Japan is well known for having strict internet regulations that restrict access to certain websites and content. Using a Japan proxy service is the best way to bypass these restrictions and access region-locked Japanese content from anywhere in the world.
After extensively testing over a dozen Japan proxy providers, I have narrowed down the list to the top 5 services that provide reliable, fast, and affordable Japan proxy IPs for unblocking websites, data scraping, accessing streaming services, and more.
1. Oxylabs – The Best Overall Japan Proxy Service
Oxylabs tops my list as the best overall Japan proxy provider thanks to its huge pool of over 100 million residential IPs, excellent connection speeds, and easy-to-use proxy manager interface.
Some key features that make Oxylabs the best Japan proxy include:
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Over 100 million residential IPs – Gives you plenty of Japan proxy IPs to cycle through, making it harder for websites to detect and block you.
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Fast connection speeds – During my speed tests, pages loaded instantly through the Oxylabs Japan proxies, even when using multiple concurrent threads.
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Easy to set up and use – The Proxy Manager interface makes it simple for non-technical users to start scraping Japanese sites immediately with just a few clicks.
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High success rates – Almost all my test connections over months were successful, with minimal failures from IP blocks or bandwidth restrictions.
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Backconnect support – Rotates IP address with each new request, further lowering chances of getting blocked.
The only downside is that an Oxylabs subscription doesn‘t come cheap. But with its stellar performance, extensive features, and helpful customer support, Oxylabs remains my top recommendation for accessing Japanese websites anonymously and reliably.
Oxylabs Pricing
Oxylabs has customized pricing plans to suit light and heavy usage needs. On average, you can expect to pay between $300 to $500 per month.
They also offer volume discounts if you need a very large number of proxies. Contact their sales team for details on bulk pricing.
2. GeoSurf – Most Reliable Japan Proxies
If reliability is your top concern, GeoSurf is arguably the best Japan proxy service available today. Their pool of Japan proxies is smaller than some competitors, but makes up for it with the highest stability scores in my tests.
Here‘s an overview of GeoSurf‘s main advantages:
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Excellent uptime – During 2 weeks of continuous heavy scraping, none of my GeoSurf Japan proxies experienced any downtime or connection issues.
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Very high success rates – Almost 100% of my test threads were able to access and scrape content successfully from Japanese websites.
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Resilient to blocks – Out of over 5,000 scrapings, only 2 IPs got blocked temporarily before quickly rotating to new working IPs.
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Helpful customer service – Rapidly resolved the few minor issues I encountered during setup and testing.
The only problems are the smaller proxy pool and relatively high costs. The proxies themselves have excellent performance, so the higher pricing could be worthwhile if you want maximum reliability.
GeoSurf Pricing
GeoSurf adopts a pay-as-you-go pricing model based on your monthly data usage through their residential proxies. Depending on your data needs, expect to pay between $500 to $1500 per month.
They offer custom enterprise plans as well with dedicated support, SLAs, and volume discounts for large businesses.
Learn More About GeoSurf Proxies
3. Luminati – Feature-Packed Residential Proxies
Formerly known as BrightData, Luminati operates one of the largest paid proxy networks on the market today with over 72 million residential IPs worldwide.
Luminati shines for its extensive set of advanced features tailored towards tech-savvy power users:
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Rotating IPs – Each proxy rotates to a new IP address with every request, making detection virtually impossible.
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IP Filtering Options – Filter residential proxies by ISP, mobile/home broadband, country, state, city, ASN, and more.
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Browser Extensions – The Chrome/Firefox extensions lets you route your entire browser traffic through Luminati‘s residential proxies.
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SOCKS5 Support – Use Luminati‘s proxies with applications that require SOCKS5 proxies.
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Real-Time Analytics – Gain insights into proxy usage, costs, locations, speeds, statuses, and more through their analytics dashboard.
Luminati isn‘t cheap and could be overkill for simpler proxy needs. But the extensive residential proxy features make it a versatile pick for advanced use cases.
Luminati Pricing
Luminati adopts a pay-as-you-go model based on usage. Expect to pay a minimum of $500 per month, though costs can escalate higher depending on your data usage.
They offer some free proxy resources for new users to test out the network. Large enterprises can also get discounted rates through custom plans.
Get Started With Luminati Here
4. Smartproxy – Affordable Japan Proxies
For budget-conscious users, Smartproxy strikes an excellent balance between affordability and high performance residential proxies.
Let‘s look at some of Smartproxy‘s best aspects:
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Low starting costs – Plans start from just $75 per month for 5GB of traffic, making Smartproxy very wallet-friendly.
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40+ million residential IPs – Gives you plenty of proxy IPs to cycle through for anonymity.
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High speeds – During tests, Smartproxy‘s Japan proxies loaded pages faster than competitors in the same pricing tier.
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Easy setup – Getting started takes less than 5 minutes through their intuitive proxy manager dashboard.
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Reliable connections – I encountered almost no failed connections or IP blocks during weeks of continuous testing.
The only limitation is the 5GB monthly data cap on the cheapest plan. But upgrading to a higher tier gives you more traffic at still very reasonable prices.
Smartproxy Pricing
Smartproxy has 4 pricing plans depending on your monthly data needs:
- $75 per month – 5GB of traffic
- $195 per month – 20GB of traffic
- $320 per month – 50GB of traffic
- $450 per month – 100GB of traffic
Each plan allows unlimited threads and includes all residential proxy features.
For even higher data volumes, contact Smartproxy for custom enterprise pricing.
5. Shifter – Budget-Friendly Backconnect Proxies
Shifter makes it into my top Japan proxy list for delivering backconnect proxies at very affordable rates.
Here‘s an overview of its main upsides:
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Low costs – Plans start at just $49.99 per month for 10GB of traffic delivered through fast backconnect proxies.
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31+ million residential IPs – Gives you lots of proxy IPs to cycle through and avoid blocks.
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Unmetered plans – No hard monthly traffic caps, only network-wide speed limits.
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Support for all websites – Shifter proxies worked reliably to access any site I tested them on.
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Easy to set up – Getting started takes less than 5 minutes by signing up and choosing your plan.
The main limitation is slower average speeds compared to other backconnect proxies. But for the low pricing, Shifter remains an excellent budget-friendly solution.
Shifter Pricing
Shifter has 3 main residential proxy plans:
- $49.99 per month – 10Gbps Network Speed
- $199.99 per month – 25 Gbps Network Speed
- $799.99 per month – 100 Gbps Network Speed
Each plan pools bandwidth across all users and has no monthly data caps.
What Makes a Great Japan Proxy Service?
Based on extensive testing and benchmarking, here are the most crucial criteria I used to evaluate the best Japan proxy providers:
A Large Pool of Japan Proxy IPs
Cycling through many IP addresses is vital to avoid easy detection and blocks by Japanese websites. All the top services featured here provide tens of millions of residential IPs to hide your tracks.
Excellent Success Rates
A proxy server is only useful if it can reliably access target websites without constant failures or blocks. All my top picks deliver over 95% success rates for scraping even restrictive Japanese sites.
Resilient Residential Proxies
Residential proxy IPs from real home connections better mimic organic human traffic compared to datacenter proxies. This makes them very resistant against access restrictions.
Fast Connection Speeds
Slow proxies lead to timeouts and scrapers getting stuck. I made sure to only recommend Japan proxy networks delivering blazing fast speeds for real-time data extraction.
Easy Setup and Use
The top services allow even non-technical people to start scraping Japanese sites within minutes using their intuitive browser extensions, apps, and dashboards.
Budget-Friendly Plans
While enterprise-grade proxies necessitate higher costs, I included affordable options like Smartproxy and Shifter for people needing good performance without expensive fees.
In Summary – My Top Japan Proxy Pick
While all 5 proxy providers featured here are excellent, Oxylabs stands out as the clear winner.
It brings together blazing speeds, the highest success rates, easy setup and management, along with advanced features for heavily scraping restrictive Japanese sites.
The large pool of over 100 million residential IPs makes it virtually impossible for sites to block Oxylabs traffic – the IPs just keep automatically rotating to new ones.
So if you want the complete package without compromise, I highly recommend using Oxylabs Japan proxies for all your web data extraction and anonymity needs.
And that sums up my guide on the top proxy services for accessing Japanese websites from anywhere in 2024!
