Two brands, one index
The main Japanese search engines are Google and Yahoo! JAPAN, but Japan is less of a two-engine market than it looks. Yahoo! JAPAN has used Google's search engine and search-advertising technology since 2010, so most Japanese searches are answered from a single index: Google's. When that arrangement was reviewed in 2010, the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC), Japan's competition authority, found that it raised "Google's share of technology of search engine etc. in Japan to about 90%."
In a 2021 submission to the OECD, Japan stated that Google held a 77% share of search in Japan, counting Google's own brand alone, and 70 to 80% of search advertising. StatCounter Global Stats, which measures something different, shows Google at 59.27%, Bing at 31.41% and Yahoo! at 7.61% of Japanese search referrals for September 2026. The Bing figure in that table is not supported by any regulator figure and is discussed with its caveat below.
Japan's regulator has also acted against Google's search business directly: a commitment decision in 2024 and a cease-and-desist order over Android in 2025.
The Japanese search engines
| Engine | Whose index | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| Own index | Alphabet | |
| Yahoo! JAPAN (search.yahoo.co.jp) | Google's, since 2010 | LY Corporation, 63.6% owned by A Holdings (SoftBank and Naver) |
| Bing | Own index | Microsoft |
| goo | Google's, after an earlier own index (switch date not confirmed) | NTT group |
| LINE Search | Yahoo! JAPAN's, and so Google's, since late June 2023 | LY Corporation |
Yahoo! JAPAN
Yahoo! JAPAN was formed by Yahoo! and SoftBank in January 1996 and went live on 1 April 1996. It is a separate company from US Yahoo, and its search history shows it. It began with third-party engines, fully adopted Yahoo Search Technology (YST) in May 2004, and announced its move to Google on 27 July 2010. US Yahoo went to Microsoft's Bing; Yahoo! JAPAN concluded that "Google is the best at this point," as reported by INTERNET Watch on the day.
The arrangement is narrower than outright resale. Yahoo! JAPAN sells its own search advertising and wraps Google's web results in its own content, including the Chiebukuro question-and-answer service and vertical search. Since 1 October 2023 it has belonged to LY Corporation, formed from Z Holdings, LINE Corporation and Yahoo Japan Corporation. On 20 April 2026 LY launched Agent i, an AI assistant reachable from the Yahoo! JAPAN search box; its underlying model has not been confirmed.
goo
NTT's goo portal began full operation in 1999 and crawled mainly Japanese sites before switching to Google. Several goo services closed in 2025, including goo Dictionary on 25 June, the Oshiete! goo Q&A on 17 September and goo Blog on 18 November. The search page itself was not reported closed.
LINE Search
LINE, the messaging app, has shown web results from Yahoo! JAPAN search since late June 2023, which means Google's index once more.
Why Google's index won Japan
Yahoo! JAPAN is a major consumer brand in its own right, yet Google's index won Japan by supply rather than by competition for users. When Yahoo! JAPAN needed a search engine in 2010, it licensed Google's. From that point Japan's two largest search brands drew on the same index, and the Japanese user choosing Yahoo over Google was, for web results, choosing a different interface on Google's ranking.
That is why the JFTC's 2010 figure is framed as a share of search-engine technology rather than of queries. A query typed into Yahoo! JAPAN counts for Yahoo in a brand-share table and for Google in an index-share table. The usual question, whether Google or Yahoo is bigger in Japan, matters less than it seems.
The JFTC cleared the deal on 2 December 2010 because the companies would independently operate their own search services and search advertising and would separately hold advertiser and bidding-price data, under a two-year contract. Rakuten had objected. The JFTC's English text is a provisional translation; the Japanese original governs.
Japanese search engine market share, and the Bing problem
| Measure | Yahoo! | Bing | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JFTC: Google's share of search-engine technology after the Yahoo deal | about 90%, Yahoo included | within Google's figure | not given | December 2010 |
| OECD note by Japan: Google's own share | 77% of search; 70 to 80% of search ads | not given | not given | 2021, measurement date not stated |
| StatCounter, all platforms, referrals | 59.27% | 7.61% | 31.41% | September 2026 |
The OECD figure gives no source or measurement date, so it is best read as describing roughly 2020 to 2021. It is Google's own share and excludes Yahoo! JAPAN. Wikipedia gives 77% for Google and 19% for Yahoo! in July 2021; the source behind that figure was not checked for this page.
StatCounter's Japanese Bing figure needs care. It reads 31.41% for September 2026 and 28.29% for August 2026, which would make Japan Bing's strongest large market by a wide margin. No Japanese regulator figure supports a Bing share of that size. Likely contributors are desktop defaults in Microsoft's Edge browser and automated traffic in StatCounter's panel, though neither has been measured. StatCounter also records Yahoo! JAPAN visits as Yahoo! rather than Google, although the results came from Google's index. Quote the StatCounter table with its date and source, and do not build an argument about Bing's competitiveness in Japan on it.
The regulator record: three JFTC actions on Google
- 2 December 2010, Yahoo and Google cleared. The JFTC closed its review of Yahoo! JAPAN's adoption of Google's technology, on the conditions set out above.
- 22 April 2024, commitment plan approved. The JFTC found that from September 2015 to October 2022 Google had restricted Yahoo's use of the supplied technology for mobile syndication, meaning the distribution of search ads to other companies' mobile sites and apps, following a contract amendment of 1 November 2014. Google committed not to restrict that supply for three years. The JFTC stated that approval does not mean Google violated the Antimonopoly Act, and the decision contains no market figures.
- 15 April 2025, cease-and-desist order. The JFTC found that since at least July 2020 Google had prevented rival general search services from being installed on Android phones. Its tools were Google Play licences (MADAs, mobile application distribution agreements) tied to pre-installing Google Search and placing it on the home screen, and revenue-share agreements (RSAs) paying a share of search-ad revenue on condition of exclusive Google search and Chrome defaults. The order records MADAs with at least six Android makers as of December 2024, and RSAs with at least four makers and one mobile carrier as of July 2024. Compliance is to be monitored by an independent third party for five years. The English text is a provisional translation.
The 2025 order concerns the same mechanism Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service ruled on in 2015 and the European Commission addressed in its 2018 Google Android decision: control of the default search engine on the phone. The order counts contracts, not devices or searches, so it does not show how much of Japanese search those agreements affected.
Ownership and AI: LINE Yahoo
LY Corporation, listed in Tokyo, owns both Yahoo! JAPAN and LINE. Its controlling shareholder is A Holdings, a joint venture of SoftBank and Korea's Naver, holding 63.6%. After a LINE data leak in late 2023, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications issued administrative guidance, with a second round on 16 April 2024, and asked LY to review its capital ties with Naver. A Korean search company therefore part-owns the Japanese portal whose search runs on Google.
This page was checked on 27 October 2026. StatCounter figures are for September 2026; the JFTC actions carry their own dates. The JFTC's April 2025 announcement is the primary record of the Android order.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most popular search engine in Japan?
Google is the most popular search engine in Japan. Japan told the OECD in 2021 that Google held 77% of search. Yahoo! JAPAN, the second brand, has used Google's search engine since 2010, so most Japanese searches come from Google's index. StatCounter shows Google at 59.27% for September 2026, though its Japanese figures for Bing are hard to reconcile with regulator data.
What search engine does Yahoo Japan use?
Yahoo! JAPAN uses Google's search engine and search-ad technology, announced on 27 July 2010. That differs from US Yahoo, whose results come from Microsoft's Bing. Yahoo! JAPAN sells its own ads and adds its own content, such as the Chiebukuro Q&A service, around Google's web results. The JFTC said in 2010 the deal raised Google's share of search technology in Japan to about 90%.
Does Bing really have 30% of Japanese search?
Not on any regulator figure. StatCounter shows Bing at 31.41% of Japanese search referrals for September 2026, but no Japanese regulator figure supports a share that large, and Japan's 2021 OECD submission put Google alone at 77%. The StatCounter number may be inflated by Edge desktop defaults and automated traffic, so cite it only with its source, date and that caveat.
What is the Japanese search engine market share?
The most authoritative figures come from the government. The JFTC found in 2010 that the Yahoo! JAPAN deal gave Google's technology about 90% of Japanese search, and Japan's 2021 OECD note gave Google 77% of search and 70 to 80% of search advertising. StatCounter's September 2026 referral figures read Google 59.27%, Bing 31.41% and Yahoo! 7.61%.
What did the Japan Fair Trade Commission order Google to do?
On 15 April 2025 the JFTC ordered Google to stop requiring Android makers to pre-install Google Search and place it on the home screen as a condition of Google Play licences or search-ad revenue sharing. It found the conduct since at least July 2020, involving at least six makers and one mobile carrier, and set five years of independent monitoring.
Does Japan have its own search engine?
Not a large one with its own index today. Yahoo! JAPAN once ran Yahoo Search Technology and switched to Google in 2010. NTT's goo crawled Japanese sites itself before also switching to Google, and LINE Search shows Yahoo! JAPAN's results. Japan's major domestic search brands therefore present Google's index under their own names.
Sources
- Japan Fair Trade Commission — Yahoo Japan's Use of Technological Service Such As Search Engine Provided by Google (press release, full text)
- Japan Fair Trade Commission — Approval of the Commitment Plan submitted by Google LLC: Overview of the alleged conduct
- Japan Fair Trade Commission — JFTC Issues a Cease and Desist Order to Google LLC (15 April 2025)
- OECD Competition Committee (submission by Japan) — News Media and Digital Platforms – Note by Japan, DAF/COMP/WD(2021)70
- jftc.go.jp/en/pressreleases/yearly-2025/April/250415.html
- jftc.go.jp/file/250415/overview.pdf
- jftc.go.jp/en/pressreleases/yearly-2024/April/240422.html
- internet.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/383638.html
- gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share/all/japan
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo_Japan
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LY_Corporation
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goo_(search_engine)
