What is the Most Popular Search Engine in Japan? Updated for 2025

As a digital marketing agency in Japan, our clients often ask us this question. This article introduces some of the latest statistics on Japan’s search engine market share. Understanding what is the most popular search engine will help formulate the best SEO strategies for optimizing your site for the Japanese audience.

Here is the 2025 data on Search Engine Market Share in Japan by StatCounter.

As the graph above shows, Google is the most popular search engine in Japan (as of January 2025).

Overall Search Engine Market Share Japan

As of January 2025, here is the overall search engine marketing share, according to Stat Counter.

1. Google: 81.5%
2. Yahoo: 9.2%
3. Bing: 7.7%
4. Others: <1%

Search Engine Trends In Japan

Historical data shows that Google has held the majority of the market share in Japan for the past 10 years, currently sitting at 81.5%. As of December 2024, Yahoo Japan, the second-ranked search engine, holds only about 9.2% of the market share. Google is clearly a dominant leader in Japan and will likely remain so.

An interesting trend is Bing’s recent rise. It is now sitting at under 8% market share. However, looking closely at the trends in 2024, Bing market share peaked at 14.6% in June 2024. This coincided with the peak of ChatGPT Interest. We believe these 2 metrics are correlated.

But since that time, Bing market share  has fallen to 7.7% market share in January 2025. So while the yearly trend appears to be catching up to Yahoo Japan, looking at the monthly data suggests it decline going forward.

Search Results by Device

Here are the search results by device. While there are some minor differences between desktop, mobile, and tablet, the overall trend is the same.

In Japan, mobile searches make up the majority of total searches, with Google leading the category at 85.9%.

In contrast to Desktop, Bing’s presence on mobile devices is minimal, at just 0.76%. We believe this is for 2 reasons.

1. The rise of ChatGPT appears to be a desktop-only phenomenon. It has not picked up on mobile as of early 2025.
2. Some Japanese computer makers have Bing as the default web browser.

Search Results Listings Differences Between Google and Yahoo

Yahoo Japan has adopted Google’s algorithms since 2011. Because of their similarities, optimizing your website for Google will also improve SEO on Yahoo Japan.

Source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/yahoo-japan-search-strategy/270231/

However, Yahoo Search will often show different items in the organic search results. Take a look at the screenshot below for the similarities and differences. Yahoo Japan is at the top, and Google is at the bottom. The keyword used for this example is “オリジナルTシャツ” (Original T-Shirts).

Yahoo:

Google:

Key points:

• Organic search results (shown in blue) are similar on both platforms. Both also feature rich snippets, such as FAQs, for some pages. You can learn more about FAQ schema in this article.
•  
• Paid search ads (shown in red) appear on both platforms but for different products, highlighting the differences in Google Ads and Yahoo Ads’ display tools and bidding systems.
• Other features, such as Google’s “Local Maps Pack” and Yahoo Shopping listings (shown in orange), are unique to each platform.
•  

If you need professional help from an SEO Agency in Japan, please contact us at Zo Digital Japan. We provide guidance on how to rank on both Google and Yahoo Japan.

Is Yahoo More Popular than Google?

A search for “Is Yahoo More Popular than Google?” yields mixed results. Some older sources, like a 2022 Nielsen report on Japanese online trends, indicated that:

• Average Monthly Reach (2022):
  • Yahoo Japan: 68.3%
  • Google: 66.1%
• Average Monthly Usage Time (Share):
  • Yahoo Japan: 9%
  • Google: 6%

Based on these figures, Yahoo was more popular in Japan. However, more recent data from a 2024 Nielsen report and rankings on SimilarWeb tell a different story—Google is the most visited website in Japan.

Yahoo Japan Is a Popular Content Portal

Yahoo Japan offers a wide array of services, including Yahoo News—a very popular news platform in Japan—along with finance, weather, and over 100 additional services. This diverse content portfolio has historically driven high engagement and made Yahoo one of the most visited sites in the country.

Google as a Search Engine

Even though Yahoo Japan’s portal attracts more overall page visits, Google remains the go-to search engine for most people in Japan. Its trusted search capabilities bring in huge amounts of traffic, which is why the latest data shows Google as the most visited website in Japan.

Thus, while earlier reports highlighted Yahoo’s strong reach and engagement, current web traffic metrics confirm that Google’s dominance in search has led to it becoming the most visited site overall in Japan.

Summary

Google is the most popular search engine in Japan, with an 81.6% market share. Yahoo is second, with 8.85%, although its market share is decreasing. Bing is rising, with a 7.85% market share, possibly benefiting from the rising popularity of ChatGPT.

Yahoo Japan’s search engine uses Google’s algorithms, so core organic search results are similar in terms of ranking. However, Google and Yahoo may include their unique search features, such as “Google Map Pack” or Yahoo Shopping/News. For pay-per-click (PPC) ad specialists, the paid ads tools are completely different. While Google is the most popular search engine, Yahoo is the most popular site in Japan.

Finally, it’s also important to note that Yahoo Japan is not owned by Yahoo in the US, and the technologies used are completely different. Therefore, you shouldn’t assume the search engines will behave or perform the same.

Overall, understanding the search engine market share in Japan, including the similarities and differences of top search engines, is essential to developing the best digital marketing strategies for the Japanese market.

Credits

Article updated by Jeff Crawford with help from Kiyoto, Yuka,  Mariko & Yuto.