| Course | BU 231 Global Business Environment |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 1 |
| Paper type | Global environment overview |
| Length | About 1,360 words, 7 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Herzing University |
| Program | BS in Business Management |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for BU 231 Unit 1
One License Standing Between a Vermont Hand Balm and a Tokyo Shelf: A Global Environment Overview of Japan's Cosmetics Distributor Rule
Student Name
Business, Herzing University
BU 231: Global Business Environment
Instructor Name
January 20, 2026
One License Standing Between a Vermont Hand Balm and a Tokyo Shelf: A Global Environment Overview of Japan's Cosmetics Distributor Rule
Most of what a small American company knows about selling is shaped by the fact that it has only ever sold at home. A rule that seems like a detail in another country can reach every part of the business once the company tries to cross a border. This overview follows one firm and one such rule. The firm is Hollow Brook Botanicals, a composite business built for this paper, and the rule is the Japanese requirement that cosmetics be placed on the market by a company holding a license inside Japan. The paper describes the firm, explains the condition as it operates in Japan with its sources dated, shows what the condition changes about the firm's price and its contracts, and closes with what the firm would have to confirm before acting.
The Firm Before the Border
Hollow Brook Botanicals is a composite maker of skin care products based in Burlington, Vermont. It employs 44 people, reported about $11.2 million in sales for 2025, and makes three products in its own facility: a calendula hand balm in a two-ounce tin, an oat body lotion in an eight-ounce bottle and an unscented lip balm. The balm is the product customers know it for. Roughly two thirds of sales come through about 300 natural grocery stores in New England and the Mid-Atlantic, and the rest through the company's own website.
Japan entered the conversation without any plan behind it. During 2025 the website received a steady stream of orders from buyers using package forwarding services to reach Japanese addresses, and a buyer for a small chain of lifestyle stores in Tokyo wrote to ask whether the balm could be supplied in quantity. The owners' first instinct was to treat Japan like a large new state: quote a wholesale price, ship pallets and let the buyer handle the rest. That instinct is what the condition below tests, because in Japan the question is not only who buys the balm but who is legally responsible for it once it arrives.
The Condition: A Licensed Company in Japan Must Answer for the Product
Japan regulates cosmetics under the law now titled the Act on Securing Quality, Efficacy and Safety of Products Including Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices, usually shortened to the PMD Act (Government of Japan, 1960). The Japan External Trade Organization's export guidebook, written under the law's earlier name, explains the practical effect for an importer. A company that brings cosmetics into Japan to sell them must hold a primary distributor's license, now commonly called a marketing authorization license, issued by the prefecture where its responsible manager works (Japan External Trade Organization [JETRO], 2011). The license is renewed every five years, and the holder must meet quality and post-market safety standards and appoint a supervisor responsible for both.
The same guidebook describes what the holder takes on. It must file a notification of each brand name before import, keep an ingredient list from the foreign manufacturer or testing records showing no prohibited ingredients, judge each lot before it ships to market, retain those records for five years and report research suggesting harm to the national health ministry within 30 days (JETRO, 2011). A company that only stores, labels or repackages the product in Japan also needs a manufacturer's license limited to packaging, labeling and storage. In plain terms, Japan does not let a foreign maker simply sell to a store. It requires a company on Japanese soil that answers to regulators for every lot.
The guidebook dates from 2011, and the law was renamed and revised in 2014, so its terms should be read as a description of the structure rather than a current checklist. The official English translation of the act is maintained online by the Japanese government, and it is the document a firm would need to read in its current form (Government of Japan, 1960).
Where the Condition Sits Among Everything Else
Other parts of the Japanese environment matter, and a fuller analysis would come to them. Japan's population was about 123.8 million on October 1, 2024, down roughly 550,000 from the year before, and 29.3 percent of residents were 65 or older (Statistics Bureau of Japan, 2025). A hand balm sold to an aging population with dry winters has an obvious audience. Tariffs are not the obstacle. Japan's 2026 customs schedule lists creams with a basis of oil, fat or wax under heading 3304.99 at a general rate of 5.8 percent but a WTO rate of free, and the WTO rate applies to American goods (Japan Customs, 2026). A 10 percent consumption tax applies to most goods, including imports (National Tax Agency, n.d.).
None of these stops the balm at the border. The license requirement does, because without a licensed company in Japan the balm cannot be lawfully placed on a store shelf at all. Ghemawat (2001) argued that firms routinely underestimate administrative distance, the institutional differences between countries that no amount of market size makes up for. This condition is administrative distance in a very concrete form.
What the Condition Changes About Operating in Japan
The first change is to the contract. In the United States, Hollow Brook sells to a grocery chain on standard wholesale terms: price, minimum order, payment in 30 days, returns for damaged goods. In Japan, the company that holds the license carries legal responsibility for quality and safety, so any importer will ask for things a grocery buyer never does. It will want the full ingredient list with each ingredient's international name so that labels can be written in Japanese, testing records for each lot, a way to trace a complaint back to a production run and a commitment to cooperate with any recall. Those requests become contract terms, and they shift real work and risk onto the Vermont factory.
The second change is to the price. The licensed importer is doing more than moving boxes; it is running a regulated quality system and putting its own name and address on the label, as Japanese labeling rules require (JETRO, 2011). That service is paid for through the margin between Hollow Brook's export price and the shelf price. If the Tokyo shop expects to sell the balm at a price similar to the United States price converted to yen, the importer's margin, freight, relabeling and the consumption tax must all fit inside it. A balm that sells for $16 in Burlington may need a much higher shelf price in Tokyo, or a lower export price from Vermont, for the arrangement to work.
The third change is to control. Whoever holds the license holds the brand notification and the relationship with regulators. If Hollow Brook later wanted to change importers, it would need a new licensed partner to file again. Hill and Hult (2019) describe this tradeoff for any firm that relies on local agents: the arrangement is fast and cheap to start, and the foreign firm gives up control it may later want back. The license requirement makes that tradeoff unavoidable from the first shipment.
What the Firm Would Have to Confirm Before Acting
A single term of reading does not settle a regulatory question, and this overview should not be read as legal advice. Before quoting the Tokyo buyer, Hollow Brook would need to confirm four things. It would need the current text of the PMD Act and the implementing ordinances, since the export guidebook predates the 2014 revision. It would need to check its ingredient lists against Japan's Standards for Cosmetics, which restrict or prohibit some ingredients, because a preservative accepted in the United States may not be accepted in Japan. It would need to learn whether the Tokyo buyer already holds a marketing authorization license or works through a licensed importer, and on what terms. Finally, it would need a Japanese-language label draft reviewed by that licensed company. Only then would the owners know whether Japan is a large new state or a different kind of market, and the evidence so far points strongly to the second.
References
Ghemawat, P. (2001). Distance still matters: The hard reality of global expansion. Harvard Business Review, 79(8), 137-147.
Government of Japan. (1960). Act on securing quality, efficacy and safety of products including pharmaceuticals and medical devices (Act No. 145 of 1960, as amended). Japanese Law Translation. https://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/en/laws/view/3213/en
Hill, C. W. L., & Hult, G. T. M. (2019). International business: Competing in the global marketplace (12th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.
Japan Customs. (2026). Japan's tariff schedule as of April 1, 2026: Chapter 33. https://www.customs.go.jp/english/tariff/2026_04_01/data/e_33.htm
Japan External Trade Organization. (2011). Guidebook for export to Japan 2011: Cosmetics. https://www.jetro.go.jp/ext_images/mexico/mercadeo/1Ecosme.pdf
National Tax Agency. (n.d.). Basic knowledge: Consumption tax. https://www.nta.go.jp/english/taxes/consumption_tax/01.htm
Statistics Bureau of Japan. (2025). Current population estimates as of October 1, 2024. https://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/jinsui/2024np/index.html
Reading the BU 231 Unit 1 instructions
The Unit 1 instructions ask for an overview of the global business environment that reaches a real business decision. You name a company, describe what it sells and where it already operates, and pick one factor from the international environment that acts on it: an economic condition, a political or legal requirement, a cultural norm or a trade rule. That factor has to be described as it works in a named country, supported by sources a reader could check, and then connected to something the firm would actually do differently. Most sections expect three to five pages in APA 7 format with at least three scholarly or official sources. The unit sets up the rest of the course, so the firm you choose here may follow you into later units.
How the BU 231 Unit 1 example is put together
The example opens with the firm in full, a composite maker of balms and lotions with 44 employees and a website that has drawn orders from Japan. The condition comes next: Japan's cosmetics law requires a licensed company inside the country to take responsibility for each product, file brand notifications and judge each lot before it ships. A short section places that rule among other conditions, such as a shrinking and aging population, a free WTO tariff on oil-based creams and a 10 percent consumption tax, each with a dated source. The longest section shows the rule reaching three decisions: new contract terms on ingredient lists and lot records, a shelf price that must carry an importer's margin, and brand control that sits with whoever holds the license.
BU 231 Unit 1 rubric: what full points look like
Herzing instructors grade this unit on a rubric that usually weighs four things. The first is whether the firm is specific and stays in view; a company named in the introduction and never mentioned again loses most of the points for application. The second is the quality of the environmental analysis, which rewards one factor explained well over four factors explained briefly. The third is evidence, where full points go to sources that are official or scholarly and dated where they are used, like the customs schedule and population estimate here. The last criterion covers writing and APA mechanics, including a title page, headings and a reference list that matches the citations. The example's closing section on what the firm would verify also earns credit for critical thinking, since it admits what one unit of research cannot settle.
BU 231 Unit 1 help: mistakes that cost points
The most common mistake in this unit is writing about globalization in general. A paper that explains how supply chains cross borders and markets are connected has written background and never started the assignment. Another is choosing a company so large that every condition affects it, which makes one factor impossible to isolate. Students also quote tariff rates or regulations without a year or a source, and those claims fail the moment an instructor checks. Some papers list political, economic, legal and cultural factors in a paragraph each, which spreads the analysis too thin to reach any decision. Finally, avoid presenting the overview as legal advice. Say what the source says, date it and name what the firm would confirm, as the sample does with the 2011 export guidebook.
Get a BU 231 Unit 1 example written to your instructions
Send us the Unit 1 instructions and the rubric posted in your BU 231 classroom, along with the firm or country if your section assigns one. We write a custom example that fixes the company first, carries one cross-border condition to an operational effect, dates every source and closes on what would be verified. First custom sample free, back in 24 to 48 hours.
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BU 231 Unit 1 questions, answered
Which firm works best for this overview?
One that publishes enough to be checked and is small enough that a single condition reaches it visibly. A company already selling in forty markets makes the cross-border question hard to isolate, because everything it does is international. Where your section names the firm, use that one and spend the effort on locating the condition in published material rather than on choosing a subject.
How current do the sources have to be?
Current enough to put a date beside each one. Rules on customs, licensing and product standards are revised, and a figure copied from an undated page cannot be defended if an instructor looks. Write what the source said, when it said it and where you found it. If the most recent published figure is a few years old, say so rather than presenting it as today's position.
Can I use what I learned working for an international company?
Not the internal side of it. Supplier terms, country margins, staffing plans and anything else your employer holds are the employer's, and a submitted paper travels further than students expect. Where the company is public and your point rests on filings or announcements, cite those. Otherwise build the firm as a composite and describe it in the paper as constructed.
Where can I find a free BU 231 Unit 1 sample paper?
The complete sample above is free to read on this page, with its title page, headings, margin notes and references. If your section's instructions name a different firm or factor, send the prompt and the desk will write one around your firm at no charge, usually within two days.
Can the BU 231 Unit 1 overview use a made-up company?
Yes, if the instructions allow it and the paper says so. The sample uses a composite firm and states that it was built for the paper, while every fact about Japan comes from a real, dated source. Instructors care that the country evidence is checkable; the firm can be constructed as long as it is described honestly.