SEO and AI search for Japanese businesses

Google, Yahoo! JAPAN and what it means for rankings

Google is the main search engine in Japan, and Yahoo! JAPAN search is powered by Google's results. In practice one organic programme covers both. Yahoo! JAPAN still matters for its own portal, news and shopping traffic, and for its separate advertising platform. Bing is a small slice of the market and mostly matters because it feeds some AI answers.

Japanese-language content, written for Japanese searchers

Japanese search is not English search with different letters. Text mixes kanji, hiragana and katakana, there are no spaces between words, and the same idea often has two or three common spellings. A machine-translated English keyword list misses how people actually type. Research has to start from Japanese queries in Search Console and keyword tools, and the copy needs a native editor.

We confirm every term against real query data before it goes into a title or heading, and we plan a native-editor review step in each schedule.

Domains, hreflang and site structure

The .jp domain is run by JPRS and expects a contact address in Japan. A co.jp name is limited to companies registered in Japan. A foreign brand without a Japanese entity usually launches on its .com with a /ja/ section and ja-JP hreflang, then moves later if it sets up locally. Check the current JPRS rules before buying.

• Japanese entity: a .jp or co.jp domain, with ja set as the page language.
• No Japanese entity: a /ja/ folder on the main domain, hreflang ja-JP, yen prices including tax and Japanese contact details.
• Both versions live: reciprocal hreflang tags, one canonical per page, and a language switcher that does not auto-redirect crawlers.

Our hreflang generator helps with the tags and international SEO covers wider structure questions.

SEO services we run for Japan

Pick the page that matches your site type.

• Technical SEO: crawling, indexing, Japanese fonts and speed.
• Ecommerce SEO and Shopify SEO: category pages, product data and Google Merchant Center.
• B2B SEO and SaaS SEO: long buying cycles, comparison content and trust pages.
• AI search optimization: getting cited in Google AI answers, ChatGPT and Perplexity.
• Social media marketing: LINE, Instagram, X and YouTube.

Rules and calendar that touch an SEO programme

Japan's Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI) is overseen by the Personal Information Protection Commission. Analytics, forms and ad pixels collect data, so the privacy notice must describe them. Online stores also need the disclosure page required by the Act on Specified Commercial Transactions, and consumer prices are normally shown including consumption tax. Check each point with your lawyer.

Working across the time gap, and what it costs

Japan is 3.5 hours ahead of India. A call at 10:00 in Pune is 13:30 in Tokyo, so Japanese afternoons overlap with our mornings. We work remotely, send a written update after each phase and report from your Search Console data. Public pricing starts at $1,500 per project and $30 an hour, with a fixed quote after a short call on the contact page. The SEO cost guide explains what moves the price.