If it’s for wall flipping, there’s nothing special about Japanese VPNs. Tier 1 VPNs all offer Japanese nodes, and in addition to the advantage of low latency to China, there are other uses for Japanese IPs:
- Watching Netflix in the Japanese zone, where Neflix is said to have the largest number of titles.
- Go to the PS/Nintendo Japanese section and buy the game, this is a trick I use a lot in the US as well, who let some games be released only in Japan
- To watch movies, there are quite a few streaming sites on the island proper, from anime to action movies, niche Genre you won’t find there in the whole world
- Catch up on NHK/Asahi TV’s limited area videos, which are in demand by people who travel between China and Japan all the time.
- Other things like using the Japanese App Store, I don’t think many people use Disney+Japan, but there seems to be a lot of people shopping on AMZ JP!
Recommended Japanese VPNs for domestic use
There are very few VPNs that can connect in China, and there are only a few Japanese VPNs that are recommended:
ExpressVPN
Officially recommended to use the Japanese node only poor Japan Yokohama (Yokohama) a place, but many IP, update frequently (automatically assigned when connecting), and better optimized for China access (support LightWay protocol, streaming faster), many domestic friends reflect good, have encountered the occasional Nintendo Japanese area is banned, may be related to the use of more people.
Click here for a detailed introduction to ExpressVPN.
PandaVPN
To talk about IP resources, I’m afraid there is no more complete than Panda VPN, many people in China all day long connected to its Netflix nodes, Tokyo, Nagano, BGPA lines, IP did not carefully counted, but from the connection rate should be quite a lot of change is also very frequent, what protocols are used is not clear, but since the support of Netflix is the main, it should be a lightweight such as SSR/WireGuard protocols. I’m not sure what protocol is used, but since it mainly supports Netflix, it should be a lightweight protocol like SSR/WireGuard.
Click here for a detailed description of PandaVPN.
Other Japan VPNs
VPNGate from the University of Tsukuba in Japan is an open and free directory of public VPN server addresses, usually paired with the SoftEther client, which I used from China many years ago (as early as 2010), when it was still available, but now it’s not possible at all.
Others such as NordVPN, SurfShark, PureVPN also provide Japanese nodes, but they can be used in foreign countries, to the Japanese nodes in China may not be effective, we do not recommend one by one.
Frequently Asked Questions about using a Japan VPN
About P2P downloads
Japan’s laws on piracy are very strict, don’t expect to connect to a Japanese VPN to down BT, your VPN service provider will first limit your P2P download software to initiate the connection, even if the service provider does not limit you, it is easy to be found by the Japanese network regulation, although there is no substantial impact on you, but if as a result of this your VPN servers are shut down, it will also affect everyone, so don’t connect to a Japanese VPN to down BT.
About IP restriction even after connecting
This is normal, connecting to a Japanese VPN node doesn’t mean that all Japanese services are automatically open to you, and the Japanese are not stupid. Take Netflix Japan as an example, from time to time you’ll find that when you’re connected it still shows the region restriction prompt, this is because when more people are connected it’s easy for the site to detect anomalies in the traffic (originating from the same IP) and then get banned. There’s no good solution for this, just try reconnecting a few times, and it usually works.
About Japanese Addresses and Phone Numbers
More and more Japanese services are implementing stricter zone locks, requiring users to provide “real” Japanese addresses and phone numbers and other information that can prove residency in Japan, which can’t be solved by using a Japan VPN, but the general address is fine, and the phone number may have to be purchased from a third-party foreign website to buy a Japanese virtual number, or you can try the domestic Taobao! You can also try the domestic Taobao.
