# Japanese Web Scraper - Yahoo News, Rakuten, Suumo, Tabelog (`project_bbb/japanese-web-scraper`) Actor Scrape major Japanese websites: Yahoo! Japan News, Rakuten, Suumo, Tabelog. Full Shift\_JIS/EUC-JP encoding support, cookie wall bypass, and JP pagination handling. Structured JSON output with optional romaji transliteration for non-Japanese data consumers. - **URL**: https://apify.com/project\_bbb/japanese-web-scraper.md - **Developed by:** [BBB & Company](https://apify.com/project_bbb) (community) - **Categories:** News, AI, Open source - **Stats:** 2 total users, 0 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, NaN bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing Pay per usage This Actor is paid per platform usage. The Actor is free to use, and you only pay for the Apify platform usage, which gets cheaper the higher subscription plan you have. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-usage ## 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 ## Japanese Website Scraper Pack 🇯🇵 Specialized web scraper for major Japanese websites. Handles Japanese-specific challenges: character encoding (Shift_JIS, EUC-JP), cookie consent walls, and locale-specific pagination patterns. ### Supported Websites | Source | Data Type | Example Use | |--------|-----------|-------------| | **Yahoo! Japan News** | News articles | Media monitoring, sentiment analysis | | **Rakuten** | Product listings | Price monitoring, market research | | **Suumo** | Real estate | Property data, rental market analysis | | **Tabelog** | Restaurant reviews | F&B research, location intelligence | | **Hot Pepper Gourmet** | Restaurants | Dining data, regional analysis | | **Custom** | Any Japanese site | General-purpose scraping | ### Why This Actor? Most scrapers on Apify Store are built for English websites. Japanese sites have unique challenges: 1. **Character encoding**: Many older Japanese sites use Shift_JIS or EUC-JP instead of UTF-8 2. **Consent walls**: Japanese privacy regulations require specific cookie handling 3. **Pagination patterns**: Japanese sites often use non-standard pagination (e.g., `?PG=2`, `?pn=2`) 4. **Mobile-first layouts**: Many Japanese sites serve different HTML to mobile vs desktop 5. **Anti-bot measures**: Major sites like Tabelog and Rakuten have sophisticated bot detection This Actor handles all of these out of the box. ### Input Example ```json { "source": "rakuten-search", "searchQuery": "ワイヤレスイヤホン", "maxItems": 100, "maxPages": 5 } ```` ### Output Example ```json { "source": "rakuten-search", "title": "Apple AirPods Pro (第2世代) USB-C", "url": "https://item.rakuten.co.jp/...", "price": "36,800円", "rating": "4.65", "reviewCount": 1234, "imageUrl": "https://...", "extractedAt": "2026-05-01T12:00:00Z" } ``` ### Tips - For Tabelog and Hot Pepper, use Japanese area names (e.g., "渋谷", "新宿") for best results - Yahoo News categories: `domestic`, `world`, `business`, `entertainment`, `sports`, `it-science` - Rakuten supports category codes for more precise filtering - Use proxy configuration with Japan-based IPs for sites that geo-restrict content ### Cost Lightweight CheerioCrawler (no browser needed for most sources). Typical run costs under $0.10 for 100 items. # Actor input Schema ## `source` (type: `string`): Which Japanese website to scrape ## `searchQuery` (type: `string`): Search term (Japanese or English). Used for Rakuten, Suumo area search, Tabelog area search. ## `category` (type: `string`): Category filter (source-specific). For Yahoo News: domestic/world/business/entertainment/sports/it-science. For Rakuten: category code. ## `startUrls` (type: `array`): Custom starting URLs to scrape. Only used when source is 'custom'. ## `maxItems` (type: `integer`): Maximum number of items to extract ## `maxPages` (type: `integer`): Maximum number of pages to crawl (pagination) ## `extractFullContent` (type: `boolean`): For news articles: extract the full article body (slower, more API calls) ## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`): Apify proxy configuration. Japanese sites may require Japan-based proxies for best results. ## Actor input object example ```json { "source": "yahoo-news", "maxItems": 50, "maxPages": 5, "extractFullContent": false } ``` # API You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup. ## JavaScript example ```javascript import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client'; // Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token // Replace the '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = {}; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("project_bbb/japanese-web-scraper").call(input); // Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any) console.log('Results from dataset'); console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${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 = {} # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("project_bbb/japanese-web-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 '{}' | apify call project_bbb/japanese-web-scraper --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=project_bbb/japanese-web-scraper", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "Japanese Web Scraper - Yahoo News, Rakuten, Suumo, Tabelog", "description": "Scrape major Japanese websites: Yahoo! Japan News, Rakuten, Suumo, Tabelog. Full Shift_JIS/EUC-JP encoding support, cookie wall bypass, and JP pagination handling. Structured JSON output with optional romaji transliteration for non-Japanese data consumers.", "version": "1.0", "x-build-id": "cWZSOPOHmnhLnj4oC" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/project_bbb~japanese-web-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-project_bbb-japanese-web-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": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/project_bbb~japanese-web-scraper/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-project_bbb-japanese-web-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$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": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/project_bbb~japanese-web-scraper/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-project_bbb-japanese-web-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$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", "required": [ "source" ], "properties": { "source": { "title": "Source Website", "enum": [ "yahoo-news", "rakuten-search", "suumo-listings", "tabelog-restaurants", "hotpepper-gourmet", "custom" ], "type": "string", "description": "Which Japanese website to scrape", "default": "yahoo-news" }, "searchQuery": { "title": "Search Query", "type": "string", "description": "Search term (Japanese or English). Used for Rakuten, Suumo area search, Tabelog area search." }, "category": { "title": "Category", "type": "string", "description": "Category filter (source-specific). For Yahoo News: domestic/world/business/entertainment/sports/it-science. For Rakuten: category code." }, "startUrls": { "title": "Start URLs (Custom mode)", "type": "array", "description": "Custom starting URLs to scrape. Only used when source is 'custom'.", "items": { "type": "object", "required": [ "url" ], "properties": { "url": { "type": "string", "title": "URL of a web page", "format": "uri" } } } }, "maxItems": { "title": "Max Items", "minimum": 1, "maximum": 1000, "type": "integer", "description": "Maximum number of items to extract", "default": 50 }, "maxPages": { "title": "Max Pages", "minimum": 1, "maximum": 50, "type": "integer", "description": "Maximum number of pages to crawl (pagination)", "default": 5 }, "extractFullContent": { "title": "Extract Full Content", "type": "boolean", "description": "For news articles: extract the full article body (slower, more API calls)", "default": false }, "proxyConfiguration": { "title": "Proxy Configuration", "type": "object", "description": "Apify proxy configuration. Japanese sites may require Japan-based proxies for best results." } } }, "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 } } } } } } } } } } ```