Hi, I’m live in Osaka Japan. I think that a lot of Japanese people needs to write reviews on Google Map. So I’ve made reviews of most places.
Because the similar web services like Google Map, which has been in Japan from the past needs monthly fee. Thus Japanese small business owners have to pay expensive money to put their business information on the web.
This may be a corporate issue in Japanese law. Services operated by Japanese companies always require a monthly fee. It is very burdensome for individual owners who run small businesses in Japan.
It’s lucky, Google’s service is for free. It works great for small businesses ower, and necessary for travelers. I believe the map service protects the city culture and area. So I write the review as a local guide on Google.
This is the reason why I have written many reviews of small restaurants that are unlikely to be featured on the web or the old media in Osaka city. (* “old media” means Newspaper, TV, Radio, etc.)
In Japan, companies with large capital have increased the number of restaurants with chains in any region. Due to the decline of population and the preference for high quality by Japanese people, managing a small restaurant which can not make a capital investment on an individual basis is a very difficult situation.
I’ve written a lot of Review as a Local Guide to Google Maps to encourage small restaurant. I believe my actions will lead to maintaining the food culture of the region and providing information to tourists in the future.
Below is a picture of the old shopping street in the area where I live. It can not be imagined for the traveler who knows the new building of Tokyo, but there are still many such buildings in Japan. If it is a local city, it cannot attract customers, cannot keep such the shopping street. Then in Tokyo, such a shopping street has been renewed because the government and companies have redevelopment and invested.
In Osaka, which is not as big as Tokyo and has the second largest population, such a traditional old shopping street still alive. That is because Osaka has not been invested as much as Tokyo.
Most of the Japanese have opinions dirty and old for this kind of shopping street. But oppositely this shopping street is very Japanese style and can attract people. The reason why I’m adding information about old shopping street and it’s shops in the old city to Google Local Guide is to support the such a street.
