Japan Tokyo Open Data Catalog (CKAN API)

Search the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Open Data Catalog by keyword, publisher or category — then actually download a dataset's CSV rows as clean, structured JSON (Shift_JIS handled automatically).

This Actor is a thin, polite client for the official CKAN API v3 (catalog.data.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/api/3/action/) behind the 東京都オープンデータカタログサイト (Tokyo Metropolitan Government Open Data Catalog). It is not a scraper — it calls the documented CKAN JSON API, needs no API key, and returns each result as a flat record with a legal envelope (source / sourceUrl / license / retrievedAt) on every item.

The catalogue as a whole is a directory, not a product. The value here is get_records: point it at a dataset and it fetches the actual CSV distribution and returns its rows — so you get the data, not just a link to it.

Unofficial tool. Independently built and maintained. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government or any ward/municipal publisher. Catalogue content is provided under CC BY 4.0 (東京都オープンデータ利用規約), which permits commercial reuse with attribution; the required 出典 statement 「出典：東京都オープンデータカタログサイト」 is embedded in the license of every record.

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Quick start — verified input

Copy, paste, run. This exact input is verified on the platform (SUCCEEDED, items > 0):

{
  "mode": "search_datasets",
  "query": "保育"
}

Running with no input at all also works (same defaults). To download a dataset's rows, take a datasetId from the search output and run {"mode": "get_records", "datasetId": "t131067d0000000225"}.

No API key required

The Tokyo Open Data CKAN API is public and unauthenticated. Just pick a mode and run. The Actor keeps a single connection, spaces requests ≥ 1.2 s apart, backs off exponentially on HTTP 429/5xx, and fails visibly on a persistent block — it never attempts rate-limit evasion.

License & source-display obligation (出典表示義務)

The 東京都オープンデータ利用規約 states (原文): 「本サイトに存在する著作物……の著作権は、「注」があるものを除いて、クリエイティブ・コモンズ・ライセンス表示 4.0 国際のもとでライセンスされています。……複製、公衆送信、翻訳・変形等の翻案等、自由に利用できます。商用利用も可能です。」 — i.e. CC BY 4.0 International, commercial use permitted, with attribution.

• The credit 「出典：東京都オープンデータカタログサイト」 is embedded verbatim in the license field of every record. If you display or republish the data, keep that credit visible.
• Per-dataset licenses are your responsibility. Each dataset also reports its own license machine-readably in the datasetLicense field (typically CC-BY-4.0). Datasets marked 「注」 or carrying an individual license/terms are the user's responsibility to confirm. The license and content of any individual dataset — including whether it contains personal data — must be checked by you before use.

Two modes

1. search_datasets — find datasets (CKAN package_search)

Give a query (free text) and/or an organization, tags, or group filter, and get back matching datasets: datasetId, title, publisher, update date, the dataset's own license, a catalogue deep link, and the full resources[] list (each resource's CSV/XLSX URL, format and size). At least one filter is required (a targeted search, not a full-catalogue dump).

2. get_records — download a dataset's CSV rows

Give a datasetId (from a search_datasets run) and the Actor resolves that dataset's CSV/TSV resources, downloads them, and returns one record per CSV row — the columns keyed by header, plus provenance (datasetId, resourceName, resourceUrl, rowIndex). Or pass a resourceUrl directly to fetch one specific distribution. Japanese municipal CSVs are frequently Shift_JIS; encoding: "auto" (default) sniffs UTF-8 (incl. BOM) then falls back to Shift_JIS, or force utf-8 / shift_jis.

Sample output

search_datasets (dataset item):

{
  "datasetId": "t131067d0000000225",
  "title": "保育施設",
  "organization": "台東区",
  "organizationId": "t131067",
  "datasetLicense": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "lastModified": "2025-12-12T08:10:50.232242",
  "datasetUrl": "https://catalog.data.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/dataset/t131067d0000000225",
  "numResources": 1,
  "resources": [
    { "name": "保育施設", "format": "CSV", "url": "https://www.city.taito.lg.jp/.../sisetu_03.csv", "size": 7168 }
  ],
  "groups": ["くらし・住まい", "子供・若者・教育"],
  "source": "東京都オープンデータカタログサイト / Tokyo Metropolitan Government Open Data Catalog (CKAN)",
  "sourceUrl": "https://portal.data.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/",
  "license": "出典：東京都オープンデータカタログサイト（https://portal.data.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/）。… CC BY 4.0 … Unofficial …",
  "retrievedAt": "2026-08-26T12:00:00.000Z"
}

get_records (dataset item — one CSV row):

{
  "datasetId": "t131067d0000000225",
  "datasetTitle": "保育施設",
  "resourceName": "保育施設",
  "resourceUrl": "https://www.city.taito.lg.jp/.../sisetu_03.csv",
  "rowIndex": 1,
  "fields": {
    "大分類": "区立保育園", "小分類": "区立保育園", "名称": "谷中保育園",
    "所在地": "上野桜木2丁目16番10号", "電話番号": "03-3828-3223",
    "X座標": "139.7714448", "Y座標": "35.72254338"
  },
  "source": "東京都オープンデータカタログサイト / Tokyo Metropolitan Government Open Data Catalog (CKAN)",
  "sourceUrl": "https://portal.data.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/",
  "license": "出典：東京都オープンデータカタログサイト … CC BY 4.0 … Unofficial …",
  "retrievedAt": "2026-08-26T12:00:00.000Z"
}

Input reference

Field	Mode	Description
mode	both	search_datasets (default) or get_records. Case-insensitive; if you pass only a datasetId/resourceUrl the Actor switches to get_records for you.
query	search	Free-text query (CKAN q), Japanese works best, e.g. 保育, 避難所.
organization	search	CKAN organization name, e.g. t131067 (台東区).
tags	search	Restrict to a CKAN tag.
group	search	Category/group name, e.g. c016 (くらし・住まい).
datasetId	get_records	Dataset name/slug to read, e.g. t131067d0000000225 (from the search output).
resourceUrl	get_records	Fetch a specific CSV resource URL directly.
encoding	get_records	auto (default), utf-8, or shift_jis (sjis, cp932 … accepted).
maxItems	both	Max records to output, 1–100000 (default 1000).
maxApiRequests	both	Hard per-run upstream request cap, 1–25 (default 10).
proxyConfiguration	both	Optional Apify proxy; default is a direct connection.

At least one of query / organization / tags / group is required in search_datasets mode; datasetId or resourceUrl is required in get_records mode. Values are validated before the first request; an invalid value fails the run immediately with a message that lists the valid values.

Common input mistakes

Mistake	Correct
{"mode": "search_datasets"} with no filter	add "query": "保育" (or organization / tags / group)
{"mode": "search_datasets", "datasetId": "t131067d0000000225"}	"mode": "get_records" — datasetId is a get_records field
{"mode": "get_records", "query": "保育"}	get_records needs datasetId or resourceUrl, not a query
"datasetId": "https://catalog.data.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/dataset/t131067d0000000225"	just the slug: "t131067d0000000225"
"encoding": "euc-jp"	"auto", "utf-8" or "shift_jis"
"maxItems": "all"	a number, e.g. 1000

Empty results?

A run that finds nothing completes with 0 items and a warning in the log (not a failure). Typical causes: an English query (the catalogue is Japanese — try 保育 instead of childcare), a tags/group/organization value that is not an exact CKAN name, or a get_records dataset whose resources are all XLSX/PDF (only CSV/TSV are read — pass a resourceUrl to a CSV). Broaden the query or drop a filter and retry.

Notes & limits

• get_records reads CSV/TSV resources. Non-CSV distributions (XLSX, PDF, etc.) are skipped — pass a resourceUrl to a CSV, or read the XLSX yourself.
• Resource files are hosted on the publishers' own servers (ward/city domains). A resource that responds with a redirect surfaces as an error (the Actor does not follow redirects to keep the request budget honest) — re-run with the final URL.
• search_datasets pages at up to 1000 datasets per request under maxItems.

Disclaimer

1. Unofficial — not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government or any ward/municipal data publisher.
2. Public data, your responsibility — data is provided under CC BY 4.0 (東京都オープンデータ利用規約). Keep the 出典 credit visible. Each dataset's own license (datasetLicense) and content — including any personal data it may contain — are the user's responsibility to verify before use.
3. Polite by design — one connection, ≥ 1.2 s spacing, exponential backoff, a hard request budget, and a visible failure on a persistent block. No rate-limit evasion.
4. No warranty — provided "as is"; verify anything important against the source catalogue.

Search terms

tokyo open data api, japan municipal data, tokyo government datasets english, CKAN japan, tokyo metropolitan open data, japan open data csv, 東京都 オープンデータ, japan city data api, tokyo ward datasets, japanese government open data