Everything hangs on the first three minutes of a pitch, whether in Tokyo or New York.

For Kenji Ueda, who searches out underperforming Japanese companies for U.S. investment firm Ripplewood LLC, those three minutes are some of the hardest in his job.

For months, the managing director of Ripplewood Japan, Inc. approaches promising companies, coaxing executives to trust a firm most Japanese managers associate with high-profile acquisitions, like that of the former Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan.