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Suumo and At Home dominate broad property searches in Japan. But "Minato-ku apartment for sale", "Shibuya property agent", "Tokyo condo for foreign buyers" — those specific, high-intent searches are where agencies and developers can compete. Bilingual content, area guides, and correct schema are the mechanism. Most agencies have none of it.
Real estate agencies
Condominium developers
Foreign buyer specialists
"東京 マンション 購入" (Tokyo apartment purchase) or "渋谷 不動産" (Shibuya real estate) — portals own these searches entirely. Your agency's domain does not appear. But "[ward] 不動産会社" (real estate company [ward]) and specific area searches are winnable for an agency with the right location content. Most never build it.
Most Japanese real estate agency websites have a homepage, a listings search, and a contact page. There are no pages targeting "Minato-ku property for sale", "Setagaya apartment guide", or "Shibuya real estate agent." Those searches happen every day. No page means no ranking.
International buyers — from mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, the US, and Europe — are increasingly searching for Tokyo and Osaka property in English. Searches like "buy apartment Tokyo foreign buyer", "Tokyo property investment guide", and "how to buy property in Japan as a foreigner" have substantial search volume. Most Japanese agencies with English websites have no content targeting these queries.
Property developers launching condominium projects in Minato-ku, Shibuya, or Osaka often build a project website that Google cannot crawl correctly. JavaScript rendering issues and missing sitemaps mean the project is invisible in search for the first several months of sales.
An international buyer searching "bilingual real estate agent Tokyo" or "English-speaking property specialist Japan" is a high-value lead. If agent profile pages have no keyword targeting, no structured data, and no content addressing these searches, those enquiries go elsewhere.
Portal listing fees in Japan are a substantial ongoing cost. An owned organic channel — area guides, bilingual content, agent profiles, developer project pages — generates leads that compound and don't expire with the listing period.
What: Research, plan, and produce ward-specific and area-specific pages targeting buyer and investor intent in both Japanese and English. Why: These pages are how agencies rank for specific location searches that portals don't fully dominate — but they need correct keyword targets, genuinely local content in the right language, and hreflang to perform. What you get: An area page content plan with Japanese and English keyword targets, finished page copy for priority wards, and a build-out schedule.
What: Rewrite agent profile pages with ward expertise, language skills (Japanese, English, and other languages where relevant), and structured data. Why: Foreign buyers search explicitly for bilingual agents — if profiles don't signal language capability and area expertise, those searches go unearned. What you get: Rewritten agent profiles with Person schema, language signals, and ward-level keyword specificity.
What: Deploy RealEstateListing, LocalBusiness, and Person schema across all relevant page types in both Japanese and English site versions. Why: Structured data improves how Google understands your pages in both language markets — and most Japanese agency sites have no schema at all. What you get: Full schema audit and JSON-LD deployment, with hreflang configuration for bilingual page pairs.
What: Build a keyword map covering Japanese-language buyer searches, Japanese investor searches, and English-language foreign buyer searches — including purchase process queries, investment yield questions, and area comparison content. Why: The Japanese domestic market and the foreign buyer market are distinct search audiences with different keyword sets and different content needs. A strategy covering both doubles the organic reach. What you get: A bilingual keyword master list with intent classification and page-level assignments.
What: Write area guides for priority wards (Minato-ku, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Setagaya), foreign buyer FAQ pages ("How to buy property in Japan as a foreigner"), and investment overview content that ranks for research-stage searches in English. Why: International buyers spend significant time researching the Japanese property purchase process before contacting an agent. Content that answers those questions positions your agency as the trusted authority before the first enquiry. What you get: Finished area guide copy and foreign buyer resource pages, keyword-optimised in English and structured for conversion.
What: Optimise GBP for all office locations, ensure NAP consistency in both Japanese and English, and target map pack searches. Why: "不動産会社 近く" (real estate company near me) and "[ward] 不動産" searches trigger local pack results — GBP optimisation in Japan is a consistent, under-optimised lead source for agencies. What you get: GBP audit and optimisation, citation consistency check in both languages, and monthly GBP management checklist.
Not for broad searches in Japanese — but ward-specific and buyer-specific searches are a different matter. "[Ward] 不動産会社", "[area] マンション 購入", and English-language foreign buyer searches are all winnable for an agency with the right location content and bilingual structure. These searches also carry higher intent than broad portal traffic.
Yes. Most Japanese real estate agencies serving international buyers need both — a Japanese-language strategy targeting domestic buyers in specific wards, and an English-language strategy targeting the foreign buyer and investment market. We plan, produce, and optimise content in both languages, with correct hreflang configuration to ensure each version reaches the right audience.
It depends on the agency's pipeline. For agencies actively working with international buyers — from the US, Singapore, Hong Kong, or Europe — foreign buyer SEO is one of the highest-ROI content investments available. English-language searches like "buy apartment Tokyo foreign buyer", "Tokyo property investment guide", and "how to buy property in Japan" have significant search volume and almost no competition from Japanese agencies. The content gap is large.
Ward-specific searches in Japanese — particularly for areas outside the central five wards — typically show ranking movement within 60–90 days. Competitive central ward searches take three to six months. English-language foreign buyer content often ranks faster because competition is low. First organic enquiries usually arrive in month two to four.
Condominium project pages in Japan frequently have technical SEO issues — JavaScript rendering, no sitemap, no schema — that prevent Google from indexing them correctly. We fix these issues from launch and produce bilingual project content targeting both Japanese buyers and international investors. We scope this as part of a standard real estate engagement or as a standalone project brief.
Yes. For agencies that currently have Japanese-only sites and want to target the foreign buyer market, we scope the bilingual expansion as part of the SEO engagement — typically starting with a foreign buyer FAQ page and English area guides for the priority wards, rather than a full site translation. We add English content strategically where the search opportunity justifies it.
Japanese real estate agencies use a range of platforms — from major real estate SaaS platforms to custom-built systems and WordPress. We audit the technical foundation regardless of platform and produce fix specifications appropriate to the CMS. For custom platforms, we work directly with your development team.
We don't publish pricing before running a diagnostic. After the Search Diagnostic, we produce a scoped proposal in JPY. The scope depends on whether the engagement covers Japanese-only SEO, bilingual SEO, or the foreign buyer market specifically, plus the number of wards covered and whether developer project pages are in scope. Request the diagnostic using the button on this page — we'll respond within one business day.
Not a black box. Real specialists you can call, with their names on the work.
The Search Diagnostic maps which ward searches you are missing in Japanese, what the English-language foreign buyer opportunity looks like, and which pages need to be built to capture both. No commitment required beyond the first conversation.
Response within one business day · No lock-in contracts · JPY-priced proposals
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