Tetra Tech Explors New Environments with JETRO

September 2005

Opportunities in Japan
With a market projected to grow to 47.2 trillion yen by 2010 and ongoing deregulation leading to new business models, Japan's ecobusiness sector is full of growth opportunities for foreign firms. One company looking to take advantage of this market is Tetra Tech Inc., a California-based environmental consulting firm specializing in site investigation.

Tetra Tech, Inc. was founded in 1966 and provides environmental services, water/wastewater management, infrastructure services, communications support, security design, and outsourced technical services. At the end of fiscal year 2004, Tetra Tech had nearly 8,000 employees located in more than 350 offices worldwide.

Market Entry
Given Tetra Tech's long history of working with Japanese partners, setting up an office in Japan was a foregone conclusion. "We had been doing work in Japan for ten years, so we knew the market, and we had good partners (there). The timing was good for us to set up our offi ce in Japan" says Yohji Ono, Tetra Tech's Japan manager.

When Tetra Tech decided to establish their office in Japan, JETRO was there to help. Ono was first introduced to JETRO in early 2004 at a seminar covering environmental regulations and business opportunities in Japan. Later that year Tetra Tech participated in WASTEC 2004 (an industry trade show in Japan), and the company was able to meet a number of potential clients during the trade show.

During the Tetra Tech's Japan incorporation process JETRO provided free office space at the Invest Japan Business Support Center (IBSC) in Tokyo. "The incubator office [IBSC] situation was great for us. It addressed a lot of the logistical concerns of how we could get started. It's hard to get office space in Japan unless you have some level of introduction. By being in the incubator office, we were able to use that address and that status to start up, which was very helpful." says Mr. Ono.

Results and Outlook
In the coming year Tetra Tech will focus on attracting new Japanese clients, and looking ahead the company considers Japan as a key location in its global strategy. "We're moving into a larger arena thanks to the presence of our local Japan offi ce and we're getting larger, longer term projects," says Ono. "Japan is a good strategic location to place regional managers, and in the long term it is our goal to make to the Japan office the Far East regional hub."

Tetra Tech Japan
2-3-22, Kudan Minami Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo, 102-0074
(tel) 81 3 3239 5357
(fax) 81 3 3239 5529
www.tetratech.com