How to do Keyword Research for Amazon Japan



When looking to diversify your markets on Amazon, you may consider looking into Amazon Japan. It is the third-largest market for Amazon and is a fairly stable market established about 10+ years ago. However, there are a few things that you’ll encounter along the way, especially when you are working on your listings. Creating your listing in the Japanese language may seem to be a straightforward process with the help of a translator. But, if you want your brand to excel in this market, there are a few elements that you must consider.


We recently held a webinar and have a new blogpost outlining our discussion with Amazon Japan Sellers. Here, we introduce you to the Japanese language and explore keyword research fundamentals for Amazon Japan. Enjoy!


To start, there are four language scripts in Japan. Namely,

  1. Hiragana - the basic Japanese phonetic script that spells out Japanese words.

  2. Kanji - it is a set of Chinese characters that represent whole words.

  3. Katakana - a Japanese phonetic script that spells out foreign words.

  4. Romaji - the representation of Japanese sounds using “Roman” characters or more commonly known as the 26-letter western alphabet.



Although there are four separate scripts, the Japanese actually love to mix-and-match them. For instance, below, you will see an example of a foreign product listing using a mix of the language scripts.



Having to work with these four language scripts may feel intimidating. That’s why, here, we will share the Keyword Research Fundamentals when working with listings for Amazon Japan.


Let’s begin with these few steps.


#1 Start with seed keywords in English


This is a very straightforward step where you simply list down all the seed keywords you will need for your product listing in English. Just like how you choose your seed keywords for your non-Japanese market.


#2 Use Google Translate to translate them into Japanese


#2 Use Google Translate to translate them into Japanese


Here, we introduce the Google Translate + Thesaurus Tool. (Note: You can scan the QR included in the image to easily redirect to this online tool.)


In this tool, you can translate English words into their Japanese equivalent. Below its most frequent translation, you will also see some possible translations for the term. This makes it easier for you to determine whether you are using the one fit for your product.


#3 Find the most popular usage and save to spreadsheet


Other than checking whether the translation is the correct one for your listing, you can also see in the tool the frequency of the word usage; level three with the highest frequency and level one with the lowest. It is also a good practice to save everything to the spreadsheet.


#4 Double check with Japanese to English



The stored terms in the spreadsheet can be double-checked in the software itself. Just use the formula: =GoogleTranslate(text, source_language, target_language). For example, =GoogleTranslate(A1 , "ja", "en").


#5 Search them on Amazon.co.jp to confirm you see your kind of products



Example: Searching the word 匙 (spoon) in Amazon Japan.


Another way to confirm if you are on the right track is by visiting Amazon Japan and typing the term in the search bar. If you see results that are the same as your products, then you are doing great so far.


#6 Open up Brand Analytics and find the SFR (Search Frequency Rank)