Website design cost in Japan – typical prices, what drives them, and how to see the result first

Typical website design cost in Japan

Website design cost in Japan depends mostly on who builds the site and how big it is. These are the price bands you typically see in the Japanese market. Treat them as rough guides; scope moves them up or down.

• DIY with a site builder: free to tens of thousands of yen, usually plus a monthly plan
• Template-based budget build: around ¥100,000–300,000, often with limits on pages and design freedom
• Small business or shop site (about 5–10 pages): around ¥300,000–1,000,000
• Mid-size corporate site (20+ pages with a CMS): around ¥1–3 million
• Online store: from a few hundred thousand yen on Shopify or BASE, several million and up with custom features

Even two five-page sites can differ by a factor of two or more, depending on who writes the text and whether the design is made from scratch. Check which of the factors below each quote includes before comparing totals.

Six factors that drive the price

A website price is a sum of work. When a quote feels high or suspiciously low, walk through these six points and the reason usually shows up.

• Pages and structure: the home page takes the most planning; inner pages are usually priced per page
• CMS: setting up WordPress or similar so you can post news yourself adds build time
• Copy and photos: supplying your own text, or having it written and photographed for you, changes the price a lot
• Design depth: an adjusted template or an original design built around your brand
• Features: contact forms, booking, online sales, member areas – plugging in existing services keeps costs down
• Languages: an English version adds translation plus building and checking each language

Copy is the factor people miss most. "We will send the text later" often means a delayed launch or an extra writing fee. Before you ask for quotes, note what you can prepare yourself.

Costs on top of the build

A website keeps costing a little after launch. Budget for these yearly and monthly items as well:

• Domain: roughly a thousand to a few thousand yen a year, depending on the type
• Hosting: a few hundred to a few thousand yen a month for a small site
• SSL: a free certificate is often enough and may be included with hosting
• Maintenance: CMS and plugin updates, backups and small edits, if you hand them off
• E-commerce fees: Shopify or BASE plan fees and payment processing

A cheap build with expensive maintenance can cost more over a few years than a pricier build you can update yourself. See website running costs for a full breakdown.

How to compare quotes and keep costs down

When you compare quotes, first make sure they cover the same work. Then compare the totals.

• Is the page count stated, with what goes on each page?
• Are copywriting, photos, mobile layout and form setup included?
• Is there a limit on rounds or scope of revisions?
• What does maintenance cost, and what can you edit yourself?
• Will the domain, hosting and GA4 accounts be in your name?

To keep the budget down, launch with the pages you need now and add more later. Drafting your own copy, supplying photos and using existing booking or store services also help. For more, read how to read a website quote and what to watch for with budget web design.

Japanese subsidies such as the 小規模事業者持続化補助金 can sometimes cover part of a website, though website costs often come with conditions – for example, they may not be claimable on their own. Caps and rates change with each application round, so always check the latest official 公募要領.

How UNANOBO works: see the finished site before you pay

Most worry about cost comes from not knowing what the money buys. So before you commit, UNANOBO builds a free demo of your website around your brand and business. You click through it on a computer and a phone, and if you like it, you get a structure proposal, a plan and an estimate based on that demo.

The process is simple: free demo, feedback, launch, growth. The founder handles every project personally, from the first demo to improvements after launch, and everything runs by message in Japanese or English. Planning to rebuild an existing site? See website renewal cost too.