Japan Government Data & Procurement Search

Search Japanese government open data, procurement notices, and subsidy programs — all in English — through a single unified API. This Apify Actor queries the SIP Public Data Gateway to retrieve structured results from three major Japanese government data sources: the e-Gov Open Data Catalog, Cabinet Office procurement links, and jGrants subsidy program listings.

Japan's government publishes vast amounts of public data, but accessing it programmatically — especially for non-Japanese speakers — has traditionally been difficult. This Actor removes that barrier by providing a simple keyword-based search interface that returns normalized, English-accessible results from official Japanese government platforms.

Features

• Unified multi-source search — Query up to three Japanese government data sources in a single run with parallel API calls for fast results.
• Flexible source selection — Choose any combination of e-Gov open data, Cabinet Office procurement, or jGrants subsidies, or search all three at once.
• English-accessible — Results are structured and accessible for international users, researchers, and businesses exploring the Japanese market.
• Configurable result limits — Control the number of results per source, up to 200 per source per run.
• Normalized output — Every result includes a _source field identifying which government data source it came from, making downstream processing straightforward.
• Parallel execution — All selected sources are queried concurrently using async HTTP calls, minimizing total run time.

Data Sources

Source Key	Product ID	Description
egov_catalog	jp_egov_opendata_catalog	e-Gov Open Data Catalog — Japan's central CKAN-based open data portal containing thousands of government datasets across all ministries and agencies. Covers statistics, geospatial data, policy documents, and more.
cao_procurement	jp_cao_procurement_links	Cabinet Office Procurement Links — Official procurement and tender notices published by Japan's Cabinet Office. Includes government contracts, RFPs, and bidding opportunities.
jgrants	jp_jgrants_subsidies_search	jGrants Subsidy Program Search — Japan's digital subsidy platform listing active and past subsidy programs from national and local government agencies. Covers business support, R&D grants, regional development funds, and more.

Output Fields

Each result object in the dataset contains:

• _product_id — The SIP product identifier (e.g. jp_egov_opendata_catalog).
• _source — The source label used inside the Actor (egov_catalog, cao_procurement, jgrants).
• _search_term — The search term that produced the row.
• _collected_at — UTC timestamp when the row was fetched.
• Additional fields vary by source and may include titles, descriptions, URLs, dates, categories, organization names, and other metadata specific to each government platform.

Results are pushed directly to the Apify dataset and can be exported as JSON, CSV, XML, or accessed via the Apify API.

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
searchTerms	array	Yes	["Tokyo"]	Search terms to query across selected Japanese government data sources. Supports English and Japanese keywords.
includeOpenDataPortal	boolean	No	true	Search the e-Gov open data catalog.
includeProcurement	boolean	No	true	Search Cabinet Office procurement links.
includeSubsidies	boolean	No	true	Search jGrants subsidy program listings.
maxResultsPerSource	integer	No	50	Maximum number of results to return per data source. Range: 1–200.

Legacy compatibility:

• keyword is still accepted for older runs
• sources is still accepted for older runs
• maxResults is still accepted for older runs

Input Examples

Example 1: Search all sources for AI-related government data

{
    "searchTerms": ["artificial intelligence"],
    "includeOpenDataPortal": true,
    "includeProcurement": true,
    "includeSubsidies": true,
    "maxResultsPerSource": 100
}

This searches all three Japanese government data sources for anything related to artificial intelligence, returning up to 100 results per source. Useful for researchers tracking Japan's national AI strategy, related procurement, and AI-focused subsidies.

Example 2: Find Cabinet Office procurement opportunities for IT services

{
    "searchTerms": ["IT services"],
    "includeOpenDataPortal": false,
    "includeProcurement": true,
    "includeSubsidies": false,
    "maxResultsPerSource": 50
}

Targets only the Cabinet Office procurement links to find government tender notices and contract opportunities related to IT services. Ideal for foreign companies looking to bid on Japanese government IT contracts.

Example 3: Search jGrants for renewable energy subsidies

{
    "searchTerms": ["renewable energy"],
    "includeOpenDataPortal": false,
    "includeProcurement": false,
    "includeSubsidies": true,
    "maxResultsPerSource": 200
}

Searches the jGrants subsidy platform for programs related to renewable energy. Returns up to 200 subsidy listings including program details, eligibility, and application information. Valuable for companies exploring clean energy investment opportunities in Japan.

Use Cases

Foreign Companies Entering the Japanese Market

Japan's government procurement market is one of the largest in Asia, governed by WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) rules that require international openness. This Actor helps foreign businesses discover active procurement opportunities from the Cabinet Office, identify relevant subsidy programs through jGrants that could offset market entry costs, and research the regulatory and data landscape through e-Gov open data. Whether you're an IT services provider, construction firm, or consulting company, programmatic access to Japanese procurement data gives you a competitive edge.

Academic and Policy Researchers

Japan publishes extensive open data through its e-Gov portal covering demographics, economics, environmental monitoring, healthcare statistics, and more. Researchers studying Japanese public policy, economic trends, or comparative government data can use this Actor to programmatically search and collect datasets without navigating Japanese-language government websites. Combined with jGrants data, researchers can also track government spending priorities and subsidy allocation patterns across sectors.

Procurement Analysts and Government Contract Specialists

For analysts monitoring government spending and contract awards across Asia-Pacific, this Actor provides structured access to Japanese Cabinet Office procurement notices. By running scheduled searches with relevant keywords, analysts can build databases of Japanese government procurement activity, track trends in government IT spending, identify recurring contract patterns, and generate reports on procurement opportunities for their clients or organizations.

Grant and Subsidy Consultants

Consultants who help businesses apply for Japanese government subsidies can use the jGrants search to stay current on available programs. By searching for industry-specific keywords, consultants can quickly identify new subsidy opportunities, track program changes, and match clients with relevant funding sources — all without manually browsing the jGrants portal.

Cost Estimate

This Actor makes lightweight API calls and processes structured JSON responses. Typical runs consume minimal compute resources:

• A search across all 3 sources with default settings (50 results each) completes in under 10 seconds and costs approximately $0.001–$0.005 on the Apify platform.
• Maximum-scale runs (200 results × 3 sources) remain well under $0.01 per run.
• Scheduled daily runs for monitoring purposes would cost roughly $0.05–$0.15 per month.

The primary cost factor is the SIP API key usage rather than Apify compute. Check your SIP Public Data Gateway plan for API call limits.

Legal and Data Usage

All data returned by this Actor originates from official Japanese government sources:

• e-Gov Open Data Catalog — Published under Japan's open data policy encouraging reuse of government data.
• Cabinet Office Procurement — Public procurement notices published in compliance with transparency requirements.
• jGrants — Publicly listed subsidy program information intended for broad access.

Users are responsible for complying with applicable terms of use for each data source and any restrictions on commercial use or redistribution. This Actor provides search and retrieval functionality only and does not modify or store government data beyond the Apify dataset.

Related Actors

• Japan e-Stat Statistics Search — Search Japan's official statistics portal for demographic, economic, and social data.
• Japan Patent Search — Search Japanese patent and intellectual property databases.
• Government Procurement Monitor — Monitor government procurement across multiple countries.

Support

If you encounter issues or have feature requests, please open an issue on the Actor's GitHub repository or contact us through the Apify platform. We welcome feedback on additional Japanese government data sources to integrate.

Use as MCP Tool (AI Agent Integration)

This Actor works as an MCP tool — AI agents (Claude, GPT, Cursor) can discover and run it automatically.

Quick setup (Claude Desktop / Cursor / VS Code)

Add to your MCP config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN"
      }
    }
  }
}

Then ask your AI: "Search for Toyota in Japanese government databases"

Direct API call

from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("lentic_clockss/japan-government-data-search").call(
    run_input={"searchTerms": ["Toyota"], "maxResultsPerSource": 50}
)
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

Other Data API Actors

• US Business Entity Data API
• Taiwan Government Data API
• Singapore Government Data API
• EU Business & Company Registry API