Testimonial videos · filmed in Japan · Kumakura Jiro Jimusho K.K., Tokyo
Your Japanese customer gives us two and a half hours.
We interview them in Japanese, at their site, and hand you a finished English video — translation, subtitles and editing included. You never travel, and you never manage more than one supplier.
Where we come in
Why this is awkward to arrange from abroad
Reference customers in Japan, and no English video of any of them, is a common combination. Arranging it from abroad is genuinely awkward.
Filming here usually means booking a crew, an interpreter, a translation agency and an editor. None of those four is hard to find. It is the space between them that takes the weeks — briefing each one, lining up four calendars, and waiting for the translation before anyone can tell you whether the interview went well.
We do the whole thing ourselves, from Tokyo, in Japanese. That is why we can tell your customer exactly how long it takes — and why the answer is two and a half hours rather than “a day”.
What we do, and what we don’t
- We plan, interview, film, translate and edit ourselves.
- We work with you directly — not through an agency or a booking broker.
- We are not a fixer service for a crew flying into Japan. We are the crew, and we are already here.
- A standard shoot day is in and around Tokyo. Anywhere else in Japan is quoted at cost.
Whether you have a customer lined up already or are still working out what to put in a budget, the answers below are the same.
The shoot day
What you are actually asking your customer for
It is the first thing we get asked about, so here is the whole day. These are our working numbers, not an estimate.
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−1:30
We arrive — 90 minutes before the interview
Two or three of us, with three suitcases of equipment. We work in one room. We do not ask for a holding room, and we do not ask for a separate space for the gear.
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−1:25
We photograph the room before we move anything
On a phone, so that every chair and every cable goes back where it was. Setup takes the rest of those 90 minutes.
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0:00
Your customer arrives · interview begins
About an hour, conducted in Japanese, one on one. No interpreter in the room and no questions relayed through anyone.
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1:00
B-roll — with your customer at work
About 90 minutes, and this is the part that moves. We film them doing the thing the story is about, wherever that happens — their workplace, the canteen, a handshake at the entrance. A story about a product needs the product in it.
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2:30
Your customer is finished and goes back to work
Everything else that day is ours.
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Total call on your customer: 2 h 30 m — and we tell them that number before the day, not on the day.
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3:15
We are out the door
Pack-down takes the 45 minutes after your customer leaves, and we put the room back as we found it. On site 4 h 45 m in total — in at −1:30, out at 3:15.
Yours to forward — what your customer can be told up front
The interview is in Japanese and will take about an hour, in one room. After that the crew films about 90 minutes of you at work — this part may move around your building, wherever suits the story: your workplace, the canteen, or the entrance for a handshake. That is two and a half hours of your time in total, on a single day.
They arrive 90 minutes early to set up and photograph the interview room first, so everything is put back exactly as it was. They do not need a holding room. If you would like to see the film before we publish it, we will build that into the schedule.
We wrote this so you can paste it into the mail you send your customer. Every number in it is one we hold ourselves.
Who sits with your customer
The person in the room is the person you hire
Your customer’s executive spends an hour across the table from one interviewer. Here is who that is.
Jiro Kumakura — producer, and founder of Kumakura Jiro Jimusho K.K. I conduct every interview myself, in Japanese, and I lead each project from the first call to the final cut. I began as a lifestyle-magazine editor, spent years directing web design, and founded this company in Tokyo in 2014. For bigger productions I bring in the same small group of associates I have worked with for years — but the person sitting opposite your customer is me. After all these years, the part I still like best is the interview itself.
Kumakura Jiro Jimusho K.K. · 株式会社クマクラジロウ事務所 · Tokyo · established 2014 · invoicing in USD, vendor onboarding and W-8BEN handled on our side.
Who does what
The four jobs, done by one company
A testimonial video in Japan is normally four separate engagements. Here is who handles each one when you work with us.
- Asking the questions
- We conduct the interview, in Japanese. Nothing is relayed through an interpreter, and no one in the room is hearing the answers for the first time in translation.
- Filming
- Our own camera, our own kit, three suitcases. The people who planned the film are the people who show up.
- Translation and subtitles
- Ours. Nothing is sent out to a translation agency, which is why the timecoded bilingual transcript reaches you within two business days rather than weeks.
- Editing
- Ours, from the transcript you have already read and marked up.
- What that means for you
- One contract, one invoice, one point of contact, and a price fixed at US$5,000 before anything is booked.
While it happens
You are 9,000 km away and still in the room
Four points where the project is in your hands rather than ours — starting before anyone picks up a camera.
Before the day
Send us your questions early
Give us the questions you want asked about a week ahead. We read them properly, and where something is unclear — a product name, what a figure refers to — we come back to you before the day rather than in front of your customer. Questions do sometimes arrive the night before. We can still film, but the interview is better when we have had time to understand what you are after.
On the day
A live feed you can join
Wherever the venue’s connectivity allows, you watch from your desk and hear every question as it is asked. You can send us a follow-up question while your customer is still in the chair. Where a secure site blocks the feed, nothing else changes — the transcript still reaches you within two business days.
Within 48 hours — two business days
The full transcript, in both languages
Timecoded Japanese with an English translation beside it. You can read everything your customer said, mark the lines you want, and brief your own stakeholders before the edit starts.
Before the cut
Your approval, then two revision rounds
We agree the story from the transcript before editing, so revisions are about polish, not about rebuilding the film. First cut within 10 business days of the shoot.
Work of this exact kind
Companies who sent us to their customers in Japan
Three companies, each with a customer in Japan and a story they needed in English. One of them you can watch right now.
Published testimonial video · you can watch this one
GeoEdge — ad-quality technology
They wanted their Japanese customer to say, in their own words, what changed after switching.
We filmed the interview in Tokyo with CompassTV, the ad sales arm of the transit-navigation service Jorudan. GeoEdge planned the story; we ran the interview in Japanese, filmed it, translated it and cut it. It still runs on their own site, which we are glad about.
Repeat engagement
A UK medical-device manufacturer
Customer interviews filmed at two Japanese research hospitals, on separate days, with English-subtitled videos used by their global team.
Their customers are institutions, with their own access rules. We went to each of them. We do not publish this client’s name here — ask us on a call.
Customer interview
A US ingredients manufacturer
Customer interview video filmed in Japan and delivered for global marketing use.
Filmed in Japanese, delivered in English. We do not publish their name: the film was made for their existing customers, not for the open web. Some projects are scoped that way, and we keep to it.
“Out of the four videography teams I worked with worldwide on this project, I found that you and your services — both on a technical level [and] on a customer support level — were excellent. You were quick to react with creative and professional ideas and always maintained communication and delivery, even while working half the world away from the client.”
Pricing
Published, so you can put it in a budget line today
You should be able to size this project without writing to us first. If your scope is the standard one below, this is the number.
Testimonial Video Package
US$5,000
one finished story · fixed
- One shoot day in and around Tokyo
- Interview conducted in Japanese by us
- Interview-location b-roll
- One finished 2–4 minute video with English subtitles
- One or two 30–60 second vertical cuts for LinkedIn and your sales team
- Timecoded bilingual transcript within 48 hours
- Two revision rounds
- The finished video and the raw footage are yours — worldwide, in perpetuity, any use
Each story after the first
US$3,800
per video · booked together, or within three months
- Every customer gets a shoot day of their own, so nobody is rushed
- Book them together, or come back within three months of the last shoot
- We keep project files for 90 days, so the second story starts where the first finished instead of from nothing
- Stories filmed the same way sit together in your library
- After three months the planning starts over, and the next story is US$5,000 again
From the same shoot day, priced with you before it is booked
One interview produces more than one asset. These are not in the fixed price, but you get the number before the shoot is confirmed — never after. We do not publish a figure for filming on a working floor, because it turns on your customer’s permit process and we would be guessing. Tell us the site and you will have it in writing.
- Subtitles in languages beyond English
- A second location, or filming outside Greater Tokyo
- A factory floor, a clean room, or anywhere needing permits or formal application
- More interviews than the package covers, on the same day
- Extra approval rounds — the legal and compliance checks regulated teams need
- Archiving beyond the 90 days we keep project files as standard
The package covers a standard shoot day — one location in and around Tokyo, with the interview described above. A second location or a larger cast is priced with you before the shoot is booked. First cut delivered within 10 business days of the shoot. 50% deposit to confirm the date, balance net 30.
Rights, approvals and paperwork
Written so you can forward it to legal and procurement
These are the questions legal and procurement teams have put to us over the years, with our answers. Take them to yours before you have to ask us.
- What you own
- The finished video and the raw footage, both. Worldwide, in perpetuity, for any use — your website, YouTube, paid social, trade shows, sales decks, internal comms. No renewal fees and no re-licensing. Re-cut it in three years without coming back to us.
- What you receive
- The finished film, the vertical cuts, the full timecoded bilingual transcript, and the raw footage from the day. We keep project files for 90 days as standard; longer archiving is available, though you will already be holding the footage yourself.
- Your customer’s consent
- A signed appearance release, in Japanese and English, is part of every shoot. Your customer knows what they are agreeing to, in their own language, before the camera is switched on.
- NDAs
- We sign yours, or your customer’s, whenever you need it — before the first call if that is how your process runs.
- GDPR
- Your customer’s interviewee is a named individual, so we will say this plainly: no client has asked us for a data processing agreement so far. If your legal team needs one, send yours and we will sign it. We hold personal data only for the project and delete it on request.
- Approvals and the clock
- Our 10 business days is measured to the first cut. Your review, and your customer’s if they want one, sits after that — tell us at the briefing and we plan it into the schedule. Two revision rounds are included; the extra compliance rounds that regulated teams need are priced with you up front.
- Insurance
- We take out public liability cover for the project. Tell us at the briefing what your customer’s site requires — many industrial sites ask for it before they will let a camera in — and we arrange the cover and send you the policy details before the day.
- If the shoot is cancelled
- We refund the deposit in full, less only the bank transfer fee. That applies whatever the reason and whatever the notice — including your customer pulling out the week before. Asking your customer for a date should not put your budget at risk.
- Getting us set up as a supplier
- Invoiced in USD by bank transfer, 50% deposit to confirm the shoot date, balance net 30. We complete your vendor onboarding and provide a W-8BEN. Kumakura Jiro Jimusho K.K. is a Japanese company, established 2014.
Before you write
The questions we are asked most
Our customer has never been on camera. Will it work?
Do you need us to fly a crew or a producer to Japan?
Can we film several customers in one trip?
Our customer’s site is a working warehouse or plant. Can you film there?
Will it match the testimonial videos we already have?
How does this work across eight time zones?
Who talks to our customer about scheduling?
What if the interview does not produce anything usable?
How fast do you reply?
Next step
Tell us which customer, and we will tell you what the day looks like.
Fifteen minutes is enough to work out whether this fits — which customer, which city, what the story needs to prove, and when their window is open.
Kumakura Jiro Jimusho K.K. · Tokyo · We reply within two business days.