The 7 Best B2B Data Providers in Japan: Two Agencies, Human Scores (2026)

Japan does company data unlike anywhere in the West. There is no free bulk register: the commercial registry is run by the Legal Affairs Bureaus and you pay per document to pull an extract. What is free is newer and narrower, the thirteen-digit Corporate Number introduced in 2015 and the government's gBizINFO portal, which give you identity and some basic data but not depth.

The depth comes from something distinctly Japanese: two century-old private credit-research agencies, Teikoku Databank and Tokyo Shoko Research, that send investigators to physically visit companies and assign a credit score by hand. In a country where most firms are unlisted and file little publicly, that human-investigation model, built on relationships and voluntary disclosure, is the market. This guide sorts out the duopoly and the modern layer around it.

It ranks {count} providers on merit. We sell Japanese business data ourselves, so our pitch sits in a marked box rather than at number one.

In a hurry? The short answer

Jump to a provider

1. Teikoku Databank (TDB): the field-investigation standard

The largest Japanese credit agency, and the de facto standard report before any deal.

Founded in 1900, Teikoku Databank is the largest Japanese credit-research agency, covering around 1.45 million companies through its COSMOS2 file and running over a million field investigations a year. Its researchers physically visit businesses and assign a credit score out of 100, the report Japanese firms check before transacting. It is privately held and, in a market with little public filing, its human investigation is the depth nobody else can easily replicate.

Tokyo, Japan · Quote only · Built on: Field investigation, Commercial registry, Own research

3. Tokyo Shoko Research (TSR): the number two, and D&B's partner

The close second on credit, and the source everyone cites for Japanese bankruptcy data.

With roots as Japan's first credit agency in 1892, Tokyo Shoko Research is the number-two field-investigation house, close behind Teikoku, and the one whose bankruptcy statistics Japanese media cite. It is also the Dun & Bradstreet Worldwide Network partner for Japan, having taken over D&B's domestic operations, so a D&B report on a Japanese company comes through TSR. Same human-investigation model, and the natural second opinion to Teikoku.

Tokyo, Japan · Quote only · Built on: Field investigation, Commercial registry, D&B network

4. Riskmonster: the cloud credit platform

The modern, SME-friendly way to manage counterparty credit limits at subscription prices.

Founded in 2000 by former trading-house credit staff and listed in Tokyo, Riskmonster runs a cloud credit-management platform with ratings on one of Japan's largest files, around 5.4 million companies, plus outsourcing and consulting. Its subscription membership model makes systematic counterparty credit-limit management accessible to thousands of companies that would not commission a full agency report each time. A more modern, self-serve complement to the two big agencies.

Tokyo, Japan · Subscription membership · Built on: Commercial registry, Agency data, Own analysis

5. Nikkei NEEDS: the financial database

The financial-fundamentals standard for Japanese listed companies, built for analysts.

Run by Nikkei, the financial publisher, NEEDS is the leading Japanese financial-fundamentals database, with decades of corporate financials, equity and macro data, subscribed by the great majority of Japanese financial institutions, alongside Nikkei Telecom's company and news data. It is built for financial analysis, investment research and news screening on listed companies, rather than credit-checking the private long tail. The analyst's tool, not the deal-vetting one.

Tokyo, Japan · Subscription · Built on: Listed-company filings, Nikkei data

6. uSonar: the marketing data platform

The customer-data-integration platform on Japan's largest business file, for marketing not risk.

uSonar, the former Landscape and listed in 2025, runs a customer-data-integration platform on one of Japan's largest business files, around 8.2 million records and 4.5 million companies, used to cleanse, unify and enrich CRM and marketing data. It is a marketing-data and data-quality play rather than a credit or registry source, and the natural pick when the job is fixing and enriching a Japanese customer file rather than assessing risk.

Tokyo, Japan · Subscription, quoted · Built on: Own business file, Public sources

7. Baseconnect (Musubu): the modern sales-list tool

A modern, freemium way to build Japanese B2B prospect lists, the startup end of the market.

Founded in Kyoto in 2017, Baseconnect runs Musubu, a cloud tool for building B2B sales lists from a file of around 1.4 million Japanese companies, on a freemium and subscription model. Backed by corporate venture capital, it is the modern, self-serve prospecting option in a market otherwise dominated by century-old agencies. A sales-list tool rather than a credit or registry source, but a genuinely Japanese, contemporary one.

Kyoto, Japan · Freemium, subscription · Built on: Public sources, Own research

How Japan's data market stayed its own

Japan never opened its register the way the West did, and its two old agencies still define the market:

The Japanese data landscape

The market is unusually domestic: the big names are Japanese and privately or locally held.

Paid registry, free identity, human depth

Japan's official register is not open data. The commercial registry is run by the Legal Affairs Bureaus, and you pay per document, a few hundred yen, to pull an extract; there is no free bulk file. What is free is newer and lighter: the thirteen-digit Corporate Number from the tax agency, published as open data with an API, and the government's gBizINFO portal, which keys millions of companies to that number and adds financials, certifications and procurement records.

But the real depth is neither the paid registry nor the free identity data. It is the human field investigation the two big agencies perform, visiting companies and assigning a score based on what the business chooses to disclose. In a country where most firms are unlisted and file little, that relationship-based research is the market. Check the free sources here:

• Corporate Number Publication Site : The tax agency's free open data of thirteen-digit Corporate Numbers, with an API.
• gBizINFO : METI's free portal keying millions of companies to the Corporate Number, with financials and certifications.
• Legal Affairs Bureau registry : The official commercial register. Extracts are paid per document; there is no free bulk file.

Four questions before you sign anything

1. Do you need the human report, or just identity? For a real credit judgement on a private Japanese company, you need the field-investigation report from Teikoku or Tokyo Shoko Research. For identity and basic data, the free Corporate Number and gBizINFO get you a long way for nothing.

2. Listed companies, or the private tail? For listed-company financials, Nikkei NEEDS is the standard. For the vast private long tail, the agencies' investigation is what exists, because those firms file little publicly.

3. Credit, or marketing? The agencies and Riskmonster are for credit and risk. uSonar and Baseconnect are for marketing and prospect lists. Do not ask a credit agency for a cheap marketing list, or a sales tool for a risk judgement.

4. Are you assuming email works? Japanese business runs far more on phone, fax and in-person contact than on email. If your outreach plan assumes email addresses, test coverage first, because it is thin across every provider, including us.

Frequently asked questions

Keep exploring