How to Advertise on LINE in Japan (2026 Guide)
By Cuni Shimizu, Founder and CEO, Edamame Japan. Last updated: November 2026.
LINE is Japan's main messaging app, with about 100 million monthly active accounts as of June 2026 (LY Corporation media guide, updated October 2026). Since April 1, 2026, ads on LINE are bought through LY Ads Display Ads (LINEヤフー広告 ディスプレイ広告), which combined the old LINE Ads with Yahoo! JAPAN display ads. The old LINE Ads platform stopped serving ads on October 26, 2026. There is no minimum spend, daily budgets start at JPY 100, and you pay per click, per viewable thousand impressions, per video view or per new friend. Overseas companies can open an account and pay by credit card or by international wire transfer in advance. The management screens can be switched to English, but many help articles and ad rules are only in Japanese.
If you want a team in Tokyo to run it for you, see our LINE Ads management service.
What changed in 2026
LINE Corporation and Yahoo Japan merged into LY Corporation in October 2023 (LY Ads help). In 2026, LY Corporation merged its ad products too.
- April 1, 2026: LINE Ads (including Talk Head View) and Yahoo! display ads became one product, LY Ads Display Ads (LY Corporation, April 2026). Yahoo! search ads became LY Ads Search Ads (press release).
- October 26, 2026: the old LINE Ads platform stopped delivering ads (LY Corporation). Old accounts stay read-only and close fully around the end of March 2027 (migration guide).
- The LINE Tag does not work on the new platform. You install the new measurement tag (計測タグ) instead (same migration guide).
Most people still search for "LINE Ads", and most English guides still describe the old platform. If a guide mentions the LINE Tag, LINE Pay or the Timeline, it was written before these changes.
One account now reaches both LINE and Yahoo! JAPAN, so a campaign can run on the LINE talk list and the Yahoo! JAPAN top page at the same time.
Where your ads appear
On LINE, the main placements are the talk list at the top of the chat tab, LINE NEWS, the Home tab, and LINE services such as coupons, points and OpenChat. The LY Ads network adds more than 13,000 partner apps (as of October 2024) (LY Corporation, LINE placements). On Yahoo! JAPAN, ads appear on the top page and on News, Weather, Sports, Finance, Chiebukuro (Q&A) and Transit (LY Corporation, placements).
The talk list is the placement most people mean when they say "LINE Ads". It sits above the user's chats and suits awareness more than detailed messages.
What it costs
There is no minimum spend (LY Corporation). You set a daily budget of JPY 100 or more (JPY 1,000 or more for video view campaigns) and choose how you pay:
| Billing | You pay when | Bid range (official) |
|---|---|---|
| Click | someone clicks | JPY 1 to 50,000 |
| Viewable impressions (vCPM) | 1,000 ads are seen | JPY 1 to 100,000 |
| Video views | a video plays | JPY 100 to 1,000,000 per 1,000 plays |
| Friend added | someone adds your LINE Official Account | JPY 1 to 50,000 (counted as a click) |
Source: LY Ads help, campaign editor import specs. These are the limits the system accepts. LY Corporation does not publish average costs per click. What you pay depends on the auction, your targeting and your creative.
From our own campaigns, two examples on the old LINE Ads platform:
- An online English school (B2C), aiming at contact form submissions: CPM USD 1.25, CPC USD 0.31, USD 8.51 per form submission.
- A B2B marketing software company, promoting a webinar to marketing and IT workers with a lookalike audience built from its prospect list: CPM USD 1.52, CPC USD 1.01, USD 53.68 per registration.
How overseas companies pay
You can pay by credit card (Visa, Mastercard, JCB, Diners Club, American Express) or by bank transfer, which is prepaid only (cards, bank transfer). You choose prepaid or postpaid billing once, and it cannot be changed later (LY Ads help).
For advertisers outside Japan, LY Corporation accepts prepaid international wire transfers in any currency, converted to yen. Invoice payment and credit lines are not available (LY Ads help, overseas advertisers). After you send the money, you tell customer support the date and amount, and it can take more than a week to show in the account (LY Ads help). Overseas advertisers can also pay by card, but some cards issued outside Japan cannot be registered (LY Ads help).
In practice, prepaying by wire means a campaign can stop when the balance runs out, and refilling it is slow. This is one reason overseas companies run LINE through a Japanese agency, which pays the platform and invoices you in your currency.
How to set up an account
- Register a Business ID with an email address.
- Select or create a LINE Official Account and a Business Manager organization.
- Enter the company details and agree to the terms. You may be asked to verify your identity. Overseas companies are asked for the passport of a representative or employee, with the company's current address. If that is not possible, you can send a business registration certificate or similar document instead (LY Ads help).
- Choose the payment method.
- Install the measurement tag on your site, then build the campaign, ad group and ads.
- Submit the ads for review. Review takes about three business days (LY Ads help).
You can switch the sign-up page and the management screens to English (LY Ads help), but many help articles and ad rules are only in Japanese. LY Corporation can refuse an application, and it may call you to confirm details (LY Ads help).
Ad review and landing pages
Ads and landing pages can be in Japanese or English, as long as the language matches between the ad and the page (LY Ads help). Most LINE users in Japan read Japanese, so we use Japanese landing pages for LINE campaigns.
The landing page must show your legal company name, the address down to the street number (with the country if you are outside Japan) and a way to contact you (LY Ads help). Claims such as "No. 1" or "largest" need a third-party survey from the last year, with the year stated (LY Ads guideline column).
Some categories are banned, such as pyramid schemes, counterfeits, firearms, illegal ticket resale and most tobacco (LY Ads help). Others are allowed only under extra rules, such as dating, gambling, finance, medical services not covered by insurance and religious groups (LY Ads help). We found no special rule for B2B SaaS.
Targeting
You can target by age (18 and over), gender, region, device and time of day, and by interests, purchase intent and life events. You can also upload your own lists (email addresses or phone numbers, as plain text or SHA-256 hashed), retarget site visitors, target your LINE Official Account friends, and build lookalike audiences from any of these (LY Ads targeting column). LY Corporation plans to lower the minimum size of five list types, such as LINE Official Account friends and Business Manager lists, from 1,000 to 100 users on November 10, 2026. Uploaded customer lists and site visitor lists are not included (LY Corporation, October 2026).
The old LINE Ads platform offered estimated occupation and income. We have not found these options on the new platform, so do not plan a B2B campaign around job targeting on LINE.
Does LINE work for B2B?
LINE works for B2B awareness and retargeting, but it is usually not the first channel for leads.
LINE reaches the managers who buy software in Japan, but it cannot pick them out by job title. For B2B, target lists of your prospects, site visitors and webinar sign-ups, and lookalikes of them. For a geospatial software company, we targeted people in Japan interested in software who work in finance and other B2B roles. The goal was awareness, and the campaign still brought direct inquiries.
If your buyers are a small group of IT decision makers at large Japanese companies, start with search ads or lead programs with Japanese publishers, and add LINE later for retargeting.
FAQ
Is LINE Ads still available?
The product is now called LY Ads Display Ads. The old LINE Ads platform stopped serving ads on October 26, 2026, and ads on LINE are bought through the new platform.
Is there a minimum budget for LINE ads?
No minimum spend. Daily budgets start at JPY 100. An agency may have its own minimum. Ours is USD 1,000 a month in fees.
Can a company outside Japan advertise on LINE?
Yes. You can pay by credit card or by prepaid international wire transfer, and you may be asked for a passport or business registration. The management screens can be in English, but many help articles are only in Japanese, and some cards issued outside Japan cannot be registered.
Can ads and landing pages be in English?
Yes, if the ad and the page use the same language. Most LINE users in Japan read Japanese, so we use Japanese pages.
Can we use the LINE Tag?
Not on the new platform. Install the new measurement tag.
LINE Ads management by Edamame Japan
We run LINE campaigns for overseas companies: account setup and billing, Japanese ads that pass review, landing pages, and reports in English. Our fee is 15% of ad spend, with a minimum of USD 1,000 a month. See LINE Ads management or contact us.
Our Tokyo team replies within 1 business day.
