Beyond the battery: Forsee Power, Kawasaki and the work around an order

Forsee Power, Kawasaki and the engineering support around an industrial order in Japan.

B(ornot)2B · Japan field notes / 01 · 2 November 2026

A battery wins attention through its specifications. An industrial buyer also has a project to keep moving: integration, validation, delivery and repairs. A French supplier’s Japanese expansion offers a useful case for examining the work around the component.

This is a look back at a documented case, as part of our research for “Japan: The Path to a First Order”. It is not a new product announcement.

The order we can identify

On 28 September 2023, Forsee Power announced that Kawasaki had selected its GO 1.6 batteries for the Ninja e-1 and Z e-1 electric motorcycles. The supplier said a first battery order had already been placed. That identifies an order for this programme; it does not establish the company’s first-ever Japanese sale. 2

The announcement also described plans for a Japanese maintenance centre and laboratory supporting repairs and customers’ vehicle-validation work. It did not say that opening the laboratory was a condition of Kawasaki’s order. 2

A partner before the local subsidiary

Forsee Power’s March 2021 release described a Tokyo office hosted by Mitsui, which had become a shareholder in 2017. In a later interview published by JETRO, company representative Kenjiro Azuma described Mitsui’s introductions to manufacturers and a local lab supporting development and after-sales work. JETRO dates the Japanese subsidiary’s establishment to February 2023. 1 3

This matters when comparing routes into the market: the case involves an established investor-partner and local operations. It cannot tell us what an exporter without either would experience.

The question behind the component

Who keeps the customer’s project moving after the sample works?

Our editorial reading: a supplier should map the support around its product as carefully as the product specification. This case gives us concrete functions to investigate, rather than a universal formula for selling in Japan.

Four months to what?

In the JETRO interview, Azuma reported four months from the start of JETRO support to company registration, and six months until operations began. Those are establishment milestones, not a measured sales cycle. 3

The available sources do not disclose the first technical-contact date, trial costs, contract signatory, payment terms or repeat-order history. We also lack Kawasaki’s account of the supplier-selection decision.

Three questions for your next supplier discussion

Who approves the sample, and what evidence releases the production order?
Who pays when testing reveals a problem or delays the launch?
Who handles a failed unit locally, and what response time is agreed?

What we are following next

For the Japan special, planned for 28 November, we are tracing the steps between contact, testing, contract, delivery and a repeat order. The next priority is evidence from the buying side and a case where entry failed.

Forsee Power’s story is one industrial example. We will examine food imports and other routes separately before drawing wider conclusions.

Keep following the work

Read our Saturday journal at bornot2b.com ↗. We will share further research notes here as the Japan special develops. If you find the work useful, you can support it on Boosty. The journal remains free to read.

Sources & scope

Historical case. Sources checked 2 November 2026. Based on supplier announcements and JETRO’s published company interview; no interview was conducted by B(ornot)2B for this note.

Forsee Power: office in Japan ↗30 March 2021
Forsee Power: Kawasaki battery programme ↗28 September 2023
JETRO: published interview with Kenjiro Azuma ↗page marked updated March 2025; original publication and interview dates unspecified

Editorial illustration: a symbolic scene, not a depiction of the actual facility or a technical rendering. Company names identify the subjects of the story.

japan

industrial sales

market entry