Japanese Search Engines and Directories

Information available on Japanese Search Engines in English is not very plentiful on the web. Most info is terribly outdated or extremely limited. While this page is not totally comprehensive, it does list all of the major players.

Last updated: August 2003
Site Main Results Directory Results Other Results PPC Results*
@Search Google @nifty
Infoseek
n/a Google AdWords
AAA! Cafe AAA! Cafe dmoz n/a n/a
All About Japan BIGLOBE (Google) All About Japan n/a n/a
Alltheweb FAST n/a n/a Overture USA**
AltaVista AltaVista LookSmart n/a Overture USA**
AOL NetFind Google dmoz n/a Google AdWords
BIGLOBE Search Attayo Google LookSmart JWord (¥) Google AdWords
DION Google LookSmart JWord (¥) Google AdWords
DMOZ n/a dmoz n/a n/a
Excite Japan Google LookSmart JWord (¥) Google AdWords
freshEYE TOCC/Inktomi LookSmart
Fresheye ($)
JWord (¥) Overture Japan
Goo Inktomi goo FAST (multimedia) Overture Japan
Google Google dmoz n/a Google AdWords
Hi-Ho Search Google Excite / LookSmart Naver, JWord (¥) Google AdWords
Infoseek Japan Infoseek Infoseek n/a Overture Japan
J.O.Y. n/a J.O.Y. Google n/a
Jicoo n/a Jicoo n/a n/a
Lycos Japan Infoseek LookSmart n/a Overture Japan
LookSmart
MSN Search Inktomi LookSmart n/a Overture Japan
NAVER Japan Naver n/a Naver (¥), JWord (¥)  n/a
OCN Search Goo/Inktomi OCN Goo
Excite/Google
Infoseek
Fresheye
n/a
ODN Search Excite/Google LookSmart JWord (¥) Google AdWords
LookSmart
So-net Search Excite/Google LookSmart JWord (¥) Google AdWords
LookSmart
TOCC/Search Inktomi n/a n/a n/a
WebGate n/a WebGate n/a n/a
Yahoo! Japan Google Yahoo n/a Overture Japan
Google AdWords
* PPC = Pay Per Click

Robot driven Search Engines

A robot is a program that automatically traverses the Web's hypertext structure by retrieving a document, and recursively retrieving all documents that are referenced. These search engines deal with Japanese language content:

goo goo
Google Google
Traffic One Communications Corporation TOCC
Excite Japan Excite Japan
Fast / All the Web Fast / All the Web
AltaVista AltaVista
Naver Japan Naver Japan
Infoseek Japan K.K. infoseek Japan
Lycos Japan Lycos Japan
InfoNavigator Hayate InfoNavigator Hayate
FreshEye FreshEye
Verno Verno
MYCOM PC WEB - Search MYCOM PC WEB - Search
Mondou (RCAAU) Mondou (RCAAU)
  NTT/CLMS(MU)
  NetScoop
  NII Web Search
Lisa Lisa

Directories

Directories are catalogs of Web content organized into categories. Most directories are human edited. These are some of the more popular Japanese directories:

Yahoo! Japan Yahoo! Japan
goo goo
Google Google
MSN MSN
Excite Japan Excite Japan
Lycos Japan Lycos Japan
ISIZE ISIZE
iNET Guide iNET Guide
  Orions
Japanese Open Yellowpages J.O.Y.
Infoseek Japan Web Directory Infoseek Japan
All About Japan All About Japan
Netscape Open Directory Project DMOZ
FreshEye FreshEye
Jicoo Jicoo
MYCOM PC WEB MYCOM PC WEB - Search
Netisland Netisland
Net Office Nakai Net Office Nakai
Open Documentary Information Navigator ODiN
WebGate WebGate

Portals/ISPs

Many Internet Service Providers provide large catalogs of information (directories) and Web search facilities for their subscribers. These are some of the bigger portals provided by Japanese ISPs:

Nifty @search @search
BIGLOBE Search Attayo BIGLOBE Search Attayo
ODN Search ODN Search
Hi-HO e-Search Hi-HO e-Search
OCN Search OCN Search
AOL NetFind AOL NetFind
DION DION

Posted by Bill at August 23, 2003 6:21 PM
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Comments

do you have a younger list?

Posted by: tシャツ プリント at March 28, 2007 5:14 AM

Pretty nice site, wants to see much more on it! :)s

Posted by: Willem at July 22, 2008 2:34 AM

Great list of Japanese resource

Posted by: Veeda Asia at January 12, 2010 3:40 PM

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