A website for foreign tourists in Japan – easy to find, easy to visit

What a website for foreign tourists needs to do

Most visitors to Japan find places on Google Maps or through search, often while already walking around the neighborhood. After the photos and reviews, they open the official website to confirm the details. That final check is where your site wins or loses the visit.

Travelers look for slightly different things than local customers. Make these five points clear even to someone who reads no Japanese at all:

• What you offer: food, products or services, shown with photos and short English text
• Prices: tax-included prices, course or room rates, any extra charges
• How to get there: nearest station and exit, a map, a photo of the entrance, which floor you are on
• Booking and payment: whether a reservation is needed and how to make one, accepted cards and QR payments
• Rules: hours, closing days, seats, cancellation policy, house rules

Try this today: open your site on a phone, pretend you cannot read Japanese and see whether those five points come through. The more you can say with photos and numbers, the less text you need to translate.

Where inbound visitors drop off

Being found on the map is only half the job. These are the most common reasons a tourist leaves a site without booking or visiting:

• The menu or price list exists only as an image or PDF that translation apps struggle with
• Reservations are by phone only, with no way to ask a question in English
• There is an English home page, but the menu and directions are still in Japanese
• Raw machine translation turns dish names and place names into confusing English
• Hours or closing days on Google Maps do not match the website
• Nothing says whether cards are accepted or the place is cash only

None of these needs a full rebuild. Mark the ones that apply and fix booking, payment and directions first – they decide whether people actually show up.

Choosing languages: English, Chinese and beyond

Every language you add means more translation and more updates. A realistic plan starts with English and adds languages based on where your guests actually come from.

• English: readable for travelers from Europe, North America and much of Asia, so it comes first
• Chinese: Simplified for mainland China, Traditional for Taiwan and Hong Kong – the scripts differ, so prepare them separately
• Korean: worth adding if many guests in your area or industry come from Korea
• Which pages: home, menu and prices, access, booking and FAQ cover the essentials

Machine translation is a fine first draft, but have a person check dish names, product names and any warnings. Give each language its own URL, such as /en/, and use hreflang tags so search engines show the right version to each reader. Our guide to multilingual website production covers language switchers and translation workflows in more detail.

Maps, booking and payment info by business type

Right before a visit, people look for directions, booking and payment details. Put these on your foreign-language pages and you will answer most questions before anyone has to ask:

• Shops and retail: whether you offer tax-free sales, accepted payment methods, holds or overseas shipping, step-by-step directions with photos
• Restaurants: a photo menu with tax-included prices, what you can handle for allergies, vegetarian or halal requests, how to book, any seating charge (otoshi) or service fee
• Lodgings: check-in and check-out times and method, key pickup, house rules, routes from the station and airport, the nearest convenience store and ATM
• Everyone: a Google Maps link, an entrance photo, the address in romaji, Wi-Fi, and a way to contact you in English (form, email or a messaging app)

Connecting a booking service that works in English lets guests in other time zones reserve without calling. Tax-free and payment rules in Japan are being revised, so check the latest guidance from the Japan Tourism Agency and the National Tax Agency before you publish. Running a guesthouse or minpaku? See websites for small lodgings.

Connecting your site to where tourists search

Once the site is ready, bring travelers to it from the places they already use to plan. Work through these four steps after launch:

• Google Business Profile: match hours, photos and the website link with your site, and reply to English reviews in English
• Search in other languages: write a title and description for each language page, using the words travelers actually type
• Ads: reach people planning a trip to Japan or already staying nearby, targeted by area and language
• Measurement: use GA4 to see visits by country and language and clicks on the booking button

For more, see inbound SEO on getting found in foreign-language search and inbound advertising on targeting tourists by area and language.

How UNANOBO helps: a free demo of your tourist-ready pages

Before you commit to anything, UNANOBO builds a free demo based on your current website or shop information: an English page with your menu or rates, access and booking details laid out the way a visitor needs them. You open it on your phone, click through it and decide whether to go ahead.

The process is simple: free demo, feedback, launch, growth. The founder handles every project personally, so you keep one contact from the first demo to marketing after launch. Everything runs by message, in Japanese or English. Which language to start with and how many pages to translate can be decided together while looking at the demo.