Our purpose
Stop searching for an ASEAN path. We built it.
Most trade infrastructure in ASEAN is built for global brands. We built ours specifically for Japanese companies — with Japanese-language contracts, Japanese-speaking account managers, and compliance experience across Japanese product categories.
We are not a logistics company. We are not a marketplace agency. We are trade infrastructure: the legal, operational, and regulatory layer that Japanese brands need before any shipment leaves Japan.
- Legal Name
- TheNewGate Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd.
- Singapore Entity Registration (UEN)
- 202548372K
- Business Address
- 6 Raffles Quay, #11-07 John Hancock Tower, Singapore 048580
- Singapore entity established
- 2025
- Paid-up Capital
- SGD 100,000
- IOR Network
- 5 certified providers
- Fulfillment Partner
- Spaceship SpaceLabs, Eunos
- Third-Party Certification
- ISO/IEC 27001 application in progress (target: Q3 2026)
The team driving ASEAN from Tokyo.
Founder & CEO
Founder and CEO of TheNewGate Inc. since 2018. Led the company’s expansion into IT staffing, trade compliance, and cross-border e-commerce. Initiated the TNGAP venture to extend Japanese brand reach across ASEAN.
COO
Founding-era member of TheNewGate Inc. Based at Tokyo HQ, overseeing operational infrastructure, finance, and compliance across the group.
CSO — Singapore resident
Joined TheNewGate Inc. from founding. Singapore-based CSO leading TNGAP strategy: IOR provider network management, ASEAN trade compliance, and Japanese brand market-entry strategy.
Full profile →Infrastructure over improvisation. Japanese-first, always. Depth before breadth.
Infrastructure over improvisation
We build legal and operational foundations before your shipments move. Compliance is not a checkbox — it is the foundation.
Japanese-first, always
Every document, every call, every contract is in Japanese. Your team should never feel the language gap.
Depth before breadth
We expand to new markets only when the infrastructure holds. Five countries on the roadmap. Phase 1 fully operational first.
Operational Coverage
Live across 4 ASEAN markets.
Hub-and-spoke model
One hub. Four spokes. Zero redundant offices.
Singapore is our legal and operational hub — IOR certification, contracts, and banking all run through TNGAP Pte. Ltd. The spokes are presence without overhead: sales representation, logistics partnerships, and regulatory relationships in Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and beyond.
Light Presence model →Hub-and-Spoke
Singapore
Hub — legal entity, IOR, contracts
Malaysia
Spoke — Phase 1 active
Thailand
Spoke — Phase 1+ active
Vietnam
Spoke — Phase 1+ active
The story behind TNGAP.
TheNewGate Asia Pacific was not built speculatively. It was built in response to a specific, documented failure pattern: Japanese brands with products of genuine global quality, repeatedly failing to achieve sustainable ASEAN commercial presence — not because of the products, but because of the infrastructure, or rather, its absence. The founders of TNGAP watched this pattern across IT staffing, trade compliance consulting, and cross-border e-commerce advisory work. The infrastructure gap was consistent, structural, and solvable.
TheNewGate Inc. was founded in Tokyo in 2018 with a mandate to build professional services infrastructure for Japanese companies navigating complexity — complex hiring markets, complex compliance environments, complex expansion paths. By 2024, it was clear that the ASEAN expansion problem required not just advisory services, but operational infrastructure: a company that would act as Importer of Record, manage regulatory filings, certify logistics carrier partnerships, and take on the compliance responsibility that Japanese SMEs cannot afford to replicate in each market independently.
TheNewGate Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. was incorporated in Singapore in 2025. The Singapore domicile was chosen deliberately — not for tax reasons alone, but because Singapore is where Japanese trade infrastructure converges. Every major Japanese logistics carrier has its Asian headquarters in Singapore. JCCI Singapore is the institutional connection to the Japanese commercial community. ACRA provides public verifiability that builds counterparty trust before the first meeting. And the common law legal system eliminates translation risk in contracts and dispute resolution.
From incorporation to first operational IOR clearance took less than ninety days. The founding team — led by CEO Uruma Matsushita from Tokyo and CSO Toshikazu Muramatsu from Singapore — moved with precision because the infrastructure architecture had been designed before the entity was formed. The certified IOR network, the Preferred Carrier Program, and the service tier structure were not iterations built in response to customer feedback: they were pre-architected to eliminate the known failure points of ASEAN trade expansion.
Why we exist
Est. 2018 · Singapore 2025Mission
Infrastructure for Japan-to-ASEAN trade.
TNGAP's mission is to provide the legal, operational, and regulatory infrastructure that Japanese brands need to trade commercially across ASEAN — without local subsidiaries, without in-country headcount, and without the compliance overhead that makes expansion financially irrational for SMEs. This means acting as Importer of Record, managing marketplace compliance, certifying logistics carrier partnerships, and providing Japanese-language account management from engagement inception to operational scale.
The mission is deliberately bounded. TNGAP is not a brand-building agency, a marketing consultancy, or a logistics company in the conventional sense. It is trade infrastructure: the layer between a Japanese brand's operations and the commercial and regulatory reality of ASEAN markets. This boundary is a strength, not a limitation — it means TNGAP can be genuinely excellent at the specific problem it solves, rather than broadly adequate across a wider set of services.
Vision
Every Japanese brand. ASEAN operational.
TNGAP's vision is specific: a world in which every Japanese brand with a product worth exporting has access to the infrastructure that makes ASEAN market entry legal, operational, and sustainable — regardless of the brand's size or in-house ASEAN expertise. The IOR complexity, the marketplace compliance requirements, the logistics network relationships — these should not be barriers. They should be infrastructure that a brand accesses through a single partner and a single contract.
The five-country roadmap — Singapore as hub, Malaysia and Thailand and Vietnam as Phase 1 spokes, Korea as Phase 3 — is not an arbitrary geographic expansion. It follows trade data, Japanese brand category strength, and logistics infrastructure maturity. Each new spoke is activated only when the partner network, IOR certification framework, and compliance playbook are fully operational — not when a commercial opportunity appears. Infrastructure first, always.
TheNewGate was founded in Tokyo to bridge the gap between Japanese craftsmanship and global markets. TNGAP is the Singapore chapter of that same commitment.
Light Presence model
Boots on the ground. Not a building.
The Light Presence model means we operate in a market through certified partners, regulatory filings, and logistics relationships — without a leased office or local headcount. This keeps our cost structure lean and yours even leaner.
Explore the model →Legal Counsel
Christopher & Lee Ong — confirmed.
TNGAP's Hub-and-Spoke / Light Presence structure has been reviewed and confirmed by Christopher & Lee Ong, one of Singapore's leading commercial law firms. The review specifically addressed Permanent Establishment (PE) risk — the question of whether TNGAP's operations in spoke markets (Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam) constitute a taxable presence for its Japanese brand clients. The conclusion: the structure, as designed and operated through the Singapore hub entity, does not trigger PE recognition in spoke jurisdictions, provided operational parameters are maintained. This legal basis is the foundation of every client engagement.
Deeper into the structure.
Parent company
Backed by TheNewGate Inc. Japan.
TNGAP is a 100% subsidiary of TheNewGate Inc. (Japan, established 2018). The parent operates 15 offices across Japan with 570+ professionals in IT staffing, trade compliance, and cross-border e-commerce.
Visit Japan site →Regulatory Foundation
- UEN
- 202548372K
- Address
- 6 Raffles Quay, #11-07 John Hancock Tower, Singapore 048580
- Legal Basis
- Hub-and-spoke structure confirmed by Christopher & Lee Ong
- Affiliation
- JCCI Singapore member services
Certified Carrier Network