Advertising

Advertise With What's On Japan

Reach English-speaking visitors, expats, and Japan enthusiasts at the moment they are deciding what to do.

What's On Japan is Japan's most comprehensive English-language events guide — translating hundreds of events from Japanese-only sources daily and delivering them to an audience that no other platform reaches in quite the same way. Our readers are not passive browsers. They are actively planning. They have disposable income, a genuine interest in Japan, and they are looking for things to do right now.

Our Audience

Who reads us

•Foreign residents living in Japan — expats, international students, English teachers, professionals
•Tourists currently visiting Japan planning their days and evenings
•Japan enthusiasts planning future trips who use our site for research
•English-speaking Japanese nationals looking for internationally-facing content

Where they are

Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Fukuoka, Sapporo, and every prefecture in between. Our coverage spans all 47 prefectures with particularly strong depth in Kanto and Kansai.

What they spend on

Event tickets, restaurant bookings, hotel stays, travel passes, experiences, tours, and cultural activities. This is a high-intent audience actively seeking things to spend money on in Japan.

Advertising Options

Featured Event Listing

From ¥3,500 per event

The most direct way to put your event in front of our audience. Featured events appear at the top of relevant city and category search results, in the featured carousel on our homepage, highlighted with a distinctive badge across all listings, and included in our weekly LINE digest and email newsletter.

✔Top placement in city and category results
✔Featured homepage carousel
✔Distinctive featured badge
✔Included in LINE digest and newsletter
✔Volume packages for multiple events

Ideal for: Event organisers, venues, restaurants hosting special events, cultural institutions, and tourism operators.

Newsletter Sponsorship

From ¥15,000 per send

Our weekly newsletter reaches Japan enthusiasts who have actively chosen to stay informed about what is happening across the country. A newsletter sponsorship places your message directly in their inbox alongside our curated event picks.

✔Sponsor mention at the top of the newsletter
✔One paragraph of copy about your product or service
✔Your logo and a link to your website or booking page
✔Dedicated placement separate from editorial content

Ideal for: Travel brands, Japan Rail Pass providers, tour operators, accommodation providers, language schools, and any business whose customers follow an English-language Japan events newsletter.

Monthly Brand Partnership

From ¥80,000 per month

For brands and organisations that want sustained presence rather than one-off placements. Monthly partnerships are available to a limited number of partners at any one time to ensure genuine editorial independence and audience trust.

✔Up to five featured event listings per month
✔Two newsletter mentions per month
✔Four social media posts across Instagram, Facebook, and LINE
✔One sponsored editorial piece per month
✔Monthly performance report showing reach and engagement

Ideal for: Tourism boards, hotel chains, travel platforms, and established Japan-facing brands.

API Data Access

From ¥10,000 per month

Our events database covers hundreds of events across Japan, translated daily from Japanese-language sources. If your business needs structured English-language Japan event data — hotels, concierge services, travel apps, tour operators — API access gives you a clean, regularly updated feed of events you can integrate directly into your own platform. Pricing is based on usage volume.

✔Clean JSON feed of upcoming events across Japan
✔Updated daily from Japanese-language sources
✔Filter by city, category, and date range
✔Pricing based on usage volume
✔Custom integration support available

Ideal for: Hotels, concierge services, travel apps, tour operators, and any business that needs structured Japan event data in English.

Why Advertise With What's On Japan

You reach people at the right moment.

Our audience is not scrolling passively through a social media feed. They are actively looking for something to do, somewhere to go, something to book. That intent makes every impression more valuable.

You reach people that Japanese-only channels miss.

The English-speaking visitor and resident market in Japan is large, growing, and consistently underserved by domestic marketing. What's On Japan is one of the few channels built specifically to reach this audience in their own language.

You benefit from editorial credibility.

What's On Japan is built on the genuine expertise of an eight-year Japan resident with deep knowledge of the country's cultural landscape. Our audience trusts our recommendations. That trust extends to the partners we work with.

You support independent journalism.

What's On Japan is independently owned and operated. Advertising revenue directly supports the work of translating and surfacing events that would otherwise be invisible to English speakers in Japan.

Get in touch

We are happy to discuss options, put together a custom package, or answer any questions about our audience and reach. We aim to respond to all advertising enquiries within 48 hours.

hello@whatsonjapan.com

Or use our contact form

What's On Japan does not accept advertising for content that conflicts with our editorial values, including content that misrepresents events, venues, or experiences to our audience. We reserve the right to decline any advertising enquiry at our discretion.