Web platform · Directory
BizConnect Japan: making foreign-owned businesses in Japan easy to find and to trust
An English-language directory for finding foreign-owned businesses across Japan, with verification, search, a map, and listing plans for business owners.
Visit site
01
Search by location, category and "English-speaking", with a map
02
Verification against Japan's corporate-number registry
03
Listing plans, an enquiry inbox and statistics for owners
01
The problem
Foreign-owned businesses in Japan are scattered and hard to vet. English speakers struggle to find trustworthy, English-capable services, and the owners struggle to be seen.
02
How we approached it
- 1
Search with filters for location, category and "English-speaking", plus a map view.
- 2
Verification against Japan's official corporate-number registry, plus a manual review queue.
- 3
Plans for owners (Free, Verified, Featured), an inbox for enquiries, and view and click statistics.
- 4
Free tools for foreigners in Japan (a Japanese-era date converter and an address formatter), plus a blog.
- 5
Spam and bot protection on every form.
03
Challenges we faced
Getting an app-style site found on Google
Listing pages are pre-rendered, with structured data and correct canonical tags, so each business can be indexed.
Speed
We split out the map library, moved images out of the database into storage, and cut repeated data fetches, which made the first page load much faster.
Honesty builds trust
We removed a placeholder rating and labelled sample listings clearly, so what visitors see is real.
Payments
Payment notifications are handled safely and featured placements expire correctly.
Project gallery
Have a similar challenge?
Start with a free consultation — we reply within hours.
Get a free consultation →More work
E-commerce · Bilingual Shopify store
AOTOMORI: a bilingual sandal store where customers configure every pair
- 7 models and ~1,090 combinations, each showing only its own photos
- Japanese and English store with sizes in centimetres
- Store build, LINE setup, launch assets and ongoing support from one team
AI web app · Publishing
StoryArc: an AI that interviews you, then helps turn your answers into a book
- An AI interview that turns your answers into a book outline
- Four steps from idea to KDP-ready PDF, EPUB and DOCX
- Japanese and English; launch planned for late 2026