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How to Find Japanese Manufacturers: The Directories and Databases That Actually List Them

About 16 min read

Quick answer: There is no single directory of Japanese manufacturers. What exists is a set of lists built for different purposes: JETRO's invitation-only Japan Street catalog and its e-Venue proposal board, SMRJ's J-GoodTech matching platform, the exhibitor directories of the big Tokyo trade shows, and industry association member lists that are mostly in Japanese. Each one gives you names. None gives you a trading account, and in Japan the account is the step that decides whether you can buy. This guide covers what each list contains and what you can do from it.

Key takeaways

Why there is no single directory of Japanese manufacturers

The search term is reasonable. The thing it describes does not exist, for three structural reasons.

The first is the wholesale layer. In most Japanese consumer categories a maker sells to a primary wholesaler, which handles the retail base: credit, small frequent deliveries, returns, collections. The maker's sales channel was built for the domestic market it serves, and works well there. A directory of makers therefore lists companies that often do not sell to a new retailer directly at all. Japanese wholesalers explained walks through the layers; the name you find is often one step away from the company you would actually trade with.

The second is language. The complete lists of who makes what in Japan are Japanese-language artifacts: association rosters, trade press, the company registry. The English-language lists are subsets, filtered for companies that decided to look for overseas buyers. They are useful, and small next to the industry as a whole.

The third is that "manufacturer," "wholesaler" and "supplier" are three different kinds of company in Japan, and directories do not sort by that distinction. A trade-show exhibitor might be a maker, a brand that outsources production, or a wholesaler showing a range; Japanese wholesale distributors vs. suppliers sets out the three types.

So work from several lists, know what each filters for, and treat every name as a lead to qualify.

Government-affiliated directories: Japan Street, e-Venue and J-GoodTech

Two public bodies run the lists worth knowing: JETRO, the Japan External Trade Organization, and SMRJ, the Organization for Small and Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation.

JETRO Japan Street is the one built for your situation. JETRO describes it as "an online catalog site that can be viewed only by a limited number of overseas buyers who are invited by JETRO." It holds more than 30,000 Japanese products, in categories from foods and cosmetics to kitchenware, daily necessities and machinery; buyers quoted on the site also source stationery and crafts through it. Invited buyers can search, send inquiries, and ask JETRO to arrange an online meeting with a facilitator and translated captions. Registration, inquiries and meetings carry no charge. Access starts with the JETRO office in your country, which sends the invitation by email.

What Japan Street alone gives you is pre-selection: every supplier in it has opted into being found by overseas buyers. What it does not give you is a trading account; terms, minimums, export handling and payment are still negotiated supplier by supplier.

JETRO e-Venue is the successor to TTPP, the Trade Tie-up Promotion Program that older sourcing guides still recommend. TTPP was terminated on December 28, 2021 and replaced by e-Venue on January 14, 2022; some JETRO country pages still describe TTPP, but the site is gone. e-Venue is a proposal board, not a catalog: JETRO describes it as an international business matching website, with no charge to users, where members post buying or selling proposals, search proposals from more than 150 countries, and approach a counterparty by chat. For a US buyer, the realistic use is posting a specific buying proposal and seeing which Japanese sellers respond.

J-GoodTech is SMRJ's business-matching platform. The site reports approximately 40,000 registered companies, including 30,000 Japanese small and mid-size enterprises and 9,000 overseas companies, "from manufacturing to the service sector." Members use it at no charge, in English or Japanese. The catch: overseas companies must be recommended by an overseas support organization approved by SMRJ before they can register. In our reading it suits parts, materials and contract manufacturing better than a gift-shop assortment.

One more service you can cross off: JETRO's trade-fair database, J-messe, was discontinued on March 31, 2026. Exhibitor lists now live on the organizers' own sites.

Trade-show exhibitor directories are the most current lists

Every entry in a trade-show directory was paid for by the company in it, for this edition, and that company wants to be contacted. Three Tokyo shows publish theirs in English.

Tokyo International Gift Show (TIGS), run by Business Guide-Sha, lists about 3,000 exhibitors including more than 2,000 from Japan, across more than 45 categories such as housewares, interiors, toys, fashion and stationery. Exhibitor search lives on a separate public portal, GiftNet, in Japanese and English, searchable by keyword, exhibitor, product and category. TIGS also publishes an "Online Catalog for Overseas Buyers," a PDF drawn from exhibitors interested in selling abroad. The autumn 2026 edition is 37 pages, and each entry lists the exhibitor, product, retail price range, place of production, website, language availability, whether the company works through an agent, its export record and its export destinations. Those last fields are the best screening data of any directory in this guide: an exhibitor with a multi-year export record and the USA as a destination has already solved a first-time exporter's problems. The next edition runs February 24 to 26, 2027; our Tokyo International Gift Show guide for US buyers covers attending.

Lifestyle Week Tokyo is RX Japan's umbrella for eleven co-located shows, including ISOT, the International Stationery and Office Products Fair, and shows for gifts, tableware and crafts. The organizer states that 1,300 companies and 39,000 products gather under one roof, and publishes an English exhibitor and product directory. The next summer edition is June 9 to 11, 2027 at Tokyo Big Sight.

Interior Lifestyle Tokyo is organized by Messe Frankfurt Japan and covers tableware, kitchenware, houseware, textiles and furniture. The 2026 edition had 460 exhibiting companies, 362 from Japan. The exhibitor search on the organizer's site is public and in English. The next edition is June 23 to 25, 2027 at Tokyo Big Sight West.

The weakness of exhibitor lists is the mirror of their strength: they under-represent the maker that has supplied the same wholesaler for forty years and never needed a booth. For that company, read on.

Industry association member lists and company databases

Japanese industry associations publish member rosters. Most are in Japanese, and still worth reading.

The Japan Toy Association publishes a member list on its site: company name and a link to each website, in Japanese, with a header stating 180 corporate members, 10 organizational members and 4 supporting members. Its English page names promoting toy exports among its purposes. For toys and character goods, this is the established industry in one page.

The All Japan Stationery Association (全日本文具協会) describes itself as the sole national organization covering the entire stationery industry, founded in March 1991. Its member directory is one Japanese-language page, updated September 2025, roughly sixty companies by our count: the pen, paper, adhesive and office-supply makers a US stationery buyer already knows, next to the ones they have not heard of yet.

The All Japan Gift Goods Association (全日本ギフト用品協会) has closed; the gBizINFO registry records its registration as closed on April 8, 2025, so you can cross it off.

Association lists tell you who the recognized makers in a category are, not who exports or who is open to a new account. Build the long list from them, then screen it against the English catalogs above.

Company databases are a different tool. Teikoku Databank, with over 100 years of credit research behind it, sells credit reports on Japanese companies through its English-language service site. It is for due diligence, not discovery. The National Tax Agency's Corporate Number Publication Site is a public lookup in English, searchable by name, address or corporate number; it confirms that a company legally exists. Both are covered in how to vet Japanese suppliers.

The directories side by side

Resource What is listed Language Cost and access What a US buyer can do from it
Japan Street (JETRO) 30,000+ products from suppliers seeking overseas buyers English No charge; invitation via your JETRO office Search, inquire, request a facilitated online meeting
e-Venue (JETRO) Buying and selling proposals, 150+ countries English, Japanese No charge; businesses only Post a buying proposal, search, chat
J-GoodTech (SMRJ) About 40,000 companies, 30,000 of them Japanese SMEs; leans industrial English, Japanese No charge; overseas firms need an SMRJ-approved support organization's recommendation Search profiles, send proposals
GiftNet (Tokyo International Gift Show, Business Guide-Sha) About 3,000 exhibitors, 2,000+ from Japan, 45+ categories; plus a PDF catalog for overseas buyers English, Japanese Public Search by product, exhibitor, category; screen by export record
Lifestyle Week Tokyo directory (RX Japan; incl. ISOT) 1,300 companies, 39,000 products, eleven shows English Public Search exhibitors and products by show
Interior Lifestyle Tokyo exhibitor search (Messe Frankfurt Japan) 460 exhibitors in 2026, 362 from Japan; tableware, houseware, textiles English, Japanese Public Search by keyword and category
Japan Toy Association member list 180 corporate members, 10 organizational, 4 supporting Japanese Public Read the roster and follow the links
All Japan Stationery Association member list Roughly 60 members, by our count Japanese Public Read the roster and follow the links
Teikoku Databank Credit reports on Japanese companies English-language service site Commercial Confirm standing before a large order
Corporate Number Publication Site (National Tax Agency) Corporate numbers, names and addresses English Public Confirm a company legally exists

What each type of list is good for

You want to Start with Then
See only makers already set up to export Japan Street; the TIGS overseas-buyer catalog Screen by export record
Find who exhibits in a consumer category this year GiftNet; Lifestyle Week; Interior Lifestyle Tokyo Shortlist; book appointments if you can travel
Map a category's established makers, including ones that never exhibit The association member list Machine-translate the roster; check each site for an overseas-inquiry page
Source components, materials or contract manufacturing J-GoodTech (SMRJ) Get the support-organization recommendation first
Check a company you already found Corporate Number site; Teikoku Databank Vet before the first order

From a directory hit to a first order

What you will be asked. The first reply from a Japanese maker or wholesaler is usually a set of questions about you: which company, which channel, what categories, what volumes, what retail price point, and who will handle export from Japan and import into the United States. A business website that shows a real shelf answers most of those at a glance. Write in short, literal English from a business email address, and state a target order size.

The referral to the wholesaler. Expect it. A maker whose channel runs through a primary wholesaler will often pass an inquiry to that wholesaler, because that is where its credit, invoicing and delivery processes live. It is routing you into its normal channel, not declining you. Ask next whether the wholesaler sells to overseas buyers at all, and to which countries, before asking for prices.

The account. In Japan, buying wholesale means being registered in the seller's system as a trading counterparty after a review, and the documents that review asks for are Japanese ones: a registry certificate, a seal certificate, financial statements, a company profile. Japanese wholesalers explained covers why a US company has nothing equivalent to hand over. This is where most overseas inquiries from a directory go quiet.

The price sheet and the vetting. A price list, when it arrives, uses Japanese conventions: a percentage of retail rather than a cost-plus number, case packs, order units. Japanese wholesale terms explained is the glossary; how to vet Japanese suppliers covers the checks to run before money moves.

The alternatives. If the maker cannot open an account for you, the routes left are a US-based importer that carries the brand, a trading company, a sourcing agent, or a platform that holds the supplier accounts. Do you need a Japan sourcing agent? and where to buy Japanese products wholesale online compare them.

A directory gives you twenty names in an afternoon. Each name is then its own inquiry, referral, account review and export conversation. That repetition, not the finding, is what a directory search costs.

Where orosy fits

orosy sits on the Japan supply side and takes the account-opening problem off your desk. orosy opens the accounts and negotiates with each supplier; you get one account, one cart, one invoice. The catalog is 200,000+ products, reachable in the browser or through one API. The Japanese marketplace behind it has 5,000+ brands, which join this catalog over time.

For the products already in the orosy catalog, the inquiry, the referral, the account review and the export conversation have already happened; what is left is the order.

Sign up at orosy: it costs nothing and needs no credit card, and you can search and place test orders while verification runs. Registration asks for your company name, a business website URL, and what your business does; the website is what the check runs against, so it is required rather than optional. Most accounts are approved within about 10 minutes if the sign-up email domain matches the business website, or the email is published on the site; otherwise the result normally comes within 12 hours.

orosy arranges international shipping to your country. You do not need a forwarder or a receiving point in Japan. Before you order, the cart shows a reference figure for international shipping, for your information only. The actual shipping cost is calculated later and billed to you, and it can differ from that figure. Customs clearance in your country, import duties, and taxes at import are your responsibility. They are not part of the cost billed by orosy. Delivery to a receiving point inside Japan also remains available.

Two limits. Delivery goes to your business location, a store, warehouse or office; there is no shipping direct to your own customers. And ordering stays on wholesale terms: order units and any minimum order amount for a delivery group still apply. Damaged, mis-shipped or short-quantity items fall under article 10 of the Terms: contact us within 5 days of receipt for a replacement or refund.

FAQ

Is there an English-language directory of Japanese manufacturers?

Not one that covers the whole country. The English-language lists are each built for a purpose: JETRO's Japan Street is an invitation-only export catalog, J-GoodTech is SMRJ's matching platform with about 30,000 Japanese small and mid-size companies, and the big Tokyo trade shows publish English exhibitor directories. Association member lists are mostly in Japanese.

Does JETRO publish a list of Japanese suppliers for overseas buyers?

Yes: Japan Street, an online catalog of more than 30,000 Japanese products that can be viewed only by overseas buyers invited by JETRO. You request an invitation from the JETRO office in your country; registration, inquiries and arranged online meetings carry no charge. JETRO's older matching site, TTPP, was terminated on December 28, 2021 and replaced by e-Venue. Its trade-fair database, J-messe, was discontinued on March 31, 2026.

Are trade-show exhibitor lists a good way to find Japanese makers?

They are the most current lists available, because a company pays to be in them and updates its entry every edition. The Tokyo International Gift Show's GiftNet portal, the Lifestyle Week Tokyo directory that includes ISOT, and the Interior Lifestyle Tokyo exhibitor search are public and in English. The limit is coverage: they list only companies that chose to exhibit.

What should I have ready before contacting a Japanese manufacturer from a directory?

A business website that shows a real store or channel, your registered company name and address, the categories and rough volumes you buy, a target retail price range, and a decision on who will export from Japan and import into the United States. Makers judge an inquiry by whether it looks like a real account, and the website does most of that work.

Why do Japanese makers found in a directory often refer me to a wholesaler?

Because that is how their sales channel is built. Most Japanese makers in consumer categories sell to a primary wholesaler, which handles credit, small deliveries and the retail base, so the maker has no process for a direct overseas account. The referral is not a refusal. Ask the wholesaler first whether it sells to overseas buyers at all.

Sources

orosy Editorial Team

This article was produced with AI. Product facts and figures are checked against primary sources. orosy is responsible for the content.

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