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Japan does not have a one singular web portal in English for publishing all tender notices by the government. There are several procurement portals, each with their own scope and functionalities. While the procurement information is in principle publicly available for free, there are some company that gather the information from the thousands of government sites and offer this data as a paid service.
Please note the following with regard to the English information provided:
- Information made available in English is standardised and summarised and based upon the notices published in the Government Gazettes, such as ‘Kanpo’.
- English summaries are in principal only provided for tenders where the expected bid is higher than the WTO thresholds.
| English language portals | Japanese language portals |
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Tender notice portals in English
Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO)
Link: http://www.jetro.go.jp/en/database/procurement/
Scope: National, regional, local (limited)
JETRO provides the largest and most comprehensive online database of Japanese government procurement notices and invitations in English and is considered as the single-point-of-entry under the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) The portal makes a distinction between national government entities (Ministries and related organisations (WTO Annex I and III)) and local government (Prefectures and designated cities (WTO Annex II)). Within the tender notices, it is possible to switch to the official Japanese notice, which provides more extensive information.
National government tender notices
The national government database does not automatically provide the most recently posted notices. Users will have to enter search criteria to obtain these. Be aware that keyword searches will be limited to the title of the call and no search of tender specifications is conducted.
The English-language version of the national government database is has the following sections:
- Notice of procurement (Goods & Services). These are tender calls to purchase goods or services.
- Notice of procurement (construction services). This section lists tender calls for construction projects. Please be aware that this requires a separate supplier qualification process.
- Notice of Procurement (selective tendering). Selective tenders are those where the procuring entity selects a small number of registered suppliers for participation in a tender. Suppliers who are not invited have the possibility to be included in the bidding process, if they approach the purchasing entity. This type is very rare under WTO-regulations in Japan, but still common in domestically regulated procurement.
- Notice on the use of single tendering procedures. Procuring entities are obliged to announce why they choose to award a contract to a specific company in a single or limited tendering procedure. Under the WTO GPA Article XV there are a limited number of reasons that are allowed to conduct this type of procedure. "Compatibility" is one of the most frequent reasons used.
- Notice of request for submission of materials. (Prior information notice) In case of the procurement of complex items, the government entity may ask suppliers to submit materials to assist the procuring entity to draw up tender specifications. This is a step before the actual invitation to tender, and might give companies a possibility to have influence on the drafting of the tender and more time to prepare for the actual tender. Japanese procurers however rarely use this possibility to engage with the market.
- Notice of request for comments. In this case, the government entity has drawn up specifications for the item it is planning to purchase, but wants to verify whether it suppliers can deliver the item under the drafted specifications, before announcing the actual call. Here as well, it might be possible to have some influence on the tendering process and anticipate on upcoming calls.
- Information on Public Offering Proposal. These are primarily tender notices concerning architectural and engineering design and other technical services, where the quality of the designs or plans is evaluated. In Japan, the majority of public works projects are divided into separate tenders for design and for the actual construction. Design activities for advertising and promotion campaigns or websites are usually also listed here.
- Notice of future procurement plans. Procuring entities will publish, which items they are planning to procure in the current fiscal year. Please note that not all entities will publish their plans.
Local government tenders
The local government database is limited to notices of procurement published by 47 prefectures and 20 large cities as designated in Annex II of Japan’s Agreement on Government Procurement. The organisations will not publish other types of notices in English.
Other information
The portal also offers lists of entities covered by the services and lists with links to so-called "core cities" and "exceptional cities" After accessing these links, automatic machine translations in English are provided.
The Japanese language pages provide considerably more information, most importantly publication of tender results, notifications about qualifications to participate and changes to tender notices published earlier.
Government Procurement Information Website
Link: http://information1.gov-procurement.go.jp/en/
Scope: National, regional, local
The Government Procurement Information Website is administered by the EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation, and maintained by METI. The website strives to gather procurement information from local procuring entities, using WebCrawler technology with machine translations.
Local procuring entities are smaller cities and towns that fall outside of the WTO GPA agreement. Technical limitations to this system make the information gathered sometimes difficult to comprehend and the technology does not gather procurement notices stored in online databases.
Queries done through this service, will result in short descriptions with a direct link to the Japanese source text. Only the Japanese source text will give an indication whether the call has finished or not.
Japanese language tender notice publication portals
There are a number of portals in Japanese that gather and publish public procurement notices. Some are publicly run, but there are also a number of commercial services available. The government-run portals are often limited in scope, as procuring entities usually have their own designated sites.
Chotatsu Portal
Link:https://www.p-portal.go.jp/pps-web-biz/UZA01/OZA0101
Scope: National, procurement of goods and services and part of public works.
The Chotatsu Portal was launched in October 2018, to replace the GEPS Government Electronic Procurement System Portal. It provides better integration of the various functionalities available on GEPS, such as searching tender notices, application for the Unified Supplier Qualification and participation in online tender procedures. Other than on GEPS, the English search function has also been integrated into the main page, however no other information is provided in English as of yet. (Note: Search function does not work in Chrome)
Government Gazette (Kanpou)
Link:https://kanpou.npb.go.jp/index.html
Scope: National
The Government Gazette or Kanpo is the official publication of the Japanese government, published by the National Printing Bureau and is also available on the internet. It contains all important government announcement and also has a seperate section for government procurement. The interface is not searchable, although direct links to various types of notices (including English summaries) are given. The Gazette itself are PDF prints that can be browsed page by page. The announcements are limited to central government entities.
“Chotatsujoho” website
Link: http://www.chotatujoho.go.jp/va/com/ShikakuTop.html
Scope: National
Information on the Unified Supplier Qualification system and link to 'Chotatsu-portal'.
‘Kankouju’ Public Demand Information Portal
Link: http://www.kkj.go.jp/s/
Scope: National and local, focus on smaller tenders
‘Kankouju” or ‘Public Demand’ relates to the public budget specifically awarded to SMEs.
MLIT Tender information service
Link: www.I-ppi.jp
Scope: Limited number of procuring entities such as Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Tourism (MLIT), Defence Agency.
Website is managed by Japan Construction Information Center (JACIC), organisation closely linked to MLIT with mostly public works tenders (construction). Has section on scheduled tender notices, giving time to anticipate on upcoming tenders.
Tender information Express Service
Link: www.njss.info
Scope: National, regional, local. Monitors 5300+ procuring entities
Commercial service, which gathers tender notices from 5300 procuring entities. Company uses home workers to monitor the tender websites of procuring entities, who enter this information into their database. Database is comparatively easy to use, and allows analyses of competition and bidding prices from their archive containing almost 5 million registered tenders. Also email service on keywords.
Basic subscription fee is 48.000 JPY per month, and the premium service is 56.000 yen. (Rates on basis of annual subscription). There is the possibility to do an 8-day free trail.
Nyuusatsu King Tender information supply service
Link: www.nyusatsu-king.com
Scope: National, regional, local. Monitors 1.000 procuring entities on 8.000 sites
Commercial service, which gathers tender notices from 1.000 procuring entities on 8.000 sites. Prides itself to provide tender information from local governments in particular. User interface is somewhat complex, with many options. Gathers its information electronically and performs manual checks as well. Allows category search and full text searches in Japanese and is updated daily. Company offers a variety of subscriptions in terms of scope. Annual fee for whole country is 43,333 JPY per month, on basis of annual subscription. Also offers 10-day free trial.
nSearch
Link: https://nsearch.jp/nyusatsu_ankens
Scope: National, regional, local.
Commercial service, operated by the same company as NJSS. Basic website that allows searches by contract, government entity and winning bidder.
Kobo Navi National tender information database
Link: https://kobonavi.co.jp
Scope: National, regional, local.
Free searchable database of Japanese public tender notices and contract award results. The site holds records drawn from over 2,000 procuring entities and is updated daily. It allows price benchmarking against past awards. It is searchable by region, municipality, and industry. Sources are the open data published by the Kankouju portal (Small and Medium Enterprise Agency) and the Chotatsu Portal. Search and per-notice award amounts are free without registration. Japanese interface only.
Kensetsu shinbun (Construction Daily)
Link: http://www.kentsu.co.jp/bid/
Scope: National, regional, local, private sector, limited to construction related procurement
The online version of the Kensetsu Shinbun, the newspaper for the Japanese construction sector, offers a variety of information services regarding construction related procurement. The website has sections for calls for tender, but also announcements for upcoming tenders. The extent of their coverage of procuring entities is not clear. Subscribers to the paper version of Kensetsu Shinbun can get a monthly subscription ranging from ¥4320 to ¥10800 (prices per region). Prices for non-subscribers range from ¥9720 to ¥16200 per month per region.
Tokyo Metropolitan Government
Link: https://www.e-procurement.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/index.jsp
Scope: Tokyo
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) covers close to 25% of the total population of Japan, with an estimated 31 million inhabitants. TMG operates its own designated public procurement portal. It's website is solely in Japanese, but it is adds summarized information in English with its tender notices falling under the WTO GPA regime, which are published in the Gazette of the Tokyo Government. Be aware that this so-called tokutei choutatsu or specified procurement edition only lists WTO tenders. Other tender calls can be found elsewhere on this page. As the page is entirely in Japan, here is an explanation how to access this information.
- Click the top green bar, where the English explanation is attached,
- In the following page, click the data of the notice you which to view. This will open the edition of the Gazette of that day,
- In the PDF file, scroll down to view the notices, with the English summaries.
- Contact details of the department issuing the call, can usually be found under point 8 of the original Japanese call above it.
Business Chance Navi
Link: https://www.chancenavi.jp/bcn
Scope: Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Tokyo 23 wards, semi-public organizations, private companies
The Business Chance Navi procurement website was initially an initiative by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to attract more SMEs to participate in public procurement and motivated by the organization of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. It modelled after a similar initiative undertaken in the run-up to the London Olympic Games of 2012, but was substantially less international in character. The site lists procurement notices published by TMG, which are taken from the regular procurement website, which form the largest number of notices. Notices by Tokyo's wards are also included, as well as a number of public organizations linked to Tokyo. Also a small number of private companies list tenders or searches for partners.
To enter the website, free registration is required as the website also includes a business matching service. For those who have Japanese language capabilities, the service offers a number of useful functions to manage the notices.
