What Nihongo Search is
Nihongo Search (jp-seo.com) is an English-language publication about Japanese SEO and AI search visibility. It is written for companies from outside Japan that are entering the Japanese market or already selling there.
Nihongo Search is published by Amanaut, Inc., a Japanese SEO and content company in Tokyo founded in 2019. Amanaut’s founder, Hiroki Tanaka, writes and edits every article. The research is done in Japanese, on Japanese search results and Japanese sources.
Amanaut also does the work the site describes, for a limited number of companies: Japanese keyword research, Japanese content, entity and structured-data work, and measurement of rankings and AI answers.
When Nihongo Search is useful
- You are planning a Japan launch and want to know how Japanese search works before you set a budget. Start with the Japan market-entry SEO guide.
- Your site was translated into Japanese, and Japanese organic traffic has not moved. The usual causes are in why translated content fails to rank.
- You want to know how ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and other AI assistants answer questions about your category in Japanese. See AI search in Japan.
- You sell B2B software, developer tools or enterprise IT in Japan. The buying path differs by product: B2B SaaS, developer tools, enterprise IT.
- Your product has no proper Japanese page yet, and you want one well-researched Japanese article about it. That is a sponsored feature.
Amanaut in numbers
These figures are Amanaut’s own counts.
| Figure | What it counts |
|---|---|
| 129 companies in 44 industries | Companies Amanaut has worked with on Japanese search and content since 2020, as of May 2026. All operate in Japan, including Japanese subsidiaries of global companies and large comparison media. |
| More than 3,000 articles a year | Japanese articles Amanaut produces in a year. |
| More than 250 professionals | Qualified professionals, including doctors and tax accountants, who review Amanaut’s articles on health and money topics. |
| Founded 2019 | Amanaut, Inc. (株式会社アマノート), Nihonbashi Kabutocho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo. Japan Corporate Number 7010001205144. |
Amanaut also runs Book Crunch, a Japanese book media. We test methods there first and track its search performance and AI citations every week.
What Amanaut does — and what it does not
- Japanese keyword and intent research. Done in Japanese, with each script variant treated as its own search term.
- Japanese content. Written for Japanese readers, not converted from English.
- Entity and structured-data work. So that Japanese search engines and AI systems can tell who you are.
- Measurement. Japanese rankings, and how AI assistants answer your buyers’ questions.
Amanaut does not run ad campaigns, resell template localization or sell a dashboard. It is not a full-service agency.
Working with Amanaut: the terms
| Who we work with | Companies from outside Japan that are entering or already in the Japanese market, and agencies acting for them. |
|---|---|
| Language | We work with you in English. Japanese content is written in Japanese. |
| Working style | Mostly in writing: fixed-scope written deliverables and recorded walkthroughs instead of standing meetings. This suits clients in other time zones. |
| Who does the work | A small senior team. The person you talk to does the work. Hiroki Tanaka edits every article. |
| Price of a sponsored feature | JPY 40,000 per article (excl. tax), paid once. No renewal fee. Details. |
| Price of other work | Quoted per fixed scope. |
| Payment | Sponsored features are invoiced on the day of publication, payable within 14 days by Wise, PayPal or bank transfer in Japan. We can invoice your agency instead of you. |
Most companies reach us after a translated site failed to rank. In our experience that is a diagnosis problem, not a Japan problem.
How we check what we publish
- Every figure carries the date it was checked and its source. When sources disagree, the article says so.
- We read Japanese search results and Japanese sources directly, not English summaries of them.
- For AI visibility, we ask the same questions in ChatGPT Search, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Gemini over several weeks. One run is not enough, because the answers change from run to run.
- Before we change a page, we record where it stood. Afterwards we report what happened, including when the change did not work.
Who writes and edits Nihongo Search
Nihongo Search is written and edited by Hiroki Tanaka (田中寛大), founder and CEO of Amanaut, Inc.
Hiroki Tanaka holds a master’s degree from the Graduate School of Social Sciences, Hitotsubashi University. In 2018 he joined an IT-related government-affiliated organization, where he edited an ICT journal and supported local governments on information security. He founded Amanaut in 2019.
He has written for Japanese media including Netorabo (ITmedia) and All About News, and was a Yahoo! News Expert from 2022 to March 2026. He supported content production for a large Japanese comparison media company from 2021 to 2026. Since 2023 he has been a content director at Willgate, a Japanese SEO firm. He holds SEO Certification Level 1 from the All Japan SEO Association.
LinkedIn · Profile at Amanaut (Japanese)
Questions about Nihongo Search
Is Nihongo Search a publication or an agency?
Nihongo Search is a publication. Its publisher, Amanaut, Inc., also takes on Japanese SEO and AI visibility work for a limited number of companies. The articles describe the methods Amanaut uses in that work.
Who owns Nihongo Search?
Amanaut, Inc. (株式会社アマノート) owns Nihongo Search. Amanaut is registered in Tokyo under Japan Corporate Number 7010001205144. Its founder and CEO, Hiroki Tanaka, writes and edits the site.
Is Nihongo Search related to the Nihongo app for learning Japanese?
No. Nihongo Search (jp-seo.com) is a publication about Japanese SEO. It has no connection to the Nihongo dictionary and study app.
Do I need to read Japanese to work with Amanaut?
No. We work with you in English. When we write a Japanese article for you, you review the facts, and you do not need to read Japanese to approve it.
How much does a sponsored feature cost?
A standard sponsored feature costs JPY 40,000 per article, excluding tax, paid once on publication. If our editors write the Japanese article for you, we quote per article. The formats and the process are on the contribute page.
Can Amanaut guarantee rankings or AI mentions?
No. Rankings and AI answers depend on systems we do not control, and AI answers change from one question to the next. What we can show is the same set of questions, measured over several weeks.
Updated 4 October 2026.