Looking for help with spam pages in Japanese appearing on your site? That is usually the “Japanese keyword hack”, a security problem rather than an SEO service. Google’s guide is the place to start: Fix the Japanese keyword hack.
What does Japanese SEO for an overseas company involve?
Six pieces of work, in this order:
- Japanese keyword research — the words Japanese buyers type, not the translation of yours.
- Pages written for Japanese readers — localised in structure and proof points, not only in language.
- Technical set-up for a multilingual site — URL structure, language tags (hreflang), indexing.
- Google and Yahoo! JAPAN, plus Bing — Yahoo! JAPAN uses Google’s search technology, so they move together; Bing is checked separately.
- LINE and social — the channels Japanese readers move to once they have found you.
- Monthly work, reported in English — what was published, what moved and what came in.
None of this requires a Japanese company or office. It does require someone who reads the search results the way a Japanese buyer does, which is the part that is hardest to do from abroad.
Which search engines matter in Japan?
Google first, but not only Google. Bing’s share in Japan is large enough that we check rankings there as well.
| Search engine | Share |
|---|---|
| 59.27% | |
| Bing | 31.41% |
| Yahoo! | 7.61% |
| Others | 1.71% |
Why isn’t translating our English keywords enough?
Because the translated term is often not the term people search with.
- Japanese mixes four scripts, so one idea can be written several ways — for example スマホ and スマートフォン (both “smartphone”) — and each version has its own demand.
- Buyers in a category often use a loanword, an abbreviation or an industry term that no dictionary gives you.
- A literal translation can have little or no search demand at all, while the phrase buyers actually use goes unanswered.
So the research starts from Japanese search data and from the pages that already rank in Japan, and works back to your product — not forwards from your English keyword list.
Should the Japanese pages sit on our existing domain?
Usually yes. A Japanese section on your existing domain is the simplest place to start; a separate .jp domain can also work.
What matters more than the address is that each language version is complete in itself and that the versions point to each other with language tags, so that search engines show Japanese readers the Japanese page. Our own site works this way: Japanese at the root, English under /en/, each page linked to its counterpart.
Does AI search change Japanese SEO?
It adds to it rather than replacing it. AI answers (Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT and others) draw on pages that answer a question clearly and can be trusted.
So we write each Japanese page as a direct answer to a question your buyers ask, with the facts close to the top, and we check whether your company is mentioned when those questions are put to AI tools. We do not promise that it will be; nobody can.
What does the monthly work look like?
- First: research, a list of the searches worth answering, and the order to answer them in.
- Then, each month: pages written or rewritten, technical fixes, and the LINE and social work that follows from them.
- Every month: a report in English — which searches you appeared for, which pages were read, and which enquiries came in.
What we will not do
- Promise rankings. Nobody controls them.
- Buy links or publish pages written only for search engines.
- Post reviews or comments that hide who wrote them. In Japan, undisclosed advertising has been regulated under the Act against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations since October 2023.
Why a company called “SEO International” writes this page
Our name comes from the family name of our founder, Hiroshi Seo. Because of it, our own English pages were shown to people searching for SEO agencies in Japan — people we had no page for. This page is the answer to them. Japanese search and discoverability has been part of our Japanese-language web, social and LINE service from the start; here it is stated on its own.
FAQ
Questions about Japanese SEO
QDo you guarantee rankings in Japan?
QDo we need a Japanese company or office to do SEO in Japan?
QCan you work with our existing site, agency or CMS?
QWe have spam pages in Japanese on our site. Is that something you fix?
QWhat does it cost?
Contact
Start with a conversation.
Tell us what you sell and who should find it in Japan. The first consultation is free and can be held online.