---
title: "B. Japanese buyers | Parallel World - migurei"
description: "B. Japanese buyers: each principle of the Parallel World lab and the 20 claims under it, with evidence level, sources, what it does not prove and what a site owner can do."
lang: "en"
url: "https://pw.migurei.ai/en/handbook/japanese-buyers"
---

# B. Japanese buyers

How business buyers in Japan use AI apps to find and choose a service, what they check on the official site, and which sources they trust.

Built from our knowledge base at every deploy. 31 principles, 200 claims. Newest note: 2026-11-12.

[日本語](https://pw.migurei.ai/ja/handbook/japanese-buyers) · [Handbook index](https://pw.migurei.ai/en/handbook)

Each principle is followed by the claims it rests on. Evidence levels are explained on the handbook index.

## B1. AI to make the list, the official site to check

Japanese B2B buyers use AI at the start (framing the problem, building a shortlist, a comparison table), then check each vendor's official site before contacting them.

**Evidence for the principle:** external source

### [external source] Japanese surveys from 2026 report that 85 to 91% of B2B buyers use generative AI when choosing a service, 53.8% ask AI for comparison tables, and 56.8% want prices before meeting sales; but only 1.6% find AI alone enough, and they verify on official sites.

- **Evidence:** external source. Recorded 2026-10-14, re-check by 2026-12-14
- **Basis:** Five Japanese surveys from 2026 (n=300 to 9,278), all by vendors of related services, as summarised by a GEO tool vendor's blog.
- **Sources:** [jinrai.co.jp](https://jinrai.co.jp/blog/2026/10/12/ai-search-usage-btob-2026-09/) (2026-10-12)
- **Does not prove:** Every survey was run by a company selling related services; questions and samples differ, so numbers cannot be added up. No survey covers buyers of LLMO measurement tools or site owners specifically. We have not read the original surveys.
- **What a site owner can do:** Put concrete prices, comparison points and case studies on your official site, readable without filling in a form, because buyers shortlist with AI and then check your own pages before contacting sales.
- **Also under:** [B3](https://pw.migurei.ai/en/handbook/japanese-buyers#b3), [D9](https://pw.migurei.ai/en/handbook/agent-world#d9)

### [external source] Many visits from AI answers arrive without a referrer (vendor figures: 70.6% and 35.7%); ChatGPT on the web adds a utm_source tag naming ChatGPT to cited links, while the ChatGPT and Claude mobile apps drop the referrer (April 2026 snapshot).

- **Evidence:** external source. Recorded 2026-10-16, re-check by 2027-01-16
- **Basis:** A web analytics vendor's test (April 2026) and a newsletter tracing the 70.6% figure to one vendor's blog post; read 2026-10-16.
- **Sources:** [clickport.io](https://clickport.io/blog/track-ai-search-traffic) (2026-10-16), [buttondown.com](https://buttondown.com/davidrosam/archive/everyone-quotes-60-nobody-measured-it/) (2026-10-16)
- **Does not prove:** The two figures differ twofold, both come from analytics vendors and mostly European and US sites, not Japan. Nobody has measured how much 'direct' traffic is really from AI. Apps change referrer behaviour with new releases.
- **What a site owner can do:** Count visits that carry an AI app's referrer or ChatGPT's utm_source tag as a lower bound on AI-referred traffic, not the total. A zero does not prove nobody came from AI.
- **Also under:** [C3](https://pw.migurei.ai/en/handbook/open-and-closed#c3)

### [external source] In a July 2026 Japanese survey, 44.6% of marketers used AI tools or AI Overviews to gather information (22.6% in December 2025), their most-used channel, ahead of industry media (36.6%); those 'not interested' in LLMO fell from 49.6% to 3.4%.

- **Evidence:** external source. Recorded 2026-10-16, re-check by 2027-01-16
- **Basis:** A tracking survey by PRIZMA of 1,032 marketers, 2026-07-02 to 2026-07-06, as reported by CommercePick; original not read.
- **Sources:** [www.commercepick.com](https://www.commercepick.com/archives/97944) (2026-10-16)
- **Does not prove:** Marketers in general, not buyers of LLMO measurement tools. The survey may have been commissioned by an LLMO service seller (sponsor unknown). Multiple-choice answers. The report may have left out channels; no figure for social media was given.
- **What a site owner can do:** Ask ChatGPT and other AI apps the questions your buyers would ask about your category, note whether your company appears, and make sure your key pages are open to AI search bots in robots.txt.

### [our lab observation] From 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-14, pw.migurei.ai received no human visit from an AI app: zero visits referred by ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, Copilot or Bing, and none tagged with utm_source.

- **Evidence:** our lab observation. Recorded 2026-10-14, re-check by 2026-11-14
- **Basis:** Our own server logs on pw.migurei.ai, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-14; a second count to 2026-10-16 gave the same result.
- **Sources:** [www.google.com](https://www.google.com/) (2026-10-06)
- **Does not prove:** Some AI apps may hide the referer (ChatGPT usually adds utm_source=chatgpt.com, but not every app does). Our logs only see requests that reach our server. The site had no analytics then.
- **What a site owner can do:** Before assuming AI apps send you visitors, check your logs or analytics for referers from AI apps and for utm_source=chatgpt.com.

### [our lab observation] Most 'human' page views our counter recorded on pw.migurei.ai in October 2026 came from our own tools, team and scripts, with 0 visits from AI apps. In the week 2026-10-29 to 2026-11-05, purchase pages showed no rise in outside visitors.

- **Evidence:** our lab observation. Recorded 2026-10-16, re-check by 2026-11-19
- **Basis:** Our server logs on pw.migurei.ai, 2026-10-02 to 2026-11-05, filtered by user agent, referrer and our team's IPs.
- **Sources:** our own data, no outside link
- **Does not prove:** Team traffic is partly inferred from the logs, so team devices on other networks count as outsiders. A browser-like visit may still be a bot. Viewing a pricing or contact page is not purchase intent.
- **What a site owner can do:** Before trusting human visit counts, exclude your team's IPs, your own monitoring and test tools' user agents, and link-preview bots. Then look at what is left by page and by country.

### [our lab observation] We first counted 8 visits from Google search to pw.migurei.ai from Japan (2026-10-26 to 2026-10-30), mostly to the company page; a recheck found 6 of 8 were likely automated and Search Console showed 0 Japanese impressions, so this does not hold.

- **Evidence:** our lab observation. Recorded 2026-11-01, re-check by 2026-11-15
- **Basis:** Our own server logs on pw.migurei.ai from 2026-10-24, and Search Console data for 2026-10-02 to 2026-10-29, read 2026-10-31.
- **Sources:** our own data, no outside link
- **Does not prove:** Search Console hides rare queries (all 12 worldwide impressions were hidden); 8 visits is small; Google referrers carry no query. Automated traffic is inferred from signs such as HTML-only loads and a headless browser, not verified. Visitors may have sought a namesake or the parent company.
- **What a site owner can do:** Before writing content for visitors who seem to come from Google, check in your logs whether they load images and JavaScript, and compare with Search Console impressions for the same pages and country.

**Also relevant here:**

- [[our lab observation] Over three months to 2026-10-28, Search Console's Generative AI features report showed migurei.ai 155 times, mostly its home page, but pw.migurei.ai 0 times, though pw had 32 ordinary web impressions; by 2026-11-01 pw had only 2.](https://pw.migurei.ai/en/handbook/bots-and-apps#c-7503b861)

## B2. Asking by category name

Buyers search by category names (LLMO対策, AIO, GEO, AI検索最適化) and read SaaS comparison pages that use those same names.

**Evidence for the principle:** hypothesis (partly: external source)

### [external source] Japanese SaaS comparison sites file services that optimise for AI answers under the category 'LLMO対策', alongside the terms AIO, GEO and AI検索最適化, and these terms have no agreed definition yet.

- **Evidence:** external source. Recorded 2026-10-10, re-check by 2027-01-10
- **Basis:** An ITトレンド comparison of 15 LLMO services (updated 2026-10-09), a GEO tool vendor's blog, and Google's SEO Starter Guide, read 2026-10-10.
- **Sources:** [it-trend.jp](https://it-trend.jp/llm-optimization-services/article/1157-6341) (2026-10-09), [jinrai.co.jp](https://jinrai.co.jp/blog/llmo-aio-geo-seo-chigai/) (2026-10-05), [developers.google.com](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide) (2025-12-10), [pw.migurei.ai](https://pw.migurei.ai/) (2026-10-10)
- **Does not prove:** Both Japanese pages come from sellers of such services, not search volume data. No data shows which words Japanese users type into AI apps. Google's advice is about Google Search, not AI apps.
- **What a site owner can do:** If your service fits the category, use the words buyers see there (LLMO対策, AIO, GEO) truthfully in your title, description, h1 and visible text, and call your product what the category calls it (for example a tool or platform).

### [external source] Google Trends Japan (12 months to 2026-10-18): 'LLMO' rose from 2.2 to 4.0, 'GEO対策' reached 1.0, 'AI Overview' fell from its peak of 100 (week of 2026-06-28) to 1 from 2026-08-09, and 'SEO対策' dropped from 9.2 to 5.8.

- **Evidence:** external source. Recorded 2026-11-01, re-check by 2027-01-31
- **Basis:** A Markenote article on Google Trends (2026-10-31), and our own re-check on Google Trends on 2026-11-04 (LLMO 3.8, GEO対策 0.9).
- **Sources:** [markenote.jp](https://markenote.jp/article/6426) (2026-10-31), [trends.google.co.jp](https://trends.google.co.jp/) (2026-10-31)
- **Does not prove:** Trends is a relative index, not search counts; values of 1 to 10 sit on a scale set by a term's very high peak. People searching on Google may not use the same words when asking AI. Site owners may still search with technical words like GPTBot or robots.txt.
- **What a site owner can do:** In Japanese titles, headings and FAQs, use 'LLMO' and Google's Japanese name 'AI による概要' rather than 'GEO' or 'AI Overview'. Avoid 'AIO' as your main term; it has other meanings.

### [our lab observation] For two Japanese statistics questions, free ChatGPT wrote its web search query in plain English in 5 of 6 runs (morning of 2026-11-03). Yet the source it cited most was a Japanese page (6 of 6).

- **Evidence:** our lab observation. Recorded 2026-11-04, re-check by 2026-11-18
- **Basis:** The search queries ChatGPT displayed in 6 test runs on 2026-11-03 (free account, temporary chat, Japanese IP), with blind-graded citations.
- **Sources:** our own data, no outside link
- **Does not prove:** That the English query was the only one: ChatGPT may also run hidden Japanese queries. That an English page would be chosen: none of our English pages was cited. One morning, 6 runs, one account. Japanese shopping questions got Japanese queries.
- **What a site owner can do:** For technical or statistics topics, add an English title or summary using the words ChatGPT searches with (Japan, websites, block, GPTBot, percentage, study) next to your Japanese page. Then check AI answers again.

**Also relevant here:**

- [[our lab observation] For two Japanese statistics questions, Claude (Haiku 5.5 Low) searched the web in English first in 9 of 12 runs (2026-10-28 and 2026-10-29). Our repository appeared only in a run whose first query contained Japanese words.](https://pw.migurei.ai/en/handbook/bots-and-apps#c-957e8b6f)

## B3. Prices and evidence before meeting sales

Buyers want prices, real cases and numbers on the page; when the page lacks them, AI fills the gap itself.

**Evidence for the principle:** external source (partly: hypothesis)

**Also relevant here:**

- [[external source] Japanese surveys from 2026 report that 85 to 91% of B2B buyers use generative AI when choosing a service, 53.8% ask AI for comparison tables, and 56.8% want prices before meeting sales; but only 1.6% find AI alone enough, and they verify on official sites.](https://pw.migurei.ai/en/handbook/japanese-buyers#c-62730b38)
- [[our lab measurement] Free web Gemini sometimes does not open a URL you paste: in our October 2026 tests it skipped 9 of 48 pasted pages, answered from a web search on the brand name instead, and got 0 of those 9 right.](https://pw.migurei.ai/en/handbook/bots-and-apps#c-c2619568)

## B4. Trust in named sources and real authors

Japanese buyers trust PR TIMES, note, trade media and review sites more than a company's self-description, and AI apps in Japan cite those same sources (PR TIMES second in ChatGPT, note first in Gemini).

**Evidence for the principle:** hypothesis (partly: external source)

**Also relevant here:**

- [[external source] According to Ahrefs (Japan, 2026-09-29 to 2026-09-30), the ten domains AI apps cite most in Japan are Japanese Wikipedia, Google, note, Yahoo! Chiebukuro, YouTube, Ameba blog, PR TIMES, my-best, Weblio and Kotobank; PR TIMES ranks 2nd for ChatGPT, and note 1st for Gemini.](https://pw.migurei.ai/en/handbook/bots-and-apps#c-94565634)
- [[external source] A Peec study of about 200,000 AI answers (September 2025 to March 2026, US markets) found that brands present and ranked high in third-party list articles get named more; our own comparison page, live 2026-10-20, got us named in 0 of 125 test answers.](https://pw.migurei.ai/en/handbook/bots-and-apps#c-1c7221cf)

## B5. Fear that AI says something wrong about you

Site owners check what AI says about their company and lose customers when AI gets it wrong; that worry is a reason to pay for measurement.

**Evidence for the principle:** external source

### [our lab measurement] Asked about electricity in Miyagi Prefecture without naming a company, Gemini named the region's leading power company in 20 of 20 answers (2026-10-28 and 2026-11-03) but never linked to its website, citing comparison and affiliate sites instead.

- **Evidence:** our lab measurement. Recorded 2026-10-28, re-check by 2026-11-28
- **Basis:** Our graded test: two questions, 10 Gemini answers on each of 2026-10-28 and 2026-11-03, criteria fixed before the first question.
- **Sources:** [webtan.impress.co.jp](https://webtan.impress.co.jp/e/2026/10/27/53431) (2026-10-27)
- **Does not prove:** Small sample: one prefecture, one industry, two questions. ChatGPT linked the company's site in 2 of 2 answers on 2026-10-28 but 0 of 2 on 2026-11-03. One question asked about cheap prices, which favours comparison sites. It says nothing about sales.
- **What a site owner can do:** Ask Gemini the questions your customers ask about your region and industry, without naming your company, and note which sites it cites. If only comparison sites appear, publish pages that answer those questions directly, with your own data.

### [our lab observation] Asked the price of an item in a Japanese Shopify shop (2026-10-31 to 2026-11-02), DeepSeek read the line "free shipping on orders of 22,000 yen or more" as the price in 7 of 24 tries and was right 0 times; ChatGPT was right 23/24, Gemini 24/24.

- **Evidence:** our lab observation. Recorded 2026-11-04, re-check by 2026-12-04
- **Basis:** Our blind-graded test: 600 questions to four AI apps from a Japanese connection, 2026-10-31 to 2026-11-02, criteria fixed before the first question.
- **Sources:** our own data, no outside link
- **Does not prove:** Why DeepSeek picked that line (its position, the missing JSON-LD price data, or how it summarises). It is one shop; the test covered five Shopify fashion shops, free accounts, two days. Apps took prices from the shop page mainly when the question named the shop or gave its URL.
- **What a site owner can do:** Put the price in structured data (JSON-LD Product with offers) and keep shipping thresholds and other yen amounts clearly apart from the item price. Then ask DeepSeek the price of one of your items and check the answer.

### [our lab observation] For 20 products whose maker changed a price or figure after a PR TIMES press release, at least one AI app gave an old or wrong figure as current for 6 of 20 on 2026-11-02, mostly Gemini (5 of 19), rarely ChatGPT (1 of 19).

- **Evidence:** our lab observation. Recorded 2026-11-04, re-check by 2026-12-04
- **Basis:** Test questions we asked ChatGPT and Gemini on 2026-11-02 from a Japanese IP, with criteria fixed in advance and blind grading.
- **Sources:** our own data, no outside link
- **Does not prove:** That the old figures came from PR TIMES: only 3 of 6 wrong answers cited PR TIMES. How often AI is wrong in general. The sample is 20 small-company releases, one try each, two apps; 4 of 20 reference values were already outdated.
- **What a site owner can do:** After you change a price or figure that you announced in a press release, publish the new figure clearly on your own site, then ask Gemini about it and check which number it gives.

**Also relevant here:**

- [[external source] In an NTT Data survey (2026-08-28 to 2026-08-31, n=3,948), 37.9% of users had seen an AI answer that conflicted with a company's official information, and 66.6% of those dropped a purchase; 69.7% of people buying via AI followed its suggestion.](https://pw.migurei.ai/en/handbook/bots-and-apps#c-b95846b0)

## B6. Free trial first

Free checkers, free plans and the reports of Google and Bing are the first step; a service with no quick way to try it is skipped.

**Evidence for the principle:** hypothesis

### [external source] More than ten vendors already sell tracking of how AI apps mention and cite a brand, plus fix suggestions; at least eight have Japanese interfaces (public prices from free to about ¥130,000 a month), and Google and Cloudflare offer part of this free.

- **Evidence:** external source. Recorded 2026-10-13, re-check by 2026-12-13
- **Basis:** Vendors' pricing and product pages, Japanese agency blogs and press releases, and Google and Cloudflare documentation, read 2026-10-13; plus our own Search Console readings.
- **Sources:** [www.tryprofound.com](https://www.tryprofound.com/pricing) (2026-10-13), [tryprofound.com](https://tryprofound.com/features/agent-analytics) (2026-10-13), [peec.ai](https://peec.ai/) (2026-10-13), [otterly.ai](https://otterly.ai/pricing) (2026-10-13), [www.athenahq.ai](https://www.athenahq.ai/pricing) (2026-10-13), [ahrefs.com](https://ahrefs.com/brand-radar) (2026-10-13), [www.semrush.com](https://www.semrush.com/kb/1493-ai-toolkit) (2026-10-13), [mieru-ca.com](https://mieru-ca.com/geo/) (2026-10-13), [jinrai.co.jp](https://jinrai.co.jp/blog/2026/07/24/geo-hack-suite-about/) (2026-10-13), [llm-insight.com](https://llm-insight.com/) (2026-10-13), [llmo-insight.jp](https://llmo-insight.jp/) (2026-10-13), [akarumi.jp](https://akarumi.jp/) (2026-10-13), [jinrai.co.jp](https://jinrai.co.jp/blog/2026/07/24/akarumi-price-review/) (2026-10-13), [jinrai.co.jp](https://jinrai.co.jp/blog/2026/07/10/japanese-geo-tools-comparison/) (2026-08-25), [it-trend.jp](https://it-trend.jp/llm-optimization-services/ranking) (2026-10-12), [voix.jp](https://voix.jp/?p=107389) (2026-07-14), [ahrefs.com](https://ahrefs.com/ja/brand-radar) (2026-10-13), [umoren.ai](https://umoren.ai/) (2026-10-13), [ai-tool.userlocal.jp](https://ai-tool.userlocal.jp/llmo_checker) (2026-10-13), [prtimes.jp](https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000014.000016880.html) (2026-08-18), [media.meo-taisaku.com](https://media.meo-taisaku.com/llmo-shindan/) (2026-10-13), [prtimes.jp](https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000031.000096030.html) (2026-06-17), [hachinosu-seisaku.co.jp](https://hachinosu-seisaku.co.jp/llmo-tools/llmo-score) (2026-07-07), [news.livedoor.com](https://news.livedoor.com/article/detail/31956934/) (2026-10-13), [webtan.impress.co.jp](https://webtan.impress.co.jp/n/2025/08/20/49921) (2025-08-19), [support.google.com](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/16984139) (2026-10-13), [developers.google.com](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2026/06/gen-ai-performance-reports) (2026-10-13), [developers.cloudflare.com](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ai-crawl-control/features/analyze-ai-traffic/) (2026-10-13)
- **Does not prove:** Mostly vendors' own pages or press releases; features were not tested by hand and some prices came via third parties. A Japanese interface says nothing about measurement quality on Japanese AI answers. Google's free report shows impressions per page, not which questions.
- **What a site owner can do:** Before paying, open Search Console's Generative AI performance report (AI Overviews and AI Mode impressions per page) and, if you use Cloudflare, AI Crawl Control. Then compare paid trackers' prices and coverage.

### [external source] Bing Webmaster Tools has an AI Performance report (public preview since 2026-02) showing which of your pages are cited in Microsoft Copilot, Bing's AI summaries and some partners; since 2026-10-13 a Topics Portfolio lists questions where other sites are cited and yours is not.

- **Evidence:** external source. Recorded 2026-10-14, re-check by 2027-01-14
- **Basis:** Two Bing Webmaster blog posts (2026-02-11 and 2026-10-13), read 2026-10-14, plus our own readings of the report, 2026-10-21 to 2026-10-30.
- **Sources:** [blogs.bing.com](https://blogs.bing.com/webmaster/2026/2/Introducing-AI-Performance-in-Bing-Webmaster-Tools-Public-Preview/) (2026-02-11), [blogs.bing.com](https://blogs.bing.com/webmaster/2026/10/introducing-topics-portfolio-beta-in-ai-performance/) (2026-10-13), [www.bing.com](https://www.bing.com/webmasters/home?siteUrl=https://pw.migurei.ai/) (2026-02-11), [www.bing.com](https://www.bing.com/webmasters/about?siteUrl=https://pw.migurei.ai/&from=home) (2026-02-11)
- **Does not prove:** For our sites we have only seen zeros, with data starting 2026-10-15, so about two weeks, not months. Partners are not named. Grounding queries are sampled. Topics appear only with enough data. Neither post mentions an API.
- **What a site owner can do:** Verify your site in Bing Webmaster Tools and open AI Performance. Check which date the data starts before reading a zero. Verify each subdomain separately: a verified domain did not give access to its subdomain.

### [external source] A leading Japanese SEO blog (海外SEO情報ブログ, 2026-10-29) introduced a free English tool by Vanessa Fox that checks whether GPTBot, ClaudeBot and other AI crawlers are blocked, via robots.txt, requests with AI crawler user agents, and headers such as X-Robots-Tag.

- **Evidence:** external source. Recorded 2026-11-02, re-check by 2026-12-02
- **Basis:** The 海外SEO情報ブログ post of 2026-10-29 and its weekly digest of 2026-11-02, read 2026-11-02.
- **Sources:** [www.suzukikenichi.com](https://www.suzukikenichi.com/blog/a-diagnostic-tool-to-check-whether-gptbot-claudebot-and-other-ai-crawlers-are-blocked/) (2026-10-29), [www.vanessafox.com](https://www.vanessafox.com/tools/) (2026-11-02)
- **Does not prove:** It does not show that the blog's readers ask AI apps this question, or that AI apps cite this blog for it. The post names no Japanese tool and gives no measurements on Japanese sites.
- **What a site owner can do:** Check more than robots.txt: request your key pages with AI crawler user agents (or use such a tool) to see whether your CDN or server blocks them, and look at the X-Robots-Tag header in the responses.

### [our lab observation] In test questions phrased like a buyer's (tool comparisons, free checks, e-commerce pricing), ChatGPT and Gemini almost never named us: 2 of 18 answers on 2026-11-04, both close to our survey wording, and 1 of 18 from 2026-11-06 to 2026-11-08.

- **Evidence:** our lab observation. Recorded 2026-11-05, re-check by 2026-11-26
- **Basis:** Test questions we asked ChatGPT and Gemini with free accounts from a Japanese IP, 2026-11-03 to 2026-11-08.
- **Sources:** our own data, no outside link
- **Does not prove:** Real buyers may not use these words; we wrote the questions. Only 1 to 3 answers per question, one session per round, free accounts. The Claude part was not run yet.
- **What a site owner can do:** Ask ChatGPT and Gemini the questions your buyers ask and record which pages they cite. Buyer questions are already answered by list articles and vendors' own tool pages, so study what those winning pages contain.

## B7. Learning from the practitioner community

People who build Japanese sites learn from real measurement posts on Zenn, Qiita and note (crawler logs, GEO trials), and those posts are also where apps find tools.

**Evidence for the principle:** hypothesis

### [external source] On one new site (reported 2026-10-11), OAI-SearchBot only read robots.txt for 6 days, fetched the first article two days after it went live, and the first ChatGPT visitor came 6 days in; 74% of ChatGPT visitors landed on article pages.

- **Evidence:** external source. Recorded 2026-10-14, re-check by 2026-12-14
- **Basis:** A site operator's log analysis published on Zenn and Qiita (2026-10-11), read 2026-10-14.
- **Sources:** [zenn.dev](https://zenn.dev/hirajo/articles/crawler-google-vs-chatgpt) (2026-10-11), [qiita.com](https://qiita.com/hirajo/items/83cc8fbf8c5c6c22a0d2) (2026-08-29)
- **Does not prove:** One author, a few sites, not an experiment. We do not know how OAI-SearchBot found the article URL; the post does not say whether a sitemap, Search Console or IndexNow was used. The author runs those sites and has an interest.
- **What a site owner can do:** Publish article pages that answer real questions, not only service pages, then check your logs for OAI-SearchBot fetching those pages (not just robots.txt).

### [external source] A Japanese practitioner guide advises checking by hand, once a month in about 30 minutes, whether your company appears in AI answers, using buyer-style questions (how to choose, comparisons) instead of keywords, because there is no standard way to measure it yet.

- **Evidence:** external source. Recorded 2026-10-28, re-check by 2027-01-28
- **Basis:** One Zenn article published 2026-10-26, read from its summary on 2026-10-28.
- **Sources:** [zenn.dev](https://zenn.dev/gen_ai_kiyozuka/articles/check-brand-in-ai-answers-monthly) (2026-10-26)
- **Does not prove:** One article by one author, who may be a vendor. There is no figure on how many people follow this method, and it does not say which AI apps to check.
- **What a site owner can do:** Write down 5 to 10 questions a prospect would ask AI (for example 'which X tool do you recommend for small companies?' and comparisons), ask them in the same AI apps each month, and record the date and whether your company is named.

### [our lab observation] Three articles we published on note from a new account with no followers had 6 reads and 2 likes in total by 2026-10-28, and sent one visit to pw.migurei.ai, probably from our own team.

- **Evidence:** our lab observation. Recorded 2026-10-29, re-check by 2026-11-12
- **Basis:** note's read counter for our own account (one snapshot, 2026-10-28) and our server logs on pw.migurei.ai.
- **Sources:** [note.com](https://note.com/api/v1/stats/pv), [note.com](https://note.com/)
- **Does not prove:** note's counter may lag; this is one snapshot of articles only 2 to 3 days old. Reads on note do not show whether AI apps read the articles, since we have no note.com logs.
- **What a site owner can do:** Publish first on a page you control and can get indexed, and treat a post on note from a new account as a secondary copy. Check its read count after two weeks before investing more.

### [our lab observation] In the latest Common Crawl release (CC-MAIN-2026-43, crawled 2026-10-05 to 2026-10-18), note.com has only 36 captures, all of them robots.txt returning 403, and zero content pages, so text posted on note does not reach models through Common Crawl.

- **Evidence:** our lab observation. Recorded 2026-11-03, re-check by 2026-12-03
- **Basis:** The public Common Crawl index, read 2026-11-02, plus one fetch of note.com's robots.txt on 2026-11-03.
- **Sources:** [note.com](https://note.com/robots.txt) (2026-11-02)
- **Does not prove:** Which models use which Common Crawl release. One crawl only. note's robots.txt rules do allow training bots (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended and others), so their own crawlers may still read it; what note's network edge returns to them is unknown.
- **What a site owner can do:** Do not rely on note posts reaching AI training data through Common Crawl; publish important content on your own site too, and check whether your host appears in the Common Crawl index.
- **Also under:** [D1](https://pw.migurei.ai/en/handbook/agent-world#d1)

**Also relevant here:**

- [[external source] According to Ahrefs (Japan, 2026-09-29 to 2026-09-30), the ten domains AI apps cite most in Japan are Japanese Wikipedia, Google, note, Yahoo! Chiebukuro, YouTube, Ameba blog, PR TIMES, my-best, Weblio and Kotobank; PR TIMES ranks 2nd for ChatGPT, and note 1st for Gemini.](https://pw.migurei.ai/en/handbook/bots-and-apps#c-94565634)
- [[our lab observation] Free ChatGPT linked our statistics page on pw.migurei.ai in 3 of 6 runs on 2026-11-02 and again on 2026-11-03. No OpenAI or Bing bot had ever fetched that page, and the source chip ChatGPT showed for us was always our note article.](https://pw.migurei.ai/en/handbook/bots-and-apps#c-ab78c1a3)

```json
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "TechArticle",
  "headline": "B. Japanese buyers",
  "inLanguage": "en",
  "dateModified": "2026-11-12",
  "author": {
    "@type": "Organization",
    "name": "migurei"
  },
  "mainEntityOfPage": "https://pw.migurei.ai/en/handbook/japanese-buyers",
  "isPartOf": {
    "@type": "CreativeWork",
    "name": "Handbook for AI agents: how a website exists for AI apps",
    "url": "https://pw.migurei.ai/en/handbook"
  }
}
```