RResidents in Japan

Commonly used websites in Japan

I’m looking to expand my knowledge of some of the commonly used websites among Japanese people. I find I often rely too much on non-Japanese ones and people newer to the country may too.

Would redditors mind sharing some of the major Japanese sites , as well as their purpose, which are good to know if you’re living here? Anything goes really, shopping, fashion, news, entertainment, restaurants, festivals, housing, etc.

41 comments

  7. [https://www.hikkoshi-line.com/](https://www.hikkoshi-line.com/)

    Quote (translated from Japanese): moving RakuRakucho allows you to register your name and moving address, and perform address change procedures for utilities such as electricity, gas, and water, as well as NHK, credit cards, and other major companies all at once.

  8. You can easily make a ranking by looking at the UX of the website.

    The worse the UX, the more popular it is.

  10. [https://www.instabase.jp/](https://www.instabase.jp/) – If you need to find a location such as a studio, office room, location to rent for various activities on an hourly basis.

    [https://hanabi.walkerplus.com/](https://hanabi.walkerplus.com/) – Find various fireworks shows around the country and lots of info about them.

    [https://wear.jp/](https://wear.jp/) – Coordinators / Coordination / Outfit ideas

    [https://www.takumen.com](https://www.takumen.com/rankings) – Ramen delivery, can be a nice alternative if there are particular shops on the other side of the city / prefecture / country that you can’t make it out to.

  14. Websites that I often use in Japanese:

    * おーぷん2ch (message board)
    * 5ch (message board)
    * NHK news (news)
    * Yomiuri Shinbun (news)
    * Narou (web novels)
    * Kakuyomu (web novels)
    * Novelism (web novels)
    * マンガ図書館Z (legal free manga)
    * Getchu (I use it for news mainly, I don’t shop there)
    * Yahoo! Japan news (news)
    * Wikipedia (deep dives)
    * Game Watch (gaming news)
    * Famitsu (gaming news)
    * Chiebukuro (like quora or yahoo answers)
    * Akiba Souken (anime/game news)
    * Ameburo (b l o g s)
    * Hamusoku (2chまとめ site)

    Apps that I use in Japanese:

    * Mercari (flea market app)
    * TikTok (No English content in my feed)
    * Abema TV (free tv)
    * Twitter (No English content in my feed)
    * TVer (free relay streams of currently-airing shows)
    * YouTube (I keep separate accounts – one for English content and one for Japanese content)
    * Rakuten Kobo (ebooks)
    * 読書メーター (reading tracker)
    * SmartNews (Japanese version. The English app is garbage that will give you anxiety)
    * ゼブラっク (manga)
    * マガポケ(manga)

  15. [https://www.oshimaland.co.jp/](https://www.oshimaland.co.jp/)

    Website that gathers and shows data of houses marked “jiko bukken”. It’s obviously not perfect, but it’s the most popular site for something like this. Mainly used to find and avoid these places, but if you don’t mind the events that happened there, this can help you find cheap place to live.

  18. I once opened Google on a work computer so I could find restaurant information for our work nomikai. My older Japanese colleague slowly typed “yahoo” into the search bar of Google, clicked the “yahoo.co.jp” result link, and then searched the restaurant name in yahoo jp. It was soul-destroying to watch.

    So yeah, Yahoo Japan I guess.

  22. kakaku.com

    Compare prices of various products and services.
    Been using it ever since I was a kid, still uses it to this day.
    But don’t forget that this website is usually the shortcut for cheap things online in Japan but there are many other websites sell things are not listed here.
    So use it as first step if buying things online.

  23. If you are into hiking, trekking, or trail running, instead of all trails, the Facebook Japan hiking or something, Yamap and Yamakei are great and there is no English equivalent to them. You can plan trails and what not with all trails but yamap and yamakei are much more accurate and have good UX. Tenkura can also go along with these if you want to look at the weather conditions of mountains but I find another website better even tho its only offered in English.

  26. Yahoo mail.
    I got lost trying to navigate to unsubscribe to the bs. Ended up just blocking the thing

  29. U-NEXT for streaming, Cookpad for recipes. Suumo and Homes.co.jp for house hunting.

  30. Mercari: https://jp.mercari.com/

    Basically the local ebay, minus the auction part.

    Wonderful to buy random shit that you can’t find in stores. Weird showa-era lamps, obscure gachapons, old manuscripts for my mom, retired lego sets.. bought lots of shit there.

  31. It’s too bad the Tokyo Reporter closed down. That site was a riot, always crazy stuff posted there

    Generally speaking I avoid Japanese media websites because they parrot what I’m already watching on TV. Did you guys see that was a fender bender involving a white Honda today? Incredible!

  35. If you want to gather information, I recommend 5ちゃんねる.
    It’s the original site of 4chan and reddit, so you can get most of your Japanese information here.
    However, it has a lot of its own rules and slang, so you need to be an expert in Japanese to use it.

  39. jalan for travel

    tabelog for food

    qiita for stack overflow/medium

    rakuten, mercari, yahoo auctions for shopping

  40. https://shop.tsukumo.co.jp/

    They sell computer components, laptops and other appliances

    They ship all over Japan and they accept PayPal as payment, I used them a couple times and it was fine. They have local shops as well.

  41. * Kakaku – price aggregator
    * Yahoo Chiebukuro – Yahoo answers but more serious
    * JMA – authoritative website for weather and disaster information
    * Gurunavi / Tabelog / Hotpepper – includes local restaurant reviews
    * Eplus and Ticket Pia – event tickets
    * Your local transit website

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