What Japanese Best is
Japanese Best is an independent English-language publication about Japan today. It is written for people who want to visit Japan, live in Japan, or understand the country better. We explain how things in Japan work now, such as rents, commutes, rules, prices and official statistics, using Japanese government, municipal and company sources, and we date every figure.
What we cover
- Live in Japan: what daily life costs and looks like in specific cities and station areas, and the systems residents deal with (rent and move-in costs, rubbish rules, schools). Example: living in Yokohama, with commute, rent and city data.
- Visit Japan: rules and changes that affect visitors now. Example: the tax-free shopping change on November 1, 2026.
- Buy from Japan: the background to Japanese products, such as where they are made, how they are built and how to look after them. We do not publish untested “best” lists.
- Understand Japan: work, money and everyday culture explained with Japanese statistics and law. Example: average salary in Japan (2025 data) and take-home pay.
How we build an article
We start from a specific question a reader would have. Then we go to the Japanese primary source: a ministry, a city office, a statute or a company’s own page. We organise the information for international readers, compare and calculate where that adds something (for example, rent compared with take-home pay), and say what it means in practice. Every figure is linked to the page it comes from, with the date of the data. The details are in our Editorial Policy.
What we don’t do
- We don’t call something a review, or the “best”, unless we have the comparison or test to support it.
- We don’t write as if we visited a place or used a product unless we did. Anything we have not checked in person is marked as not yet surveyed.
- We don’t make claims about what “Japanese people” think or do without a survey or statistic behind them.
Who runs Japanese Best
Japanese Best is an independent publishing project run by a small team. It is not sponsored by manufacturers, retailers or government bodies, and no article is paid for.
Money
Japanese Best may show advertising and may participate in affiliate programmes such as Amazon Associates. Where an article contains affiliate links, it says so on that page. Advertising and affiliate relationships do not decide what we write about or what we conclude. See the Affiliate Disclosure.
Corrections and contact
If you find an error or an outdated figure, please tell us through the Contact page. We check every report and correct confirmed errors. Significant corrections are noted on the article.