Small business website in Japan – start small, launch fast, see a free demo first

Why a small business in Japan still needs a website

Plenty of small businesses in Japan run on Instagram and a LINE Official Account, and that works well for keeping regulars informed. New customers and business partners, though, usually search before they visit or get in touch. They want to check what you offer, what it costs and whether you look trustworthy. Social media is great for fresh news; a website is great for the full picture.

• Found in search: people searching "area + type of business" get your hours, prices and location in one place
• A place to verify you: a site on your own domain helps with B2B deals, bank loans and subsidy applications
• Information that stays put: menus, prices and FAQs remain easy to find while social posts scroll away
• An asset you own: you control the content and the look, and platform rule changes affect you far less
• One front door: booking forms, phone, LINE and directions all start from the same page

Try this: write down the five questions customers ask you most often. The answers are the skeleton of your website.

Around five pages is enough to start

A common trap is planning too many pages and never finishing the content. For a new or one-person business, start with roughly these five. If your offer is simple, a single well-structured page can do the job.

• Home: who you serve and what you offer in one sentence, with a clear booking or contact button
• Services and prices: price guides, duration and scope; if prices vary, explain how they are set
• About: the owner's photo, background and approach – often the page that builds the most trust
• Access and hours: map, parking, days off and the area you cover
• FAQ and contact: cancellations, payment methods and other worries people have before booking

A blog or news section can come later, once you know you will keep it updated. Fewer pages also means a shorter build and a lower budget. For more on keeping costs down, see what to watch for with a low-cost website.

Typical costs: building the site and running it

In Japan, a do-it-yourself template service typically starts from a few thousand yen a month, while a small site built by an agency or freelancer often lands somewhere in the low hundreds of thousands of yen. When you compare options, look past the launch price and check what you will pay every month afterwards.

• Domain: usually a few thousand yen a year – always register it in your own name
• Hosting or platform fees: shared hosting is typically a few hundred to a few thousand yen a month; Shopify and BASE each have their own plan and payment-fee structures
• Updates and maintenance: decide whether you edit the site yourself or pay for help, monthly or per task
• Photos and copy: professional photography or writing may be a separate cost

Japan's Small Business Sustainability Subsidy (小規模事業者持続化補助金) can cover some website costs as part of a sales-growth plan, with limits on which costs qualify and how much of the total they can be. Caps and rates vary by application round and the rules change every year, so always check the latest official guidelines (公募要領) before you plan around it.

Opening a business? Prepare in this order

If the website should be ready on opening day, start one to two months ahead. Once materials are in, a small site typically takes two to four weeks to launch.

• Name and domain: once your business name is settled, check that a matching domain is free
• One main audience: local families, office workers, corporate buyers – pick who you want first
• Materials: logo, photos of the space or your work, a photo of you, menu and price list, hours
• How you take inquiries: phone, form, LINE or a booking tool – only what you can reliably answer
• Map listing at launch: for a shop, create a Google Business Profile and add your site URL
• Legal notices for online sales: if you sell online, prepare the notice required under the Act on Specified Commercial Transactions

Our guide to SEO for small businesses covers how to get found for "area + business type" searches after launch. Smartphone photos work fine if you shoot in daylight and keep the frame simple.

Common mistakes with small business websites

Most problems with small sites come from how they are run day to day. Check these before launch and you avoid most headaches later.

• The domain or hosting is registered in the designer's name, so you cannot move it when you change providers
• Nobody checks the phone layout, and the call button or map is hard to tap
• Hours or prices change, the site stays old and contradicts your social posts
• The home page is crammed with information and visitors cannot tell what you do
• Form notifications land in spam and real inquiries go unanswered

All of these are easy to prevent if you decide early who updates what, and how often. If you only change things a few times a month, a setup where you edit just the news section yourself works well.

How UNANOBO works: a free demo to see if it fits

Before you commit, UNANOBO builds a free demo website around your shop or business. Send your social media links and a note with your services and prices, and you get the pages your business needs as a working site you can open on a computer and a phone.

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. Learn more about how the free website demo works.