The Beautiful Art of Japanese Web Design
If I had to looking for some attributes to describe the japanese style in web design I’d choose: essential, minimalist, with an intensive use of Adobe Flash, animations and music in background (mainly solo piano, inspired by Ryuichi Sakamoto’s compositions), traditional and modern at the same time. Here is a collection of some beautiful examples of japanese websites for your daily inspiration.
Go to the websiteJapan Post Service
Go to the websiteIshiyama Senkoh
Go to the websiteShanghai World Financial Center
Errata Corrige: Shanghai is in China, not in Japan :)
Go to the websiteMoonlinx
Go to the websiteJapan Association Press
Go to the websiteMitsubishi Real Estate Services
Go to the websiteMikihiko Kyobashi
Go to the websiteffffff
Go to the websiteRiskyBrand
Go to the websiteNTT Docomo
Go to the web siteAll Japan Kendo Federations
Go to the websiteKarimoku
Go to the websiteIdemitsu Kosan
Go to the websiteDyDo Drink
Go to the websiteFit For My Life
Go to the websiteMitekero
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These are beautiful!
I like especially Mikihiko Kyobashi’s website!
This is an excellent list! I will definitely want to come back here for some inspiration for my next design, thanks!
By the way, about the piano compositions, don’t you mean Ryuichi Sakamoto?
The link to the All Japan Kendo Federation site seems to point to DyDo instead. Could you please post the correct link? Thanks!
Now it’s ok! :)
Thanks!
wow-amazing.
love the calligraphy map!
increadibly beautiful!
i don’t speak japanese but… really catchy!
I am very very sure that “Shanghai World Financial Center” is chinese, not japanese ;=(
Have a look into the atlas ;=)
Ooooopppssss…. :)
…but the building I guess is built and managed, or at least co-managed by a Japanese company and the website may be done by Japanese too.
So I’m very impressed by Antonio’s eyes to categorize this as Japanese site. You may be right!
(I’m Japanese by the way)
I agreaa Connie and I dont want to sound picky but Shanghai World Financial Center is not Japanese (except if a Japanese agency made the site but then it should be mentioned).
It’s mentioned as “Errata Corrige” :)
Antonio thanks for the great examples, it is always great to see how other countries and cultures are designing websites. I spent some time in Japan earlier this year and wrote an article about Japanese websites as compared to their American counterparts. If you are interested feel free to check it out at http://www.shayhowe.com/web-design/japan-web-design/
Hi Shay, thanks for your link!
Not a problem, please enjoy!
They are beautiful but I am a bit disheartened by the fact that most sites here that are implemented as full-screen flash could be as well done with html/css/js. At least the post office has a responsibility to be more accessible.
The Japanese really do know how to create some beautiful websites. Granted I’ve seen some amazing American-made websites as well, but can’t disclose Japan’s credit.
Very beautiful designs.
If you want to see more of Japanese website designs, this is also a good place: http://bm.straightline.jp/
Thanks Benny, it’s a very inspiring gallery!
nice websites! I am very amazed at the ingenuity. form and space proportioned….i want a tutoring website like that….
Such a beautiful collection. Truly inspiring.
Let me say something: the Shanghai WFC has Japanese owners, so it is japanese…
Thanks for this info! :)
Great inspiration.
My Favorite is Mikihiko Kyobashi’s website!!! Awesome Post Benny..
i like all of ur designs esp. the Idemitsu Kosan. Actually i dnt understand the language in website bt surely like the design.
Cool collection, but the last adjective that comes to mind when thinking about Japanese web design is “minimalism”. Some of the most insanely busy websites on the internet come from that region. They do know how to organize their stuff, though!
WOW! Just like the Nation. I love Japan.
Amazing work! – Very inspirational stuff
Wow… Amazing collection :)
Great collection of sites, but I’m not a fan of flash sites. I would be more interested if these very arty sites were constructed using html and css. There was an amazing site for Japanese noodles, which would fit this collection brilliantly, and was all html, but I can’t seem to find it now :(
Hello, Antonio! Thanks for the great collection!
For more inspiration, here`s a HUGE gallery of beautiful japanese websites (essentially flash), regularly updated.
http://bm.straightline.jp/tag/japanese?page=1
Such an amazing inspiration ! Love the Japanese Art !
wow talk about seeing some fresh stuff. wo hoo
I think this is a great place to try and find some creative inspiration for your next design project.
This proves in yet again another way the Japanese are better at design than americans
–
Thanks and Regards
Noel for Nopun.com
a graphic design studio
Some great designs, but many of them also demonstrate some horrible no-nos. Scalability – A few of them look horrible at low and high resolutions. If you are windowed, have a screen larger than 1600px wide or a screen smaller than than 800px (God forbid you’re mobile), the design breaks or looks very poor. Accessibility is also missing because of the number of Flash pages. Great designs though.
great collection, thank you.
Ishiyama Senkoh is very nice!
Thanks
@desigg
Thats crap! Most of the websites use Flash (at least for an intro).
From the usability standpoint these sites can be thrown away.
These are examples for “Function Follows Form”.
Designers: Please dont create such websites!!
Japan design is very special. It’s hard to understand it for me. But it s interesting and inspiring. So it has right to be :-)
Nice collection – thanks! I only have to learn Japanese now (:
Japanese websites are minimalist? From my experience, japanese websites are usually full of content and that’s the way Japanese like it. You can compare google.com with google.co.jp for example.
japanese are very creative.
Awesome collection, Japanese know well how to design a website in a great way. I love the above designs very much.
OMG ! Dydo drink is amazing !
aww wow how different are all of these :D
Thanks for collecting and sharing them all.
These are amazing! Thanks for sharing :)
I also get a lot of inspiration from looking at other countries’ sites. Here are a few other Japanese gallery sites:
http://bm.s5-style.com/
http://web-selection.com/
http://www.ubusuna.co.jp/
http://www.web-mihon.com/
Great Sites !
Hay!
DyDo is no doubt a nice creation but don’t you guys think there are a lot of stuff in it? and in that case i totally agree with “Franz See” and one thing they use Flash excessively.
Anyway great effort…!
Regards,
Web Design Company London
Shame there’s not much in the way of none flash, nice though.
Stunning, really stunning.. Japan Style is different with western style ;)
Great collection site!
Thank you for up the article of moonlinx（Ryuichi Sakamoto）.
I wrote and directed the article.
I live in Japan. So your article is very interesting for me.
I follow you on twitter! Thanks.
great…excelente web
Mikihiko Kyobashi website is so amazing!!!
I love Japanese web design just cause it is so visually stimulating. They have a high internet speed and so can make use of alot more flash than you could here in Africa. They are more than websites, they are individual pieces of art.
VERY NICE!
but how come DOCOMO is having TETSUJIN 28 on their web site?
To Mr Antonio Lupett
I am Mikihiko Kyobashi From Japan.
Thank you very much express to people my web site.
So many people Jump in the surface.
Arigato gozaimashita
vest regards
I cant believe http://www.muji.com/ didn’t make this list, a little much with the flash but elegant and minimalistic all the same
Interesting article.
As some others have commented, I wouldn’t necessarily agree with the opinion that Japanese websites are famous for minimalism. Quite the opposite. Websites like Rakuten for example are more the norm, with something crammed into every inch of web space .
http://www.rakuten.co.jp/
I also find that Japanese websites often have an unhealthy reliance on Flash combined with what Vincent Flanders has dubbed “mystery meat navigation”. http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/
i.e. the navigation is not intuitive or obvious. You have to mouse over stuff to find out what it does.
Rookie designers might think it looks “cool” but users HATE it.
Fit For My Life Site Unique idea, great site. thanks antonio
U have an error, check it !!!
http://localhost:8888/woorkup/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/2-jp.jpg
Tanks!
Wow Great List!!
I hope that the Japanese can break themselves of all the heavy flash animation usage. Flash is, hopefully, a dying medium, and I’d love to see everyone all over the world embrace html 5.
Nice work!
Josh
You got a nice site!!
Really good list!
This is really good reference to get started with Japanese Webdesign. Keep on good work!
;)
This article is so wonderful. I really like Japanese web designs. They’re simple but really catchy (..and cute!) pecially, those mellow lighted colors (Like Mitekero’s). You can see their brilliant ideas and their creativity as well. Nice post!
Well I just discovered this site on Bing for the first time today. I really think your site is good with excellent articles. Many thanks for the good read. Will add to my Bookmarks.
Cool. Japanese website is closely tied to their culture and arts which is often very pleasant to the eye. Though of cource, there are many other talented non Japanese web designers whose works I found by http://filecraft.com SE, but the spirit of the culture i best of all present in Japanese websites. All the rest have a good opportunity to learn.
Man the Japanese own everything. It’s getting kinda depressing.
I love the sketchy, personalised graphics in Fit For My Life and Idemitsu.
Blue Forest’s my favourite. I could fall asleep to the ambience. The video background of beneath the sea just adds the wow.
Thanks so much for this list.
I think the biggest difference is their willingness to use such bright and dynamic colors. There hardly was anything there which would have been approved in the blue green spectrum which seems to pervade in the US web design market.
Very cool stuff indeed.
Make a part 2 in this article.
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