Best VPNs for Japan

Japan is a very popular tourist destination and loved for its TV entertainment – especially moving pictures and anime are coveted worldwide. We advise though that you have at least some knowledge of the Japanese language, or an online translator, if you decide to use an IP address of the country. While a lot of sites indeed have English translations, you might not get so lucky with other tongues of the planet. Broadband usage is quite heavy in the country. This means that if you plan to connect to a Japanese IP via a VPN service (for safety and unblocking restricted content, for example), you will face some reduction in speed, even without it.

Moreover, as far as the content itself is concerned, we advise you to take what you see and read with a pinch of salt. The government does not have a regulatory body that oversees the information on display of Japanese addresses, and thus misinformation can be a potential aspect of the Japanese web.

The most important thing to mention from a legal standpoint is Japanese copyright law here. Most pirating services are not available. Furthermore, whoever “leaks or publishes classified information” can receive up to ten years of prison sentence. We must also note that public access to government services is monitored in Japan: visit any site whose ownership can be traced back to the government, and your actions are a subject of surveillance. On a perhaps more negative note, there is less restriction on child pornography and hate speech in Japan. Still, the legal framework highly supports the casual internet user.

So essentially, Japanese culture has some elements that are of sensitive nature. People are willingly careful when mentioning these topics, but otherwise there is not much censorship or restriction present besides some filters on child pornography. Hate speech is rare, but since the internet is a very popular medium in Japan, expect a wide variety of opinions. This is great, as it makes experiencing the culture of the area is easily manageable.

Streaming availability in Japan is not the best. The most important fact to highlight here is that the country is host to hundreds of anime related online streaming channels, usually not available (or if they are in very poor quality) anywhere else. This alone makes Japan a much sought after place to connect to via VPN. Moreover, a lot of artists even make extra content available for the Japanese audience. Line Music is a provider restricted to Japan and Thailand only, it is a paid service. Spotify is not available in Japan, and the situation is the same with Google Play Music, but Apple Music is good to go. You can find free streamers like SoundCloud or Bandcamp in the country, too. For television and video entertainment, Netflix is expanding into the land of the rising sun, be it with fewer popular series and movies available than in the US, UK and other western countries. Amazon Prime, Pandora or BBC iPlayer however, are not on the list of Japan supporters. Overall, streaming is selective, but in return Japan offers its own set of online content, at least as versatile as foreign ones (if not more).