanese companies’ approach to disclosure has changed significantly over the past decade.

In the past, there was a relatively strong tendency to take a cautious approach: disclose what is necessary, but say no more than necessary. Today, however, companies need to consider not only the risks of disclosing information, but also the risks of not disclosing it.

There are three major changes behind this shift.

First, the regulatory and market environment has changed. Corporate governance reforms, the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s call for management that is conscious of the cost of capital and share price, and enhanced disclosure on sustainability and human capital have shifted disclosure from something companies do to comply with rules to a means of explaining management’s thinking and corporate value.

Second, there are demands from capital markets, including overseas investors. Companies are being asked to explain not only financial information, but also their management strategy, capital policy, governance and human capital—including why they are pursuing those approaches and how they will contribute to corporate value in the future.

Third, management mindsets are changing. Alongside generational transitions in leadership, dialogue with a diverse range of stakeholders—not only shareholders, but also employees, customers, business partners and society at large—has become essential to management.

The important point is not simply to increase the amount of information disclosed. Companies need to articulate, with a clear sense of their own intent, what they aim to achieve, why they have chosen a particular strategy and what kind of value they intend to create.

3. PRAP has evolved well beyond traditional PR into integrated communications and public affairs. What client pressures or market signals drove that shift, and which practice areas are seeing the strongest demand now?

A major factor behind the expansion of our business has been the broadening range of challenges and needs our clients face—from raising awareness of brands, products and companies to creating customer touchpoints in the digital age, managing risk, and addressing sustainability and reputation-related issues.

As the number of stakeholders and touchpoints surrounding companies has increased, and as reactions among them increasingly influence one another, it has become more difficult to solve challenges through individual measures alone. At the same time, as Japanese companies expand overseas, it has become increasingly important to maintain consistent communications while taking into account the different market environments and values of each country and region. To meet these needs, we have evolved beyond traditional PR to support clients by combining a range of specialist capabilities, including digital, creative, crisis management, sustainability and international communications.

Right now, I see particularly strong growth in demand for integrated communications that can both design and execute consistent communications. PRAP is continuing to expand its specialist capabilities, including by strengthening our creative offering.

4. Japan's demographic challenges are well documented. How are those structural pressures reshaping how communications agencies evolve and grow?

Japan’s declining and aging population is a major challenge for the communications industry, but I also see it as an opportunity to rethink how agencies grow and the roles they play.

One response is to expand into overseas markets. Southeast Asia, in particular, includes markets with a much younger demographic profile than Japan, where new patterns of consumption and communication are emerging, especially around digital and social media. Building businesses in these markets creates new growth opportunities while also giving us the chance to learn how to communicate with the next generation of consumers and incorporate new approaches.

At the same time, demographic change is making Japanese society itself more diverse, and communications designed for multilingual and multicultural audiences will become increasingly important. The key is not simply to translate words, but to consider how to foster understanding and build relationships with people from different cultures and with different values.

From that perspective, I believe the PR mindset of designing relationships with diverse stakeholders will become even more important in Japan. Drawing on insights gained overseas to help companies communicate with an increasingly diverse society will also become an increasingly important role for PRAP.

5. AI adoption in Japan tends to follow a more deliberate path than in some other markets. How is that playing out inside PRAP and among the clients you advise?

Japanese companies have taken a cautious approach to AI adoption, but I feel this has changed significantly over the past year. In 2024, PRAP participated in AWS Japan’s generative AI implementation program. Building on more than half a century of experience and knowledge developed in the public relations industry, we have been using generative AI to improve operational efficiency and develop new services. We also believe it is important to make work that can be handled by AI more efficient, freeing people to spend more time on strategic thinking and dialogue with clients. At the same time, the more AI is used, the more important human judgment, editing and contextual understanding become.

Among our clients, interest is growing not only in how AI can be used in their work, but also in how generative AI understands their companies and what information it draws on when generating answers.

In response to these needs, PRAP has established a specialist team focused on AIO and has begun helping companies ensure that AI can understand their first-party and third-party information in the correct context. I believe AI is beginning to change not only the efficiency of work, but corporate communications itself.

6. Japanese companies expanding globally often carry communications habits that were built for a domestic audience. Where does that create the most friction internationally, and how does PROI membership help bridge that gap?

I believe the biggest gaps internationally arise less from language itself than from differences in the assumptions and context behind communication.

In Japan, people can often understand one another through shared context and implicit understanding, even when the full background and intent are not put into words. Overseas, however, that shared context cannot always be assumed. An explanation that seems sufficient in Japan may be perceived elsewhere as lacking information or making the company’s thinking difficult to understand.

That is why global communications cannot simply be a matter of translating messages used in Japan. Companies need to provide the thinking behind those messages and the context audiences need in order to understand them, and communicate in a way that is appropriate for each market.

One of PROI’s greatest strengths is that it allows us to work directly with local partners who deeply understand the culture and communications of their markets. By first understanding the thinking and strengths of Japanese companies, we can then adapt them into forms that resonate in each market. I believe the PROI network enables us to translate not just language, but context.