Because of the hard work the man is not spending much time with his family and it would be difficult for the woman to work when the children are young. In Europe and in the US, people are not working as much as in Japan. Men and women are also more equal. For these reasons, it is much easier to recruit sales staff in Japan than in the Western countries. In Japan, the sales-women sell the products to neighbors, friends and relatives.
Personal relationships are very important when doing business in Japan.
When first entering the market, Avon experienced this. When Avon realized the problems they let the sales-women sell to people they knew or could easily get to know. The Japanese are much more shy than the Westerners so Avon had to train the sales-women to overcome this. Overall, Japanese sales-women received quite a lot of training, because education is very important in the Japanese culture. But the importance of personal relationship also constitutes a comparative advantage for the direct-selling companies compared to other ways of selling.