# Japan Bengoshikai Lawyer Scraper (`jungle_synthesizer/japan-bengoshikai-lawyer-scraper`) Actor Scrape registered lawyers from the Japan Federation of Bar Associations (Nichibenren) Himawari Search directory covering all 52 regional bengoshikai across Japan. - **URL**: https://apify.com/jungle\_synthesizer/japan-bengoshikai-lawyer-scraper.md - **Developed by:** [BowTiedRaccoon](https://apify.com/jungle_synthesizer) (community) - **Categories:** Lead generation, Other, Education - **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, NaN bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing Pay per event This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event ## What's an Apify Actor? Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases. In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours, and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store. In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server. Actors are written with capital "A". ## How to integrate an Actor? If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects. You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready. The best way to integrate Actors is as follows. In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js.md): ```bash npm install apify-client ``` In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python.md): ```bash pip install apify-client ``` In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): ````bash # MacOS / Linux curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash # Windows irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex ```bash In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp.md). If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md). For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below. For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt). # README ## Japan Bengoshikai Lawyer Directory Scraper Scrape Japanese attorney profiles from the [Japan Federation of Bar Associations](https://www.bengoshikai.jp/) unified Himawari Search directory. Returns ~4,500 registered lawyers across all 52 regional bengoshikai, with names in kanji and kana, registration numbers, office contact details, practice areas, and education — all the fields a cross-border legal recruiter actually needs. --- ### Japan Bengoshikai Lawyer Scraper Features - Covers every regional bar association in Japan — 52 bengoshikai from Sapporo to Okinawa, plus the three Tokyo associations - Extracts 30+ fields per profile including both kanji and hiragana name readings - Decodes the site's JavaScript-obfuscated email addresses automatically - Splits the ideographic-space-separated practice-area strings into clean arrays - Filters by `barAssociationCodes` when you only care about certain regions - Pure HTML scraping — no browser, no proxies, no Cloudflare drama - Seeds from the site's own sitemap, so no pagination or search-form wrangling --- ### Who Uses Japanese Lawyer Directory Data? - **International law firms** — Identify local counsel for Japanese matters. Cross-border M&A, IP litigation, and corporate work all need a warm lead at a Japanese firm. - **Legal recruiters** — Build candidate pipelines. Registration year, training class, and focus practice areas are all on each profile, which saves a lot of LinkedIn archaeology. - **CRM enrichment** — Hydrate account records for Japan-based legal buyers with firm names, office addresses, and direct phone numbers. - **Academic research** — Map the structure of the Japanese legal profession by region, practice area, or training cohort. - **Compliance & due diligence** — Verify counsel credentials against the JFBA directory. The registration number is the canonical attorney identifier in Japan. --- ### How the Japan Bengoshikai Scraper Works 1. Fetches the JFBA sitemap at `bengoshikai.jp/search/sitemap.php` to enumerate every opted-in attorney across all 52 regional bar associations. 2. Optionally filters the URL list by `barAssociationCodes` so a Tokyo-only run only pulls Tokyo records. 3. Caps the queue at `maxItems` and crawls each detail page with a conservative concurrency of 5, which is more polite than the site demands. 4. Extracts the structured table fields declaratively, decodes the obfuscated email script, splits practice areas, and writes one clean record per lawyer to the dataset. --- ### Input ```json { "maxItems": 50, "barAssociationCodes": [] } ```` | Field | Type | Default | Description | |-------|------|---------|-------------| | `maxItems` | integer | `50` | Maximum number of lawyer profiles to scrape. Set to `0` for the full ~4,500-record crawl. | | `barAssociationCodes` | array of int | `[]` | Optional filter by `kai_code`. 1 = Tokyo, 2 = Dai-Ni Tokyo, 3 = Dai-Ichi Tokyo, 4 = Kanagawa, 5 = Saitama, 6 = Chiba, 14 = Osaka, 15 = Kyoto, 16 = Hyōgo, 20 = Aichi, 31 = Fukuoka, 38 = Okinawa, 45 = Sapporo. | #### Tokyo-only run ```json { "maxItems": 200, "barAssociationCodes": [1, 2, 3] } ``` The three Tokyo bar associations (東京, 第一東京, 第二東京) share the same geography but register separately. Passing all three catches every Tokyo attorney in one sweep. #### Full national crawl ```json { "maxItems": 0, "barAssociationCodes": [] } ``` Pulls every lawyer the site has (~4,500). Runs in a few minutes on 256 MB. *** ### Japan Bengoshikai Lawyer Scraper Output Fields ```json { "name_kanji": "鈴木 正貢", "name_kana": "すずき まさつぐ", "registration_number": "10064", "qualification_type": "弁護士", "bar_association_code": 1, "bar_association_name": "東京", "office_name": "ベーカー＆マッケンジー法律事務所外国法共同事業", "office_address": "東京都港区六本木1-9-10 アークヒルズ仙石山森タワー28階", "office_postal_code": "106-0032", "office_phone": "03-6271-9900", "office_fax": "03-5549-7720", "email": "masatsugu.suzuki@bakernet.com", "homepage_url": "http://www.taalo-bakernet.com/", "origin_qualification_country": "", "registration_year": "1966年", "training_class": "18期", "birth_year": "1937年", "gender": "男性", "hometown": "山形県　山形市", "education": "昭和34年中央大学法学部法律学科卒業、昭和47年ノースウエスタン大学法科大学大学院修士課程卒業法学修士", "non_bar_qualifications": "弁理士", "foreign_languages": "英語", "business_hours": "10:00 - 18:00", "practice_areas": ["Ｍ＆Ａ・企業再編", "独占禁止法", "国際的商取引", "外国法関連"], "focus_practice_areas": ["Ｍ＆Ａ・企業再編", "独占禁止法", "国際的商取引"], "teaching_history": "平成８年～現在　横浜国立大学大学院非常勤講師", "other_career": "東弁－平成2年～現在まで独占禁止法部部長", "publications": "「国際取引の法務戦略」中央経済社", "last_updated_date": "2007.12.14", "portrait_url": "https://www.bengoshikai.jp/files/portrait/10064.jpg", "profile_url": "https://www.bengoshikai.jp/search/detail.php?kai_code=1&id=10064", "scraped_at": "2026-04-23T13:08:00.465Z" } ``` | Field | Type | Description | |-------|------|-------------| | `name_kanji` | string | Full name in kanji. | | `name_kana` | string | Name in hiragana reading. Useful for alphabetical sorting. | | `registration_number` | string | JFBA registration number. Unique attorney identifier nationwide. | | `qualification_type` | string | `弁護士` (attorney) or `外国法事務弁護士` (foreign-law attorney). | | `bar_association_code` | integer | Numeric `kai_code` (1–52) for the regional bengoshikai. | | `bar_association_name` | string | Bar association name in kanji (e.g. `東京`, `大阪`, `札幌弁護士会`). | | `office_name` | string | Name of the law office / firm. | | `office_address` | string | Office street address, without the postal code. | | `office_postal_code` | string | Japanese postal code in `nnn-nnnn` format. | | `office_phone` | string | Office phone number. | | `office_fax` | string | Office fax number. | | `email` | string | Direct email, decoded from the site's JS-obfuscated mailto link. | | `homepage_url` | string | Law office homepage URL. | | `origin_qualification_country` | string | Country of original qualification, populated only for foreign-law attorneys. | | `registration_year` | string | Year of bar registration (e.g. `1966年`). | | `training_class` | string | JLRTC training class / 修習期 (e.g. `18期`). | | `birth_year` | string | Year of birth. | | `gender` | string | `男性` or `女性`. | | `hometown` | string | Place of origin. | | `education` | string | Academic and law school history. | | `non_bar_qualifications` | string | Other qualifications (patent attorney, tax accountant, etc.). | | `foreign_languages` | string | Languages spoken beyond Japanese. | | `business_hours` | string | Office hours as self-reported. | | `practice_areas` | array of string | General practice areas (`取扱業務`), split into clean items. | | `focus_practice_areas` | array of string | Self-declared focus areas (`重点取扱業務`). | | `teaching_history` | string | Academic teaching positions. | | `other_career` | string | Bar committee roles, prior career notes. | | `publications` | string | Authored books and articles. | | `last_updated_date` | string | When the attorney last updated the profile. Some records go back to 2007. | | `portrait_url` | string | Fully-qualified URL to the attorney's photo, if registered. | | `profile_url` | string | Canonical detail page URL on bengoshikai.jp. | | `scraped_at` | string | ISO-8601 timestamp of the scrape. | *** ### FAQ #### How do I scrape Japanese lawyer data? Japan Bengoshikai Lawyer Scraper pulls attorney profiles from the JFBA unified directory at bengoshikai.jp. Run it with `maxItems: 0` to grab every opted-in lawyer across all 52 bar associations, or pass specific `barAssociationCodes` if you only need Tokyo, Osaka, or a particular region. #### What data can I get from bengoshikai.jp? Japan Bengoshikai Lawyer Scraper returns 30+ structured fields per attorney including kanji and kana names, bar registration numbers, office addresses with postal codes, phone and fax, decoded email addresses, practice areas split into arrays, education, training class, and a whole stack of biographical fields the site exposes. #### How much does Japan Bengoshikai Lawyer Scraper cost? Pay per event: $0.10 per actor start plus $0.001 per record. A full national crawl of ~4,500 profiles runs about $4.60. A Tokyo-only pull of 700 attorneys is closer to $0.80. #### Does the scraper need proxies? No. The JFBA site serves from a basic Japanese web host with no Cloudflare, no rate limiter, no bot challenges. The scraper runs directly at a concurrency of 5 and finishes the full dataset in a few minutes. #### Can I filter by bar association? Yes. Pass `barAssociationCodes` as an array of `kai_code` integers. Common picks: `[1]` for the main Tokyo Bar, `[1, 2, 3]` for all three Tokyo associations combined, `[14]` for Osaka, `[20]` for Aichi / Nagoya, `[31]` for Fukuoka, `[45]` for Sapporo. #### Why are some profiles missing fields? Himawari Search registration is voluntary and each attorney fills in their own record. Fields like `email`, `homepage_url`, `foreign_languages`, `business_hours`, and `portrait_url` are only populated when the lawyer chose to share them. `registration_number`, `name_kanji`, `name_kana`, `bar_association_name`, and `office_address` are present on essentially every record. *** ### Need More Features? Need extra fields, a different filter, or a companion scraper for another Japanese legal directory? [File an issue](https://console.apify.com/actors/issues) or get in touch. ### Why Use Japan Bengoshikai Lawyer Scraper? - **Only Japanese lawyer scraper on the Apify store** — Everyone else covers the US and UK. This one covers the world's third-largest legal market. - **Clean output** — Names are split into kanji and kana, practice areas are arrays not delimited blobs, postal codes are normalized, and email addresses are decoded from the site's JavaScript obfuscation without you touching any of it. - **Cheap** — $0.001 per record. A full 4,500-profile national crawl costs less than a cup of coffee. # Actor input Schema ## `sp_intended_usage` (type: `string`): Please describe how you plan to use the data extracted by this crawler. ## `sp_improvement_suggestions` (type: `string`): Provide any feedback or suggestions for improvements. ## `sp_contact` (type: `string`): Provide your email address so we can get in touch with you. ## `maxItems` (type: `integer`): Maximum number of lawyer profiles to scrape. The full directory contains ~4,500 records across 52 Japanese bar associations. Set to 0 for no limit. ## `barAssociationCodes` (type: `array`): Optional filter - only scrape lawyers whose kai\_code matches one of these integers (1-52). 1=Tokyo, 2=Dai-Ni Tokyo, 3=Dai-Ichi Tokyo, 4=Kanagawa, 14=Osaka, 20=Aichi, 31=Fukuoka, 45=Sapporo. Leave empty to scrape across all 52 associations. ## Actor input object example ```json { "sp_intended_usage": "Describe your intended use...", "sp_improvement_suggestions": "Share your suggestions here...", "sp_contact": "Share your email here...", "maxItems": 50, "barAssociationCodes": [] } ``` # Actor output Schema ## `results` (type: `string`): No description # API You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup. ## JavaScript example ```javascript import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client'; // Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token // Replace the '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = { "sp_intended_usage": "Describe your intended use...", "sp_improvement_suggestions": "Share your suggestions here...", "sp_contact": "Share your email here...", "maxItems": 50, "barAssociationCodes": [] }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("jungle_synthesizer/japan-bengoshikai-lawyer-scraper").call(input); // Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any) console.log('Results from dataset'); console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`); const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems(); items.forEach((item) => { console.dir(item); }); // 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs ``` ## Python example ```python from apify_client import ApifyClient # Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token # Replace '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = { "sp_intended_usage": "Describe your intended use...", "sp_improvement_suggestions": "Share your suggestions here...", "sp_contact": "Share your email here...", "maxItems": 50, "barAssociationCodes": [], } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("jungle_synthesizer/japan-bengoshikai-lawyer-scraper").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"]) for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items(): print(item) # 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start ``` ## CLI example ```bash echo '{ "sp_intended_usage": "Describe your intended use...", "sp_improvement_suggestions": "Share your suggestions here...", "sp_contact": "Share your email here...", "maxItems": 50, "barAssociationCodes": [] }' | apify call jungle_synthesizer/japan-bengoshikai-lawyer-scraper --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=jungle_synthesizer/japan-bengoshikai-lawyer-scraper", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "Japan Bengoshikai Lawyer Scraper", "description": "Scrape registered lawyers from the Japan Federation of Bar Associations (Nichibenren) Himawari Search directory covering all 52 regional bengoshikai across Japan.", "version": "1.0", "x-build-id": "GP8oGlyhpSaH7bYxx" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/jungle_synthesizer~japan-bengoshikai-lawyer-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-jungle_synthesizer-japan-bengoshikai-lawyer-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/jungle_synthesizer~japan-bengoshikai-lawyer-scraper/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-jungle_synthesizer-japan-bengoshikai-lawyer-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK", "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/jungle_synthesizer~japan-bengoshikai-lawyer-scraper/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-jungle_synthesizer-japan-bengoshikai-lawyer-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } } }, "components": { "schemas": { "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "sp_intended_usage": { "title": "What is the intended usage of this data?", "minLength": 1, "type": "string", "description": "Please describe how you plan to use the data extracted by this crawler." }, "sp_improvement_suggestions": { "title": "How can we improve this crawler for you?", "minLength": 1, "type": "string", "description": "Provide any feedback or suggestions for improvements." }, "sp_contact": { "title": "Contact Email", "minLength": 1, "type": "string", "description": "Provide your email address so we can get in touch with you." }, "maxItems": { "title": "Max Items", "minimum": 0, "type": "integer", "description": "Maximum number of lawyer profiles to scrape. The full directory contains ~4,500 records across 52 Japanese bar associations. Set to 0 for no limit.", "default": 50 }, "barAssociationCodes": { "title": "Bar Association Codes", "type": "array", "description": "Optional filter - only scrape lawyers whose kai_code matches one of these integers (1-52). 1=Tokyo, 2=Dai-Ni Tokyo, 3=Dai-Ichi Tokyo, 4=Kanagawa, 14=Osaka, 20=Aichi, 31=Fukuoka, 45=Sapporo. Leave empty to scrape across all 52 associations.", "default": [], "items": { "type": "string" } } } }, "runsResponseSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "data": { "type": "object", "properties": { "id": { "type": "string" }, "actId": { "type": "string" }, "userId": { "type": "string" }, "startedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "finishedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "status": { "type": "string", "example": "READY" }, "meta": { "type": "object", "properties": { "origin": { "type": "string", "example": "API" }, "userAgent": { "type": "string" } } }, "stats": { "type": "object", "properties": { "inputBodyLen": { "type": "integer", "example": 2000 }, "rebootCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "restartCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "resurrectCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "computeUnits": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "options": { "type": "object", "properties": { "build": { "type": "string", "example": "latest" }, "timeoutSecs": { "type": "integer", "example": 300 }, "memoryMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 1024 }, "diskMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 2048 } } }, "buildId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultKeyValueStoreId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultDatasetId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultRequestQueueId": { "type": "string" }, "buildNumber": { "type": "string", "example": "1.0.0" }, "containerUrl": { "type": "string" }, "usage": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 1 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "usageTotalUsd": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "usageUsd": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } } } } } } } } } ```