Would you like a VPN to secure your privacy or to access video content or streaming services? In this article, we will walk you through the best VPNs for Japan, which prioritize security and speed in addition to being compatible with popular streaming services.

Japan has one of the highest levels of internet connectivity globally, with 91 percent of its citizens online. Local and foreign tourists alike turn to VPN services to stay connected during their travels. Unlike its neighbor China, Japan has a constitution that guarantees freedom of speech and low government surveillance and internet censorship levels. Among many countries assessed as free of internet restrictions, Japan is among the most open. However, some recent legal changes have cast doubt on Japan’s future.

An encrypted virtual private network, which routes users’ internet traffic through untraceable intermediary servers located overseas, is a privacy tool that can make users’ online activities anonymous and untraceable. Using VPN servers that provide a new IP address, users can conceal their true IP address, hiding their location. As well as removing geographical restrictions on online content and streaming services, it is a good way to avoid censorship from Internet service providers (ISPs), malicious third parties, and government agencies.

The Best VPN For Japan

• ExpressVPN (Best Premium VPN for Japan)
• Surfshark (Best All-In-One VPN for Japan)
• NordVPN (Best Android VPN for Japan)
• IPVanish (Best Windows VPN for Japan)
• Private Internet Access (Best Mac VPN for Japan)

An Overview of Japan

For newcomers or non-natives with a lack of knowledge about Japanese data laws, here is some information to help you comply with the law.

This information is particularly valuable if you choose a VPN provider with a local presence on Japan’s shores.

Jurisdiction Characteristics
Political culture	Democracy
Main IT hub location	Tokyo
Data protection registration	Not required
Data protection officers appointment	Not required
Data transfer to 3rd party disclosure	Consent needed
Unlawful disclosure of sensitive information	10% of the company’s annual domestic turnover
VPN allowance	Should be reported within
Downloading copyrighted content	Not allowed. For uploading, a ten-year penalty may apply, as well as penalties of up to two years for downloading.

Detailed Overview of the Best VPN for Japan

It’s not always easy to select the most suitable VPN for Japan. If you want to protect multiple devices, you should decide which one to download first. Are privacy and security a concern you need for your entire equipment or just your phone? When you are clear on what you require, you should look at these VPN products we found to be the best.

Strengths	Weaknesses
+Streaming and downloading at high speeds abroad	-Some servers might be slow
+Connections are unlimited at the same time	-It is a less established brand than NordVPN or ExpressVPN
+Unblocks the majority of streaming sites
+Zero logging policy
+Protections against threats
+Low price

Our Surfshark review noted that it impressed us with its blend of power and value as the best all-in-one VPN for Japan. In comparison to ExpressVPN, it’s not as in-depth, but for its low price, it’s a great choice. The company’s website claims viewers can watch Fuji TV, TV Tokyo, HBO, Wowow TV, Prime Video, Showtime, and Netflix, among other channels. Surfshark, by contrast, seems pretty confident in its abilities, which is different from some other providers.

Also, Surfshark’s user interface is designed to make it easy for anyone to start using it. It has protocol switching and kill switches under the surface, but anyone can use these apps.

The ability to configure tons of settings may frustrate those who are confident with VPNs. Overall, though, everything works well right out of the box.

Surfshark’s main selling point is its low price: only $2.49 a month despite its great features. As a result, it is the best cheap VPN on the market and costs half as much as some of its more expensive competitors.

Then Surfshark might be the right choice for you if you are looking for the best Japan VPN at the lowest possible price.

Strengths	Weaknesses
+Access to Netflix on multiple servers	-macOS app has some bugs
+Great mobile apps (perfect for travelers)	-Static IP Addresses
+Multiple device connections	-No split-tunneling
+More than 80 servers in Japan	-Not exceptional customer support

NordVPN is an extraordinarily popular VPN and a great choice for nearly any internet user in any country. Users in Japan will be happy to know that NordVPN is not subject to any of the three international surveillance bodies (Five Eyes, Nine Eyes, and 14 Eyes), so they’ll never have to worry about the company handing over their data to authorities. Even with this added security on a global scale, the most exciting part about NordVPN is its speed on both Mac and Windows. Although NordVPN functions better on Windows than Mac, NordVPN scorched the competition in our speed tests. However, if you’re looking for a VPN that caters to Mac users, check out our best VPN for Mac page.

Highly Rated Mobile Apps

NordVPN’s ratings on the Apple App Store and Google Play store are some of the highest in the lot of VPNs we’ve reviewed. With a 4.6 out of five and 4.2 out of five, respectively, NordVPN perfectly positions itself to be a favorite among travelers without their laptops.

Netflix Access

In Japan, travelers and ex-pats might be disappointed to miss out on geofenced shows and movies. I think it would be fun to jump on Netflix from a US server to see what they have to offer, even if you are from Japan. Thanks to NordVPN, many of their servers allow access to Netflix.

Airtight Logging Policy

NordVPN is known for its commitment to user security. It was in our interest to discover that NordVPN doesn’t log or collect information like the websites visited, web browsing history, or files downloaded. As a provider of reliable, secure, and trusted VPN, NordVPN consistently excels.

Strengths	Weaknesses
+It offers 20 fast Japan servers	-The server network of several competitors is larger
+Security is a major concern	-Some people may be frustrated by the complexity
+Supports torrenting
+Does not keep logs
+It has an exceptional configuration, a unique interface, and an unlimited number of connections
+Unique interface

As soon as you open IPVanish, you’ll see why this is among our top choice. It’s totally different from its competitors, and we appreciate its ability to be stereotypically ‘techy.’ Our IPVanish review offers detailed information about the VPN provider and why some users find it confusing.

Regarding the VPN service being a Japan VPN, it has five servers in one location in Tokyo. Travelers and residents alike can take advantage of the hotel’s amenities, although they are not spectacular.

IPVanish has an incredible policy of unlimited connections, something that we really appreciate. With Surfshark, this means you can cover up to five devices in one plan, which is something that providers that charge per use won’t be able to do. The only downside is that it does not support Netflix Japan, which may deter many from using it.

We would not recommend a VPN service whose quality we did not deem stellar – so IPVanish is an excellent VPN, but most people could probably do better.

Strengths	Weaknesses
+Reviews of stellar mobile apps	-Observed by Five Eyes, Nine Eyes, and 14 Eyes
+Has a kill switch	-Split tunneling is not possible
+No need to worry about streaming	-A free trial is not available
+On Windows, it’s fast	-A poor level of customer service

The biggest benefit of this best Mac VPN for Japan is its customizability. Because the Private Internet Access service is highly customizable and offers complete encryption, it’s not surprising that they also operate 189 servers in Japan. Our experience with Private Internet Access was even more enjoyable due to its aggressive “no traffic logging” policy, which gave us a comfortable surfing experience.

Secure and Dynamic IP Addresses

If you want to conduct effective and anonymous searches, you must use a dynamic VPN from Japan, Tbilisi, or Norway. We were given a unique IP Address each time we logged onto Private Internet Access. Even with the company’s cooperation, it would be nearly impossible to match it to our machine. Our company was grateful to find a dynamic IP with Private Internet Access since it is the holy grail of online security.

Mobile Apps With Muscle

Mobile apps are available for almost every VPN, but that’s not important if they don’t work! With the apps’ ratings of 4.6 out of 5 on Google Play and 4.4 out of 5 on the Apple App Store, all of our concerns about Private Internet Access’ mobile apps were allayed. In the end, we decided to run both apps together, and we found out that the navigation was easy, there were no crashes, and the data was always secure. One of the most important factors in creating a successful app in Japan is the country’s high number of smartphone users.

Unlimited Servers and Unlimited Devices

People like us have multiple devices, so VPNs that only let you use one or two devices just don’t cut it. We never had to worry about exceeding our usage limits with Private Internet Access.

What to look for when choosing a VPN for Japan

Many VPN services are available for Japan (some are even free). But how do you find the best VPN service in Japan? You should consider the following criteria:

The best VPNs for Japan should provide good VPN performance: they should be both fast and stable. If you want to measure VPN speed, you should use a third-party service like SpeedTest.net. You can check the speed of your internet with and without a VPN connection to see if it is slower. Using the VPN for an extended period of time may reveal connection drops or failures.

For your online activities to be protected, the VPN should use the most advanced encryption technology available. Many VPN providers offer AES-256 and other strong encryption methods, for example.

VPNs are supposed to keep your privacy protected. By the way, did you know that many VPNs log their users’ online activities? The VPN provider you choose should provide you with a no-log policy if your privacy is paramount to you.

Whether you are using the VPN in Japan or outside of Japan, it should offer VPN servers located in Japan. To find the best Japan VPN, you must ensure that the VPN service has Japanese servers. Local VPN servers provide more speed for users in Japan, while Japanese IP addresses are only available for VPN users outside Japan.

You should pay attention to the following VPN features when choosing the best VPN for Japan:

• Can this VPN support any of the VPN protocols listed above (OpenVPN, IKEv2, WireGuard, etc.)?

• Does the VPN offer servers in how many countries? What Japanese options does it have?

• Can this VPN support multiple simultaneous connections?

• What is the no-log policy of this VPN?

• Can I torrent and share files over P2P with this VPN?

• Is this VPN capable of unblocking streaming services from different countries (such as Netflix)?

• What advanced features are offered by this VPN, such as split tunneling and kill switches?

1. If you experience VPN problems, you need to resolve them quickly if the VPN has good customer support. Customer service should be easy to reach for a VPN for Japan. In general, the best VPN providers offer live customer service through online chat.

2. Paid VPN in Japan should provide free trials and money-back guarantees: Paid VPNs in Japan must provide trials and money-back guarantees so that their users can test out the services before spending any money on them.

Methodology

Our team has thoroughly tested each VPN on this list for its speed, security, and functionality. We share our battle-tested methodology further down so you can duplicate these tests at home or just gain an understanding of how VPN tests are conducted. By determining where these VPNs are ranked, you can make an educated decision. It’s important to note that when ranking these VPN services, we factored the number of VPN servers located in Japan into the equation.

Our research revealed that all VPNs had a decent amount of servers available in Japan, so we delved right in. Our initial focus is on the privacy and security of VPNs, which are the pillars of any trustworthy service. A few of the things we looked at were whether our IP addresses were masking well with the VPN, whether the VPN kept any client information, and whether they met our encryption standards (256-bit AES is ideal). Depending on whether or not each VPN offers these features, we conduct the test.

Speed

Some VPNs can be as secure as nuclear codes, but what good are they if you can’t get online quickly? The first thing we do is test each VPN’s speed. Our office offers a private Optimum network that we use for testing all VPNs listed. Having only one device connected at a time, we measure Internet speed without using a VPN. Afterward, each VPN is tested on two different computers running two different operating systems. We conducted the speed tests on SpeedTest.net on a Macbook Air and a Windows Vivobook.

Using Speedtest.net, you can test how fast each VPN uploads, pings (latency), and downloads. We perform one or two minutes of testing with and without the VPN during the testing period to ensure accuracy. Latency is measured in milliseconds, while the download and upload speeds are measured in Mbps. Various kinds of connection speeds are naturally different on Mac and Windows (Macs are typically faster). We record the speed for each and then convert it to a percentage.

The device, operating system, distance from the server, etc., can affect the speed test results. One can safely say that there is quite a bit of variability. Regardless, for a VPN to meet our standards, it must have a maximum speed test difference of 40 percent across all categories.

Security

Having established that the VPN is fast, it’s now time to protect all of our data and traffic. VPNs have the purpose of hiding the contents of your online activity from others who might be interested in them, so we must ensure that our search history and IP address are hidden completely. Most IP address leaks are caused by a browser component called WebRTC, which allows communication between browsers directly. Many popular browsers (Chrome, Edge, and Opera) have this capability.

As a first step, we use an ExpressVPN tool that is publicly available for testing WebRTC leaks. To discover potential WebRTC leaks, we use two simple methods: check the local IPv4 addresses and public ones. On DNSLeakTest.com, we check if any leak could compromise our DNS (Domain Name Server) with yet another tool. An IP address is the translation of the DNS for a web domain, so it’s important in a VPN to prevent leaks.

In addition to this, we also consider how each VPN’s encryption is implemented. Our goal is to build something as good as or better than OpenVPN and AES-256 encryption; these encryption methods are the most secure available, so their work would be impressive.

As part of our technical assessment, we also examine the types of IP address connections they provide with their VPN service. IP addresses should be unique and anonymously compiled as part of the gold standard. A VPN that provides dynamic IP addressing typically meets these requirements. Each time we log in, our IP address is shuffled, which gives us a unique identifier. The tracking of any traffic is impossible with this method. In addition to a dynamic IP address, a static IP address can stand out in VPNs with thousands of users. Because streaming services are much more likely to block shared addresses, static IP addresses are less ideal. We also test for a VPN kill switch, the standard failsafe. Should the VPN fail, a kill switch will shut down all Internet browsers.

We are left with assessing the VPN provider itself once some of the technical assessments have been done. Our main concern is if they have a data logging policy and if they have any privacy laws. It’s important to consider the location of your VPN when choosing one. In a perfect world, the VPN would not be located in a country currently governed by the Three Eyes, Nine Eyes, or 14 Eyes, which require companies to turn over customer data to law enforcement upon request. Our search focuses on companies outside the countries affected by these rules and companies that retain only the basic information needed to hold an account. In our opinion, storing more information than a name, an email address, and a payment method is excessive.

Subscriptions

In general, VPNs aren’t that expensive, so you might want to read up on some of the best VPN Black Friday deals if you feel like you are spending too much. This section aims to give readers up-to-date cost information without the hidden fees they may encounter on vendor websites. Discounts, pricing, and money-back guarantees are especially important to us when comparing VPNs. The typical VPN subscription costs between $5 and $10 per month, so we also look into the details of each subscription in addition to what each includes. Besides the number of devices connected, the number of server connections in a day, and features such as multi-hop, there are some other incentives available. No matter what you need, we have it covered, whether it’s free or paid.

Split Tunneling and Multi-Hop Encryption

Additionally, the best VPNs offer split tunneling, a feature that separates users’ access to the VPN from their public network. Our analysis also checks if a VPN uses multiple hops when encryption occurs multiple times across multiple servers. The two features above differentiate VPNs from the competition.

Customer Support

You’ll need customer support even if you’re an expert in Google or extremely technically savvy. To make sure each VPN provider can handle even the highest maintenance clients, we stress test each provider’s customer support. When VPNs offer a dedicated support line or 24/7 online chat, they usually score high but lower if their support takes longer, like using a ticket system. Additionally, we appreciate telephone support, which is very rare among VPN providers.

Torrenting and Netflix

Online streaming and torrenting are some of the most popular reasons to be online today! Our VPN reviews place a lot of emphasis on the quality of streaming connections. We are always experimenting with VPN providers to determine which ones can beat streaming companies’ VPN restrictions.

App Quality

The final step is to assess the mobile apps of each VPN provider. We’ll look at iOS and Android capabilities, ratings in the app stores, and user experiences as part of our analysis. A VPN that does not have a three-star rating in either the App Store or Google Play Store will not be recommended.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it Legal to Use a VPN in Japan?

Using a VPN is legal in Japan, and the internet is usually not restricted.

How to Setup a VPN in Japan?

If you do not already have a VPN, go for a reputable one.

Download and install your VPN program on your computer.

Open your VPN and log in.

Connect to a country of your choice. In this case, choose Japan.

Now, you have a new IP address and a new location.

Which VPNs have Japan Servers?

• ExpressVPN
• NordVPN
• Hotspot Shield
• Surfshark
• CyberGhost

Which VPNs has Japan server for free?

• ProtonVPN
• Tunnelbear
• Trust. Zone
• 4 UltraVPN