A booking page that actually works in Japan
Most scheduling tools are built for the United States and Europe. Run a business in Japan and two gaps show up quickly: you cannot take the deposit in yen, and your diary stays open on 祝日 when nobody is working. Business Box is built around both.
Start free14-day free trial. No card required. ¥1,200 a month after that.
Take payment in Japanese yen, into your own Stripe account
Charging for an appointment before it happens is the difference between a diary full of confirmed work and one full of no-shows. Business Box does this natively in yen.
You connect your own Stripe account using Stripe Connect. The card payment is created directly on your account, so the money is yours from the moment it settles. We charge you a flat monthly subscription and take no commission on anything you sell.
Yen is handled properly, not converted
Japanese yen has no minor units. A price of ¥5,500 is five thousand five hundred yen, not 55.00 of anything. Tools that assume two decimal places either refuse the currency or quietly mangle the amount. Business Box treats yen as a zero-decimal currency throughout, so what you type is what your client is charged.
Pay first, then the slot is confirmed
The time is held while your client pays and only becomes a confirmed booking when Stripe says the payment succeeded. Abandon the checkout and the slot is released for somebody else. Because payment runs through Stripe in Japan, that includes the payment methods your clients expect locally, subject to what you enable on your own Stripe account.
Refund rules you set, shown before they pay
Each appointment type carries its own cancellation policy: full refund up to a number of hours before, a partial refund after that, or none. Clients see the policy before paying, and when they cancel, the amount is worked out from that policy and refunded automatically.
Japanese public holidays close your diary automatically
Japan has sixteen public holidays, they move between years, and Happy Monday legislation shifts several of them to the nearest Monday. 振替休日 appears whenever a holiday lands on a Sunday. Keeping this in a spreadsheet is how you end up taking a booking on 建国記念の日.
Turn on holiday blocking for a schedule and every Japanese public holiday is closed without you doing anything. Dates come from the Cabinet Office's own published data and refresh monthly, so new years appear before you need them. If you do want to work one of them, a date override opens that single day.
Why subscribing to a holiday calendar does not solve this
The obvious workaround is to add Google's Japanese holidays calendar and let your booking tool read it as busy time. It does not work. Google's free/busy API refuses to report availability for public holiday calendars, returning a not-found error for the feed, so a tool that relies on your calendar to know when you are busy never sees the holidays at all. The holidays have to be built into the scheduling logic, which is what Business Box does.
English and Japanese, from the same booking page
If you are a foreign professional working in Japan, your clients are rarely all in one language. A consultant might take a Japanese company on Monday and an expatriate client on Tuesday. You should not need two booking systems for that.
- Your booking page speaks the visitor's language English or Japanese, chosen automatically and switchable by hand. You can write the appointment name and description in both, and each visitor sees theirs.
- Confirmations and reminders match the client, not you The language a client booked in is remembered for that booking, so a Japanese client keeps getting Japanese email even though your own account is in English.
- Times are shown in the client's time zone Someone booking from London sees London time, you see Japan time, and both appear in the confirmation when they differ. Useful when your clients are not all in the country.
- Works with the calendar you already use Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook. Existing events block out slots automatically and each booking is written into your calendar with a meeting link.
Before you commit to any scheduling tool in Japan
Whatever you end up using, including your current tool, these are worth checking yourself rather than assuming. Feature sets change, and the answer often depends on which plan you are on and which country your account is registered in.
- Can it charge in JPY, and where does the money land? Check both that yen is an accepted currency and that funds go to your own payment account rather than being held and paid out later, minus a cut.
- Does it know about Japanese public holidays? Not "can I add them manually" but does it close those dates for you, every year, including substitute holidays.
- Can one booking page serve both languages? Including the confirmation and reminder emails, which is where bilingual support usually stops.
- Who is responsible for the sale? If you sell to consumers in Japan you have 特定商取引法 obligations. That is much simpler when you are plainly the seller and the money goes straight to you.
Questions
Can I take payment in Japanese yen?
Yes. Prices are set in yen and charged in yen through your own Stripe account, with no currency conversion and no commission taken by us.
Do I need a Japanese Stripe account?
To charge in yen and be paid into a Japanese bank account, yes. You connect an existing Stripe account, or create one during setup. Your Stripe dashboard, payouts and disputes stay yours.
Are Japanese public holidays included?
Yes, from the Cabinet Office's published dates, refreshed monthly, with substitute holidays included. You can still open a specific holiday with a date override.
Can my clients book in Japanese if I work in English?
Yes. Your account language and your client's are independent. The booking page, confirmations and reminders each follow the person reading them.
What does it cost?
¥1,200 a month, tax included, with a 14-day free trial and no card required to start. One plan, every feature, cancel whenever you like.
Start freeSet up a booking page in a few minutes.