Japan offers some great opportunities for recruitment companies but patience is the key to a building a successful business, according to one recruiter with an office in Tokyo.

Mike Brennan, chief executive of Akamai, told Recruiter that firms looking to set up out in Japan needed to be aware of cultural differences to succeed.

"Some Western firms go into Japan and assume they can do things the same way, but you have to engage people in a different way and understand things are going to take time," said Brennan.

"For example, a candidate in Japan may attend two interviews, be offered the job but then turn it down because they do not want to show disrespect by declining the interview."

Brennan said when Akamai set up in Tokyo the market was split between two types of recruitment company: ones which recruited locally for local banks and ones which were international but recruited Western candidates.

"What international banks didn't have was access to a Japanese talent pool, so with the local business we were doing, it gave us a foot in both camps."

Akamai, which was bought by Hat Pin last September, has offices in Hong Kong, Japan, London and Singapore.

Brennan plans to establish a second office in the EMEA region within the next six months and estimates its total headcount will reach 100 by Christmas.