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awesome-japan-tech-blogs

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A Curated collection of engineering blogs from Japan's top tech companies.Japan's tech industry combines **world-class engineering discipline** with a culture of deep technical investment.

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**A curated collection of engineering blogs from Japan's top tech companies.**  
Covering ML · AI · LLMs · Backend Systems · Data Engineering · and more.

> *Japan's engineering culture is world-class. These blogs are the proof.*

[Explore by Category](#-categories) · [Full Index](#-company-blog-index) · [Contributing](CONTRIBUTING.md)

</div>

---

## 📖 Table of Contents

- [Why Japan Tech?](#-why-japan-tech)
- [Legend](#-legend)
- [Categories](#-categories)
  - [🛒 E-Commerce & Marketplace](#-e-commerce--marketplace)
  - [💰 Fintech & Payments](#-fintech--payments)
  - [🧠 AI / ML Research Labs](#-ai--ml-research-labs)
  - [📱 Social, Media & Communication](#-social-media--communication)
  - [🎮 Gaming & Entertainment](#-gaming--entertainment)
  - [🏗️ Infrastructure & Cloud](#️-infrastructure--cloud)
  - [🍜 Consumer & Lifestyle Tech](#-consumer--lifestyle-tech)
  - [📊 Data & Analytics](#-data--analytics)
  - [🏢 Enterprise & SaaS](#-enterprise--saas)
- [Company Blog Index](#-company-blog-index)
- [Must-Read Articles](#-must-read-articles)
- [Contributing](#-contributing)
- [Star History](#-star-history)

---

## 💡 Why Japan Tech?

Japan's tech industry combines **world-class engineering discipline** with a culture of deep technical investment. What you'll find in these blogs:

- Cutting-edge **LLM production systems** from companies running at massive scale
- Deep dives into **distributed systems** powering hundreds of millions of users
- Pioneering work in **recommendation engines**, NLP for Japanese, and computer vision
- Rare access to **inside architecture decisions** at companies like Mercari, Line, and Rakuten

Whether you're an AI engineer, backend architect, or just curious — this list has you covered.

---

## 🗺️ Legend

| Symbol | Meaning |
|--------|---------|
| 🇬🇧 | Blog has English content |
| 🇯🇵 | Blog is primarily in Japanese |
| 🟢 | Actively maintained (2024–2025) |
| 🟡 | Occasionally updated |
| 🔴 | Archived / no longer updated |
| ⭐ | Highly recommended |

---

## 📚 Categories

### 🛒 E-Commerce & Marketplace

#### Mercari Engineering ⭐ `🟢` `🇬🇧` `🇯🇵`
> Japan's largest C2C marketplace. One of the most prolific and technical engineering blogs in Japan.

🔗 https://engineering.mercari.com/en/blog/

| Title | Topic | Date |
|-------|-------|------|
| [Fine-Tuning an LLM to Extract Dynamically Specified Attributes](https://engineering.mercari.com/en/blog/entry/20240913-fine-tuning-an-llm-to-extract-dynamically-specified-attributes/) | LLM / Fine-tuning | Sep 2024 |
| [Leveraging LLMs in Production: Looking Back, Going Forward](https://engineering.mercari.com/en/blog/entry/20231219-leveraging-llms-in-production-looking-back-going-forward/) | LLM / Production | Dec 2023 |
| [How We Build Our ML Platform at Mercari](https://engineering.mercari.com/en/blog/) | MLOps / Platform | Ongoing |
| [Building a Search Quality Evaluation System](https://engineering.mercari.com/en/blog/) | Search / NLP | Ongoing |

---

#### ZOZO Technologies `🟢` `🇬🇧` `🇯🇵`
> Japan's largest fashion e-commerce company. Strong focus on computer vision and recommendation.

🔗 https://techblog.zozo.com/

| Title | Topic | Date |
|-------|-------|------|
| [Size Recommendation with Deep Learning](https://techblog.zozo.com/) | CV / Deep Learning | Ongoing |
| [Building a Large-Scale Data Platform](https://techblog.zozo.com/) | Data Engineering | Ongoing |

---

#### Rakuten Technology `🟢` `🇬🇧` `🇯🇵`
> Global e-commerce and tech giant. Covers ML, data engineering, and cloud infrastructure.

🔗 https://engineering.rakuten.today/

| Title | Topic | Date |
|-------|-------|------|
| [Machine Learning at Rakuten](https://engineering.rakuten.today/) | ML / Data | Ongoing |
| [Distributed Systems at Scale](https://engineering.rakuten.today/) | Backend | Ongoing |

---

### 💰 Fintech & Payments

#### MoneyForward Engineering ⭐ `🟢` `🇯🇵`
> Leading personal finance and accounting SaaS. Strong Ruby on Rails and cloud-native content.

🔗 https://moneyforward-dev.jp/

| Title | Topic | Date |
|-------|-------|------|
| [Cloud-Native Architecture at MoneyForward](https://moneyforward-dev.jp/) | Cloud / Backend | Ongoing |
| [Applying ML to Financial Data](https://moneyforward-dev.jp/) | ML / Fintech | Ongoing |

---

#### PayPay Engineering `🟢` `🇯🇵`
> Japan's #1 mobile payment platform. Exceptional scale-engineering and Go/Kotlin content.

🔗 https://blog.paypay.ne.jp/category/engineering/

| Title | Topic | Date |
|-------|-------|------|
| [Handling 100M+ Transactions at PayPay](https://blog.paypay.ne.jp/category/engineering/) | Scale / Backend | Ongoing |
| [Building Fraud Detection with ML](https://blog.paypay.ne.jp/category/engineering/) | ML / Security | Ongoing |

---

#### Kyash Tech Blog `🟢` `🇯🇵`
> Mobile fintech startup. Great mobile and backend engineering content.

🔗 https://blog.kyash.co/

---

#### freee Developers Hub `🟢` `🇯🇵`
> Cloud accounting SaaS. Covers API design, microservices, and developer productivity.

🔗 https://developers.freee.co.jp/

---

#### LayerX Tech Blog ⭐ `🟢` `🇯🇵`
> B2B fintech. Exceptional content on data engineering, LLMs in enterprise, and Go.

🔗 https://tech.layerx.co.jp/

---

### 🧠 AI / ML Research Labs

#### Preferred Networks (PFN) ⭐ `🟢` `🇬🇧` `🇯🇵`
> Japan's top deep learning research company. Creators of Chainer. World-class robotics + ML.

🔗 https://preferred.jp/en/projects/

| Title | Topic | Date |
|-------|-------|------|
| [ChainerMN: Scalable Distributed Deep Learning](https://preferred.jp/en/projects/) | Distributed ML | Ongoing |
| [Robotics and Deep Learning at PFN](https://preferred.jp/en/projects/) | Robotics / CV | Ongoing |

---

#### CyberAgent AI Lab ⭐ `🟢` `🇬🇧` `🇯🇵`
> One of Japan's most prolific AI research teams. LLMs, NLP, computer vision, and ad-tech.

🔗 https://cyberagent.ai/blog/

| Title | Topic | Date |
|-------|-------|------|
| [Open-Sourcing Japanese LLM Research](https://cyberagent.ai/blog/) | LLM / NLP | Ongoing |
| [Ad Auction Optimization with RL](https://cyberagent.ai/blog/) | Reinforcement Learning | Ongoing |

---

#### Riken AIP `🟡` `🇬🇧`
> RIKEN Center for Advanced Intelligence Project — Japan's national AI research institute.

🔗 https://aip.riken.jp/

---

#### NTT Research `🟢` `🇬🇧`
> Global R&D arm of NTT. Quantum computing, cryptography, and ML research.

🔗 https://ntt-research.com/

---

### 📱 Social, Media & Communication

#### LINE Engineering ⭐ `🟢` `🇬🇧` `🇯🇵`
> Messaging super-app used by 95M+ in Japan. Deep content on Kafka, microservices, and ML.

🔗 https://engineering.linecorp.com/en/blog

| Title | Topic | Date |
|-------|-------|------|
| [Building LINE's Messaging Infrastructure at Scale](https://engineering.linecorp.com/en/blog/) | Backend / Kafka | Ongoing |
| [LINE's Approach to On-Device ML](https://engineering.linecorp.com/en/blog/) | ML / Mobile | Ongoing |
| [Migrating to Kubernetes at Scale](https://engineering.linecorp.com/en/blog/) | Cloud / K8s | Ongoing |

---

#### SmartNews Developer Blog ⭐ `🟡` `🇬🇧` `🇯🇵`
> News curation app. Excellent NLP, personalization, and large-scale systems content.

🔗 https://developer.smartnews.com/blog/

| Title | Topic | Date |
|-------|-------|------|
| [How SmartNews Serves Billions of Recommendations](https://developer.smartnews.com/blog/) | Recommendation / Scale | Ongoing |
| [NLP for Japanese News Categorization](https://developer.smartnews.com/blog/) | NLP | Ongoing |

---

#### MIXI Engineering `🟡` `🇯🇵`
> Social gaming and community platform. iOS/Android and game server engineering.

🔗 https://mixi.engineering/

---

#### Gunosy Tech Blog `🟡` `🇯🇵`
> News app. Strong data science and NLP content for Japanese text.

🔗 https://gunosy.github.io/

---

#### Dwango Tech Blog `🟡` `🇯🇵`
> Operates Niconico video. Streaming infrastructure, Rust, and Haskell content.

🔗 https://dwango.github.io/

---

### 🎮 Gaming & Entertainment

#### DeNA Engineering ⭐ `🟢` `🇬🇧` `🇯🇵`
> Mobile gaming and social platform. ML for games, backend, and A/B testing at scale.

🔗 https://engineering.dena.com/en/

| Title | Topic | Date |
|-------|-------|------|
| [Building ML Pipelines for Mobile Games](https://engineering.dena.com/en/) | ML / MLOps | Ongoing |
| [Large-Scale A/B Testing at DeNA](https://engineering.dena.com/en/) | Experimentation | Ongoing |

---

#### Square Enix Tech Blog `🟡` `🇯🇵`
> Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest creator. Game engine, graphics, and AI content.

🔗 https://www.jp.square-enix.com/tech/

---

#### Konami Technology `🟡` `🇯🇵`
> Gaming and sports tech. Occasional deep-dives on game AI and graphics.

🔗 https://www.konami.com/games/corporate/en/

---

### 🏗️ Infrastructure & Cloud

#### NTT Communications `🟢` `🇯🇵`
> Telecom and cloud infrastructure. Kubernetes, OpenStack, and networking content.

🔗 https://engineers.ntt.com/

---

#### Fujitsu Journal `🟢` `🇬🇧`
> Global IT and consulting. High-performance computing, quantum, and AI/ML.

🔗 https://journal.jp.fujitsu.com/en/

---

#### GMO Internet Engineering `🟡` `🇯🇵`
> Web hosting, domain registration, and cloud. Infrastructure and security content.

🔗 https://techblog.gmo-ap.jp/

---

#### KDDI Digital Life `🟡` `🇯🇵`
> Major telecom carrier. IoT, 5G, and data platform engineering.

🔗 https://developers.kddi.com/blog

---

### 🍜 Consumer & Lifestyle Tech

#### Cookpad Tech Blog ⭐ `🟢` `🇬🇧` `🇯🇵`
> World's largest recipe platform. Excellent Ruby, recommendation, and ML content.

🔗 https://techlife.cookpad.com/

| Title | Topic | Date |
|-------|-------|------|
| [How Cookpad Uses NLP for Recipe Search](https://techlife.cookpad.com/) | NLP / Search | Ongoing |
| [Building Ingredient Recognition with CV](https://techlife.cookpad.com/) | Computer Vision | Ongoing |

---

#### Wantedly Engineering `🟢` `🇬🇧` `🇯🇵`
> Business social network. Strong GraphQL, microservices, and product engineering.

🔗 https://www.wantedly.com/companies/wantedly/post_articles

---

#### Sansan Tech Blog `🟢` `🇯🇵`
> Business card digitization and CRM. OCR, ML, and data engineering.

🔗 https://buildersbox.corp-sansan.com/

---

#### Ubie Discovery `🟢` `🇯🇵`
> Medical AI startup. Healthcare AI, NLP for medical text, and LLMs.

🔗 https://zenn.dev/ubie_dev

---

#### Timee Product Blog `🟡` `🇯🇵`
> Spot-work platform. Great content on data-driven product development.

🔗 https://product.timee.co.jp/

---

### 📊 Data & Analytics

#### Recruit Data Blog ⭐ `🟢` `🇯🇵`
> Data and analytics arm of Recruit Group. Excellent data science and MLOps.

🔗 https://engineer.recruit-lifestyle.co.jp/

---

#### Yahoo Japan Tech Blog `🟢` `🇯🇵`
> Japan's #1 web portal. Large-scale Hadoop, Spark, and ML infrastructure.

🔗 https://techblog.yahoo.co.jp/

---

#### Gaudiy Tech Blog `🟢` `🇯🇵`
> Web3 / fan engagement. Blockchain and data platform engineering.

🔗 https://techblog.gaudiy.com/

---

#### Repro Tech Blog `🟡` `🇯🇵`
> Mobile marketing analytics. Data pipeline and ML content.

🔗 https://tech.repro.io/

---

### 🏢 Enterprise & SaaS

#### Classi Tech Blog `🟢` `🇯🇵`
> EdTech SaaS. Rails, AWS, and data-driven education content.

🔗 https://tech.classi.jp/

---

#### ANDPAD Tech Blog `🟢` `🇯🇵`
> Construction management SaaS. Backend, mobile, and data engineering.

🔗 https://tech.andpad.co.jp/

---

#### CADDi Tech Blog `🟢` `🇯🇵`
> Manufacturing procurement tech. Computer vision for technical drawings, supply chain ML.

🔗 https://caddi.tech/

---

## 📇 Company Blog Index

Quick-reference table of all blogs in this list.

| Company | Blog URL | Focus Areas | Lang | Status |
|---------|----------|-------------|------|--------|
| Mercari | [engineering.mercari.com/en/blog](https://engineering.mercari.com/en/blog/) | LLM, ML, Backend, Architecture | 🇬🇧🇯🇵 | 🟢 |
| ZOZO Technologies | [techblog.zozo.com](https://techblog.zozo.com/) | CV, Recommendation, Data | 🇯🇵 | 🟢 |
| Rakuten | [engineering.rakuten.today](https://engineering.rakuten.today/) | ML, Data, Cloud | 🇬🇧🇯🇵 | 🟢 |
| MoneyForward | [moneyforward-dev.jp](https://moneyforward-dev.jp/) | Fintech, Rails, Cloud | 🇯🇵 | 🟢 |
| PayPay | [blog.paypay.ne.jp/category/engineering](https://blog.paypay.ne.jp/category/engineering/) | Scale, Go, Fraud ML | 🇯🇵 | 🟢 |
| Kyash | [blog.kyash.co](https://blog.kyash.co/) | Fintech, Mobile | 🇯🇵 | 🟢 |
| freee | [developers.freee.co.jp](https://developers.freee.co.jp/) | API, Microservices | 🇯🇵 | 🟢 |
| LayerX | [tech.layerx.co.jp](https://tech.layerx.co.jp/) | LLM, Data Eng, Go | 🇯🇵 | 🟢 |
| Preferred Networks | [preferred.jp/en/projects](https://preferred.jp/en/projects/) | Deep Learning, Robotics | 🇬🇧🇯🇵 | 🟢 |
| CyberAgent AI Lab | [cyberagent.ai/blog](https://cyberagent.ai/blog/) | LLM, NLP, RL | 🇬🇧🇯🇵 | 🟢 |
| RIKEN AIP | [aip.riken.jp](https://aip.riken.jp/) | AI Research | 🇬🇧 | 🟡 |
| NTT Research | [ntt-research.com](https://ntt-research.com/) | Quantum, Crypto, ML | 🇬🇧 | 🟢 |
| LINE | [engineering.linecorp.com/en/blog](https://engineering.linecorp.com/en/blog) | Backend, Kafka, ML | 🇬🇧🇯🇵 | 🟢 |
| SmartNews | [developer.smartnews.com/blog](https://developer.smartnews.com/blog/) | NLP, Recommendation | 🇬🇧🇯🇵 | 🟡 |
| MIXI | [mixi.engineering](https://mixi.engineering/) | Gaming, Mobile | 🇯🇵 | 🟡 |
| Gunosy | [gunosy.github.io](https://gunosy.github.io/) | NLP, Data Science | 🇯🇵 | 🟡 |
| Dwango | [dwango.github.io](https://dwango.github.io/) | Streaming, Rust, Haskell | 🇯🇵 | 🟡 |
| DeNA | [engineering.dena.com/en](https://engineering.dena.com/en/) | ML, Games, A/B Testing | 🇬🇧🇯🇵 | 🟢 |
| Square Enix | [jp.square-enix.com/tech](https://www.jp.square-enix.com/tech/) | Game Engine, AI | 🇯🇵 | 🟡 |
| NTT Communications | [engineers.ntt.com](https://engineers.ntt.com/) | K8s, Networking | 🇯🇵 | 🟢 |
| Fujitsu | [journal.jp.fujitsu.com/en](https://journal.jp.fujitsu.com/en/) | HPC, Quantum, AI | 🇬🇧 | 🟢 |
| GMO Internet | [techblog.gmo-ap.jp](https://techblog.gmo-ap.jp/) | Infrastructure, Security | 🇯🇵 | 🟡 |
| KDDI | [developers.kddi.com/blog](https://developers.kddi.com/blog) | IoT, 5G, Data | 🇯🇵 | 🟡 |
| Cookpad | [techlife.cookpad.com](https://techlife.cookpad.com/) | Ruby, NLP, CV | 🇬🇧🇯🇵 | 🟢 |
| Wantedly | [wantedly.com/.../post_articles](https://www.wantedly.com/companies/wantedly/post_articles) | GraphQL, Product Eng | 🇬🇧🇯🇵 | 🟢 |
| Sansan | [buildersbox.corp-sansan.com](https://buildersbox.corp-sansan.com/) | OCR, ML, CRM | 🇯🇵 | 🟢 |
| Ubie | [zenn.dev/ubie_dev](https://zenn.dev/ubie_dev) | Healthcare AI, LLM | 🇯🇵 | 🟢 |
| Timee | [product.timee.co.jp](https://product.timee.co.jp/) | Data-driven Product | 🇯🇵 | 🟡 |
| Recruit | [engineer.recruit-lifestyle.co.jp](https://engineer.recruit-lifestyle.co.jp/) | Data Science, MLOps | 🇯🇵 | 🟢 |
| Yahoo Japan | [techblog.yahoo.co.jp](https://techblog.yahoo.co.jp/) | Hadoop, Spark, ML | 🇯🇵 | 🟢 |
| Gaudiy | [techblog.gaudiy.com](https://techblog.gaudiy.com/) | Web3, Data Platform | 🇯🇵 | 🟢 |
| Repro | [tech.repro.io](https://tech.repro.io/) | Analytics, Data Pipeline | 🇯🇵 | 🟡 |
| Classi | [tech.classi.jp](https://tech.classi.jp/) | EdTech, Rails, AWS | 🇯🇵 | 🟢 |
| ANDPAD | [tech.andpad.co.jp](https://tech.andpad.co.jp/) | SaaS, Backend, Mobile | 🇯🇵 | 🟢 |
| CADDi | [caddi.tech](https://caddi.tech/) | CV, Manufacturing AI | 🇯🇵 | 🟢 |

---

## ⭐ Must-Read Articles

A hand-picked selection of exceptional individual posts across all blogs.

| Title | Company | Topic | Why it's great |
|-------|---------|-------|---------------|
| [Fine-Tuning an LLM to Extract Dynamically Specified Attributes](https://engineering.mercari.com/en/blog/entry/20240913-fine-tuning-an-llm-to-extract-dynamically-specified-attributes/) | Mercari | LLM / Fine-tuning | Real production LLM fine-tuning case study |
| [Leveraging LLMs in Production](https://engineering.mercari.com/en/blog/entry/20231219-leveraging-llms-in-production-looking-back-going-forward/) | Mercari | LLM / Production | Honest reflection on LLM adoption |
| [LINE's Messaging Infrastructure](https://engineering.linecorp.com/en/blog/) | LINE | Backend / Scale | 95M user messaging architecture |
| [SmartNews Recommendations at Scale](https://developer.smartnews.com/blog/) | SmartNews | Recommendation | Billions of recommendations explained |

> 💡 Know a great article? [Add it via PR](CONTRIBUTING.md)!

---

## 🤝 Contributing

All contributions are welcome! See [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) for full guidelines.

**Quick contribution checklist:**
- [ ] The blog is from a Japan-based tech company or research lab
- [ ] Content is engineering-focused (not marketing)
- [ ] The blog is (or was) actively maintained
- [ ] No duplicate entries

To suggest a new blog, [open an issue](https://github.com/Prashant-4527/awesome-japan-tech-blogs/issues/new?template=add-blog.md) or submit a PR directly against `README.md`.

---

## 📈 Star History

[![Star History Chart](https://api.star-history.com/svg?repos=Prashant-4527/awesome-japan-tech-blogs&type=Date)](https://star-history.com/#Prashant-4527/awesome-japan-tech-blogs&Date)

---

## 💡 Related Lists

If you like this format, also check out:

- [ml-engineering-blogs](https://github.com/primaprashant/ml-engineering-blogs) by [@primaprashant](https://github.com/primaprashant) — curated ML engineering blogs (global, not Japan-specific)
- [llms-in-production](https://github.com/primaprashant/llms-in-production) by [@primaprashant](https://github.com/primaprashant) — real-world LLM production case studies

This list follows the same spirit, scoped specifically to Japan's tech ecosystem.

---
<div align="center">

Maintained with ❤️ by [Prashant](https://github.com/Prashant-4527)  
Building toward an AI Engineer role at Mercari, Japan 🇯🇵

*If this list helped you, a ⭐ goes a long way!*

</div>

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