About Us

The What

Japan Top Ten is a website for people traveling and living in Japan.

We rate stores, restaurants, products, services, and many other things people need reliable information about.

These ratings help travelers and residents choose quality places to visit.

We save you time and money.

The Why

We love Japan. We love the people, the places, the language, the customs (maybe not ALL of them).

JTT celebrates the best of the best of Japan.

The How

Here’s how we rate things:

  • We identify 30–50 targets using Japanese-language media and personal experience. The media includes print, online, TV, and SNS sources. The personal experience includes our own previous visits, experiences of friends and family, and general word-of-mouth.
  • We narrow down our list to 10–20 targets based on factors most important to travelers: quality, location, English support, and a few other factors, depending on the category.
  • We develop a list of 15–20 ratings factors. These are the items by which we judge. Some of them are weighted based on importance to travelers, like location, English support, and local ambiance. The weightings change with the category. For some categories, for instance, “location” might be more important than “selection” and given a heavier weight.
  • We visit 10–20 targets and rate them independently and objectively. We do not inform targets of our visits, either before or afterwards. We have no personal connection with or investment in any of the places we visit. We do not accept ANYTHING from the places we visit.
  • We publish our ratings as they are completed.
  • We constantly review our methods and practice kaizen.
The Who

Our Lead Reviewer has lived in Japan for more than 30 years. He/she has the highest level of Japanese-language proficiency. He/she has worked for major Japanese companies.

Our Associate Reviewers include both Japanese and non-Japanese residents of Japan with a passion for quality.

The When

We’re constantly discovering new places to rate and visiting them. This site is updated daily.

Contacting Us

We’re happy to hear from you. We value feedback.

Errors

We work hard to prevent factual errors, but we’re human and sometimes they happen. Please feel free to contact us if you believe our site contains factual errors. We will confirm our information again and update our site as quickly as possible if there's an error.

Disagreements

We are open to criticism and feedback.

But we won’t accept criticism from places that think they deserve a higher rating, or are disappointed with our reviews. These are our ratings and our site.

All of the places reviewed here are worthy of visiting. We’re not saying some places are good and others are bad. All the places reviewed here are good. We believe, however, that the “best of the best” deserve special recognition.

That’s why we’re doing this.

To celebrate the best.