Inbound marketing for auto repair shops and car workshops | Reaching foreign drivers in their own language

1.27m

345k2013 1.27m2023

Visitors renting cars grew 3.7x in ten years

Estimated number of overseas visitors who used a rental car. More trips now start at the airport and head into the regions by car

Civil Aviation Bureau, MLIT, International Air Passenger Survey, FY2023

25.1%

Of visitors leaving from Naha, 1 in 4 drove a rental car

Share of departing foreign travellers who reached the airport by rental car. Naha 25.1%, Takamatsu 15.8%, New Chitose 11.7%

Civil Aviation Bureau, MLIT, International Air Passenger Survey, FY2023

1.25m

Foreign residents with a licence now number 1.25 million

1,254,522 foreign nationals held a Japanese driving licence in 2024, up 27.3% from 2020. They are customers for repairs and car sales

Cabinet Office, White Paper on Traffic Safety 2025 (National Police Agency statistics)

9.44 yrs

7.56 yrs2010 9.44 yrs2025

The average passenger car age has reached 9.44 years

Average years since first registration for registered passenger cars. It has risen 33 years in a row, and the longer cars are kept, the more repairs and parts they need

Automobile Inspection & Registration Information Association, Average Vehicle Age, as of end of March 2025

Merit 01

In their own language

Be the shop people pick past the language barrier

With Japanese-only information, foreign residents can't decide where to take their car for inspection. If they can read the steps and rough costs in their own language, they'll trust you with that first car.
Merit 02

On the road

Become the place rental drivers turn to

Flat tyres and dead batteries happen on holiday too. If visitors searching in English or Chinese can find your garage, they'll come straight to you.
Merit 03

Multilingual LINE

Bookings run smoothly without English at the counter

With the booking form and LINE in several languages, nobody gets stuck at the counter. Customers send photos of the problem and the model first, so you can quote sooner.
Merit 04

Through to car sales

Repair customers come back for their next car

People who trust you with their inspection ask you about their next car too. When they can talk to you in their own language, the used-car purchase tends to happen at the same shop.

Reason 01

A local's eye

Native English and Chinese speakers on staff

We plan from the words people in each country actually use. Film everything from check-in to handover without dialogue, and native translation and new subtitles add another language.
Reason 02

20M+combined followers

Strong in travel

We choose the languages from the nationalities of foreign residents in your area and of visitors arriving by rental car, then apply what we've learned from travel content to road trips.
Reason 03

Joined-up channels

A full range of marketing solutions

We set up the multilingual website, booking form and LINE first, with tracking tags. Bookings are counted by language and included in the monthly report.

Services to combine with
Reason 04

Cast by country

Overseas creators, too

We cast overseas creators who post road trips, and foreign residents with a following in Japan. PR disclosure follows Japan's stealth marketing rules and is written into the contract.

Do overseas visitors really come to a repair garage?

Near tourist areas, yes. Flat tyres, dead batteries and warning lights happen on holiday too. Be findable in English and Chinese, partner with rental car companies, and you become the garage they turn to. Some overseas car fans also come to see Japanese custom cars.

None of our staff speak English. Can we still take foreign customers?

Yes. We set up the booking form and LINE in several languages so customers write the symptoms, model and preferred date in advance. We also prepare multilingual templates for quotes and job explanations, so the counter works without anyone speaking English.

Can you film without stopping work in the shop?

Yes. With POV, the camera goes on the mechanic's head or chest and we film the usual work as it happens. Nobody stops or changes the job for the shoot. Customers' number plates are hidden in the edit.

We want to sell used cars overseas. Can you help?

Selling cars overseas means connecting sales pages and payments, so we handle it under EC operations & system integration for auto repair shops and car workshops. This page covers bringing foreign residents and overseas visitors to your shop.

How do you measure the impact?

Before publishing, we add tracking tags to the multilingual website and booking form. We look at bookings and cars brought in by language, LINE friends and used-car enquiries, and agree at the start which ones to follow.

How is pricing decided?

It depends on the number of target countries, the platforms and accounts we run, and how many languages are covered. We quote individually after a hearing. If ads are used too, delivery costs are paid to the platforms at cost, separately from the quote.

Which company runs this service?

TripClear Inc. (Shinsen-cho, Shibuya, Tokyo). Our core business is social media management and vertical short-form video production, and we support auto repair shops and car workshops. For company details, see TEAM.

Do you have case studies or a track record with auto repair shops and car workshops?

Our case studies with auto repair shops and car workshops are introduced on the social media management page. Our track record across industries is collected in Works.

Which languages and platforms do you cover?

For inbound visitors we run multilingual accounts, mainly in English and Chinese. Alongside Instagram and TikTok we cover RED (Xiaohongshu) and Douyin for the Chinese-speaking market. Campaigns with KOCs and KOLs (local creators with influence) are designed by the same team.