Japanese is a member of the Altaic language family, the official language of Japan and is spoken by about 135 million people in about 27 countries. Japanese is actually one of the ten most widely spoken languages in the world. In the United States alone, there are over 400,000 native Japanese speakers though the majority of Japanese-speaking natives are located in Japan and the neighboring Ryukyu and Bonin islands. In addition, Japan and the Japanese speaking population rank number two in the world for the highest number of Internet users with over 86 million Japanese Internet users (an estimated 7.9% of all worldwide internet users). The written language of Japanese is spread into four different forms in which Hiragana, a written form of Japanese using simple words and Japanese syllables, is the most often used and taught.

The three strongest players in the Asian market are China, India and Japan. Japan and the Japanese speaking population of around 135 million people has long been a powerful economic power with a GDP of about 3.60 trillion dollars. In fact, Japan holds the third largest economy after the US and China and is the second most technologically powerful economy in the world. Due to the role that Japan and the Japanese speaking population play in the Asian market, it is vital to access those markets for a well standing position in the Asian business market.

Japanese search engines directory:
	AOL Japan: http://www.jp.aol.com Biglobe: http://search.biglobe.ne.jp Dmoz Japan http://dmoz.org/World/Japanese Dokoda: http://www.dokoda.com Excite Japan: http://www.excite.co.jp Fresh Eye : http://www.fresheye.com Goo: http://www.goo.ne.jp Google Japan : http://www.google.co.jp Interconnect aka Alcarna: http://search.interconnect.co.jp Infoseek - Japan. http://japan.infoseek.com Lycos Japan: http://www.infoseek.co.jp Msn Japan: http://jp.msn.com Nikkei Net: http://www.nikkei.co.jp Netscape Japan: http://www.netscape.co.jp ODN aka Open Data Network: http://www.odn.ne.jp OCN aka Open Computer Network: http://www.ocn.jp Sho-web http://www.sho-web.net/ Yahoo Japan: http://www.yahoo.co.jp