Japanese

Kobe Shimbun NEXT is the news site operated by Kobe Shimbun, with broad coverage of Hyogo Prefecture. Regional navigation lets readers browse areas including Kobe, Hanshin, Sanda, Akashi, Awaji, Himeji, Tamba, and Tajima. Sections cover society, incidents and accidents, business, sports, culture, education and parenting, medicine, local government and elections, national and international news, video and photography, and opinion. Sports links include Vissel Kobe, Kobe Storks, Victorina Himeji, Kobelco Kobe Steelers, high-school baseball, and student competitions in Hyogo. The site also features coverage of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake and disaster preparedness, local companies, community events, editorials, columns, serial reporting, photos, and video. The homepage provides My News login and application links for individual and corporate digital-edition plans. Subscription information is visible, but the homepage does not establish one price or access rule for every article. This is Kobe Shimbun’s official online source for regional reporting and public affairs across Hyogo.

SSIS is a Japanese association for people connected with the semiconductor industry. Its site lists introductory and advanced semiconductor courses, including on-demand programs, as well as forums, lectures, factory visits, and other events. Visitors can also find membership information, association activities, and the Encore newsletter.

Minna no Kaigo is a Japanese search and referral site for senior homes and care facilities nationwide. Visitors can filter listings by region or station, facility type, cost, and current availability. The directory covers nursing-care homes, serviced senior housing, group homes, care houses, and special nursing facilities. Facility pages provide photos and details about amenities, fees, medical and nursing support, and the surrounding area. The site presents updated vacancy information, reviews and star ratings from people who visited facilities, rankings, and 360-degree images or video tours. It says consultations with move-in advisors, brochure requests, and tour reservations are free. Additional sections include guides to choosing a facility, costs, long-term care insurance, and home care, along with Q&A, care news, surveys, and community content. The site identifies Courier Inc. as its operator. Pricing for services beyond the stated free consultations and related requests was not fully established.

SoftBank provides consumer communications such as smartphone and internet services, as well as business solutions that include AI and cloud offerings. Its official information covers products and services, initiatives applying AI to social challenges, and examples of improvements made in response to customer feedback. It also reports device launches and news about communications services.

The Japan Management Association (JMA) is a Japanese business organization that supports management improvement through research, information services, and professional development. Its site lists open-enrollment courses for executives, managers, HR and marketing professionals, and people in manufacturing, as well as tailored training and organization-development support for companies. It also covers manufacturing-related qualifications and programs, specialist trade shows, corporate awards, management surveys, books, and third-party assessment or verification services such as ISO-related work and environmental support. Course and event fees, schedules, and application requirements vary, so the relevant program pages provide the current details.

The official Bank of Japan website presents Japan’s central bank and its objectives of price stability and a stable financial system. It publishes monetary policy meeting decisions and minutes, policy statements, speeches, and press-conference information. Its statistics section provides data on financial markets, exchange rates, prices, and other economic indicators with related releases. The bank also shares research papers and reports and explains its organization, branches, and public procedures involving government bonds, treasury services, and damaged banknotes. Financial education resources, the Currency Museum, and visitor and event information round out the site, which serves as an official source for the central bank’s policy, data, research, and public services.

Nishitetsu Travel is the official booking site of a travel company in Japan’s Nishitetsu group. It lists domestic and overseas trips, bus and rail tours departing from Fukuoka and Tokyo, and lodging plans. Offerings include JR rail-and-hotel packages, sightseeing trains in Kyushu, cruises, and sports trips. The site also provides information for corporate and group travel, member accounts, branches, and reservation support. Searches can be narrowed by departure city and trip style.

Komatsu’s official corporate site presents products and services for construction, mining, forestry, agriculture, logistics, and industrial machinery. Its industry pages describe applications such as civil engineering, demolition, recycling, and quarrying. Visitors can also locate dealers and find service and support information. Other sections cover the company, innovation, the newsroom, sustainability, investor relations, and careers. The Japanese portal brings together information about Komatsu’s equipment, markets, and corporate activities.

The Japan Meteorological Business Support Center is a Japanese foundation that connects the Japan Meteorological Agency with private weather companies, media organizations and other users of meteorological information. It distributes JMA information through online services that include message- and file-format weather data, meteorological satellite imagery, earthquake early warnings, disaster-prevention weather information and access to the JMA cloud environment. These delivery services carry information-provision charges, and the center explains how prospective users can request the documents needed to apply and receive data. Its offline-data program supplies JMA-held statistical, satellite, objective-analysis, earthquake epicenter and waveform, upper-air, and marine datasets; catalogs list coverage periods and sales prices. The site also describes edited weather data in CSV and other formats, ordering procedures, and technical materials for connecting to the delivery systems. Beyond data distribution, the center administers the national meteorological forecaster examination, certifies weather instruments, runs specialist courses and supports meteorological research. Its primary role is to make official Japanese weather information available to organizations and other users through defined delivery channels.

The official Yamato Holdings site describes the Yamato Group’s logistics businesses, including its Takkyubin parcel service, and provides corporate information. It covers parcel transport for individuals and businesses, business overviews, group companies, and locations and services in Japan and overseas. The homepage links to news releases, important notices, shareholder and investor information, and sustainability materials. Other sections explain the group’s logistics network, business solutions, and international operations. This is a holding-company portal about the group’s businesses, not the service site for arranging a parcel pickup or delivery.

Promise’s official Japanese site presents personal loans and cash advances operated by SMBC Consumer Finance. It explains the process from application and identity checks through borrowing and repayment, and describes online member services and the smartphone app. Visitors can review eligibility, required documents, borrowing methods, payment dates, lending terms, and a repayment calculator. The site also covers earning and using V Points, the Promise Visa card, company announcements, fraud prevention, frequently asked questions, and contact options. Product details and service guidance help customers find loan procedures and member information for the Japan service.

The Bank of Toyama’s official website presents products and banking information for individuals, business owners, shareholders, and investors. Personal offerings include account opening, ordinary and time deposits, foreign-currency deposits, pension- and inheritance-related deposits, home loans, and other lending. The site describes online accounts, the Bank of Toyama app, direct banking, and loans and procedures that can be completed on the web. Visitors can locate branches and ATMs, check deposit and loan rates and fees, find contact details, and browse FAQs. Corporate services, news, campaigns, shareholder information, the bank profile, and careers are also available.

Tokyo Shimbun Digital is the Japanese-language news website of the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper. Its homepage groups coverage into Tokyo and greater metropolitan-area reporting, society, politics, business, international news, sports, lifestyle, and culture and entertainment. Readers can also browse editorials and columns, serialized features, article rankings, videos, photo stories, and event information; articles display publication times or dates. The site links to a digital view of the printed newspaper, newspaper subscription information, and account login. It also invites readers to share information with reporters and highlights reporting based on questions and tips from the public. The service is useful for readers seeking Tokyo-area local reporting alongside Japanese and international news, commentary, and stories about everyday life and culture from the Tokyo Shimbun newsroom.

Backlog is Nulab’s project and task management tool for organizing project issues, owners, due dates, and discussions in one shared workspace. Teams can use Gantt charts, Kanban boards, documents, file sharing, comments, and Git or Subversion integration to follow work across projects. Its AI assistant can read accumulated tasks and comments to help summarize progress and draft tasks or reports. The Japanese site also provides customer cases, plan comparisons, onboarding guidance, and support resources for teams across different roles.

DENSO is a technology manufacturer whose Japanese site covers mobility products and services, industrial solutions, research, and corporate information. Its vehicle portfolio includes thermal-management and air-conditioning systems, powertrain systems, and safety and cockpit systems; it also describes industrial and food value-chain businesses. AI research is presented through the Advanced Technology Research Institute, established in 1991. The institute combines accumulated data and AI for next-generation materials, develops machine-learning methods that support automated driving and robotics, and works on optimization, human-machine interfaces, and human studies. The site also explains its Research Transformation initiative, including data-driven and generative-AI-assisted research operations, automated experimentation, and collaboration with external researchers and industry.

The official Japanese corporate site of Shin-Etsu Chemical explains its industrial businesses and product portfolio. Its fields include silicon wafers, semiconductor encapsulation materials, rare-earth magnets, PVC resin, and silicones. Product and business pages organize information by material, product area, and application. The site also publishes company news, corporate information, sustainability content, and investor relations. Product, careers, and contact sections help visitors find official details about the company and its activities.

Hatena Bookmark is a Japanese social bookmarking service for saving web pages online and organizing or publishing them with tags and comments. Its popular-entry lists, weekly rankings, and topic sections help readers find pages attracting attention across the web. Visitors can follow tags or bookmarks from users with similar interests to discover more material. Public rankings and links can be browsed without signing in, while saving and publishing personal bookmarks and using member features require a Hatena ID.

LayerX is a Japanese software company focused on digitizing economic activity through business products. Its Ai Workforce unit develops enterprise AI and data solutions for using documents held by companies and public organizations, including large-language-model-based document processing. A separate Bakuraku business uses AI agents to automate back-office work such as expense settlement, invoice receipt, attendance management, and payroll. The corporate site also describes LayerX’s fintech and security businesses, products, and news.

Josei Jishin is the digital news site of a Japanese women's weekly magazine operated by Kobunsha. Its homepage organizes coverage into entertainment, the Imperial Household, domestic and international news, sports, lifestyle, comics, columns, and horoscopes, and it also shows current topics and an overall article ranking. The site advertises free membership and magazine subscriptions, while a separate shopping link leads to Kobunsha's retail service. Readers can browse the editorial sections without assuming that every article or subscription benefit is free.