jpcite vs. subsidy search services and AI evidence APIs
A neutral side-by-side of jpcite against the main consumer-discoverable Japanese subsidy / 助成金 search services, across 13 axes. jpcite is not a generic search portal: it is the Japanese-regulation packet bank that AI agents find and buy: source-linked Evidence Packets (from ¥30) with fetched-at metadata, tamper-evident signatures, and known gaps that an AI fetches before drafting an answer. Built from each provider's published information only; anything we could not verify is left as "Not publicly disclosed" rather than guessed. Reviewed monthly.
Services compared: jpcite (this site) / subsidy search sites / public support portals / article-style databases / J-Net21 / ミラサポplus / Japanese-corporate MCP servers (OSS MCP servers that wrap gBizINFO, EDINET, and e-Stat).
Feature comparison
| Axis | jpcite | Subsidy search site | Support portal | Article database | J-Net21 | ミラサポplus | Japanese-corporate MCP (gBizINFO/EDINET/e-Stat) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Program count (public-sector) | 11,601 searchable (tier S/A/B/C) + 14,472 total (incl. rows excluded from public search) | Not publicly disclosed (sector-focused) | Not publicly disclosed | Not publicly disclosed (article-led) | Not publicly disclosed (active programs surfaced as feed) | Not publicly disclosed (major + related programs) | Not publicly disclosed (relays gBizINFO / EDINET / e-Stat raw data; no program catalog count) |
| 2. Primary-source URL on each row (direct gov links) | Yes — most public rows carry source_url + fetched_at; gaps are flagged rather than backfilled |
Not publicly disclosed (needs verification) | Not publicly disclosed (needs verification) | Not publicly disclosed (needs verification) | Yes (links out to ministry / prefecture pages) | Yes (.go.jp official portal) | Relays government APIs (gBizINFO / EDINET / e-Stat) so the source is the government, but no per-row fetched_at timestamp |
| 3. Public API | Yes — REST /v1/* with OpenAPI 3.1 |
None publicly listed | None publicly listed | None publicly listed | None publicly listed | None publicly listed | Depends on the underlying government APIs (no proprietary REST spec publicly listed) |
| 4. MCP (Model Context Protocol) server | Yes — 261 tools, protocol 2025-06-18, distributed via stdio + Smithery + DXT | None publicly listed | None publicly listed | None publicly listed | None publicly listed | None publicly listed | Yes — OSS MCP server listed on awesome-mcp; callable directly from AI agents |
| 5. Designed for LLM-agent consumption | Yes (primary use case) — callable from Claude Desktop / Cursor / Cline via MCP and ChatGPT Custom GPTs via OpenAPI Actions; responses pre-normalized for AI | Designed for human web browsing | Designed for human web browsing | Designed for human web browsing | Designed for human web browsing | Designed for human web browsing | Callable from AI agents via MCP (response normalization / source fencing vary by implementation) |
| 6. Pricing model | Per-result pricing: raw evidence from ¥3, Evidence Packets from ¥30 (up to ¥240 deep DD). Weekly free passport. No tier SKUs, no seats, no minimums | Free | Not publicly disclosed (signup required) | Not publicly disclosed (article reading is free) | Free (public-sector service) | Free (public-sector service) | Free (OSS; subject to the rate limits / terms of the upstream government APIs) |
| 7. Free tier | No signup; 3 req/day per IP (resets at JST next-day 00:00) | Fully free | Not publicly disclosed | Not publicly disclosed | Fully free | Fully free | Fully free (OSS) |
| 8. Full-text search (Japanese 全文検索 / 分割アルゴリズム) | Yes — Japanese full-text search + semantic search | In-site search (implementation details not disclosed) | In-site search (implementation details not disclosed) | In-site search (implementation details not disclosed) | In-site search (implementation details not disclosed) | In-site search (implementation details not disclosed) | Depends on the government APIs' search parameters (no proprietary Japanese full-text / semantic search) |
| 9. Per-row source license disclosure | Yes — returned rows carry a license field (e-Gov=CC-BY-4.0, NTA invoice=PDL v1.0, gov_standard, proprietary, etc.) | Not publicly disclosed | Not publicly disclosed | Not publicly disclosed | Governed by site Terms (no per-row license metadata) | Governed by site Terms (no per-row license metadata) | No per-row license field (users check the upstream government data license individually) |
| 10. Statute-text navigation (e-Gov links) | Yes — e-Gov law metadata and article references; coverage varies by record; per-article cross-link via program_law_refs | Out of scope (subsidy search only) | Out of scope (subsidy search only) | Out of scope | Out of scope (subsidy listings only) | Out of scope (subsidy listings only) | Out of scope (corporate / financial / statistics data; no statute-text linkage) |
| 11. Adoption / case-study data | Yes — 2,286 case_studies (filterable by industry / amount / round) | Not publicly disclosed | Not publicly disclosed | Some examples surfaced editorially | Has a 事例 (case studies) section (no API) | Has 事例ナビ (Web UI only) | Out of scope (no structured adoption-case data) |
| 12. Enforcement-action data | Yes — 1,185 enforcement_cases (cross-searchable by ministry / law / sanction type) | Out of scope | Out of scope | Out of scope | Out of scope | Out of scope | Out of scope (no structured enforcement-action data) |
| 13. Corporate lookup (法人番号 / gBiz) | Yes — 166,969 corporate records from gBizINFO + 13,801 qualified-invoice registrants (PDL v1.0 delta; full monthly bulk pending) | Out of scope | Out of scope | Out of scope | Out of scope (NTA / gBiz are separate services) | Out of scope (NTA / gBiz are separate services) | Relays gBizINFO, so corporate lookup is possible (no fetched_at / license field attached) |
Legend — green: confirmed from public sources / amber: partially present / grey ("None publicly listed"): nothing on the official site / grey italic ("Not publicly disclosed"): could not verify. "None publicly listed" / "Not publicly disclosed" does not assert the feature is absent — providers may add or undocument features at any time. Spot an error? Email [email protected] with a source URL and we'll review it and update if needed.
Pricing 7-band SOT comparison (2026-05-19 operator-approved)
jpcite is an AI-agent-first route that supplies the ingredient (raw material) across 7 tiers. This is a fact-based per-unit comparison against single-shot LLM runs, competitor MCP servers, and pure-LLM web search. jpcite prices mean "ingredient only"; agent finishing (expansion / summarization) runs on the calling-side LLM.
| jpcite product line (ingredient granularity) | jpcite SOT price (excl. tax) | LLM alone (Opus 4.7 single-shot) | Pure-LLM web search anchor | Competitor MCP (japan-corporate-mcp etc.) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raw evidence (citation lookup baseline) | ¥3 / unit | Not possible standalone (the fetch step is embedded inside the agent loop) | Not publicly disclosed (no metered API on web search results) | Free (public MCP, but no fetched_at / license metadata) |
| Citation (引用候補) | 無料-¥10 | Same as above | Same as above | Free (source URL present, but no license / freshness disclosure) |
| Verified receipt (T 番号 / 適格事業者検証付) | ¥10-30 / receipt | Not possible standalone (requires fetching + structuring the NTA public site) | Not publicly disclosed | Out of scope (NTA PDL v1.0 ingestion confirmed only on our side) |
| LLM Expansion Kit (素材 packet) | ¥30 / packet | Not possible standalone (jpcite bundles the prompt kit) | Not publicly disclosed | Out of scope |
| Standard Kit (汎用 cohort packet) | ¥60 / kit | Similar output possible standalone (but missing source URL / fetched_at / license; ~¥120 anchor in agent-side token cost) | Retrieving similar information is possible (source accuracy / freshness depend on web search results) | Out of scope |
| Pro DD Kit (深掘り due diligence) | ¥120 / kit | ¥120 anchor (Opus 4.7 single-shot agent loop; ingredient fetch + finishing included; lacks source fencing) | ~¥500 anchor (repeated web search + LLM finishing included; low source accuracy) | Out of scope |
| Deep DD / M&A Bundle (最上位 bundle) | ¥240 / bundle | Runnable standalone, but no reproducibility / audit trail | Same as above | Out of scope |
| Freshness watch (鮮度監視 subscription) | ¥50 / 対象 / 月 | Not possible standalone (re-run cost = full token every time) | Not publicly disclosed | Out of scope (no diff-detection mechanism) |
| Weekly passport (商品ライン毎 free tier) | 無料 (first Max Kit 1 + 1 Standard Kit/week, stable-hash re-reads free, counted from Monday 00:00 JST) | No equivalent mechanism (full token every time) | No equivalent mechanism | Being a free service, a passport mechanism is unnecessary (source-accuracy trade-off) |
ingredient + finishing boundary: jpcite performs no LLM inference and supplies only the ingredient (raw material). The Opus 4.7 single-shot ¥120 is a finishing-included anchor (the agent loop covers ingredient fetch + structuring + prose). jpcite Pro DD ¥120 is pre-finishing ingredient; adding the calling-side LLM's finishing tokens (~¥10-30 anchor) brings the total to ~¥130-150. For repeated runs and stable-hash re-reads, the weekly passport sharply lowers the per-unit cost. See Pricing.
Which one should you pick?
Honest recommendations by use case. jpcite is not always the right answer.
SMB / Business owner
Start with the free public portals
If you only need to find one or a few subsidies for your own company, the SMRJ-operated portals — ミラサポplus and J-Net21 — are free, official, and a perfectly fine starting point.
If you want an LLM to read the public-call PDF and check eligibility against your business, filter case studies by industry, or pre-screen before handing things to a tax accountant, then jpcite's API (¥3/billable unit, 3 req/day free without signup) is worth a try.
Tax / legal / consulting professionals
Across many clients, primary-source linkage is mandatory
If you serve 10+ client companies, citing stale amounts or already-ended programs from secondary aggregators creates real liability (景表法 / 善管注意義務 risk). You need primary-source URLs and fetch timestamps on returned public rows.
jpcite ships source_url + fetched_at on major public rows, direct e-Gov statute links, and 1,185 enforcement cases (vendor due diligence) — callable from Claude Desktop / Cursor / Cline via MCP and ChatGPT via OpenAPI Actions.
Developers / LLM-agent builders
If you need API/MCP, your shortlist is short
Most subsidy search sites and public support portals do not publish open APIs or MCP servers as of 2026-04-26. Calling them from an AI agent means HTML scraping plus per-site Terms review.
jpcite ships REST + MCP (protocol 2025-06-18) + OpenAPI 3.1 + 261 tools at standard configuration. Evaluate with 3 free req/day, then pay per result (raw evidence from ¥3, Evidence Packets from ¥30) — no SDK, no seats.
Update policy
- Cadence: monthly review. Each provider's public pages are re-fetched and changes reflected immediately.
- Coverage: services beyond this list will be added incrementally if they appear in user search intent (e.g., jGrants, J-LIS, J-Startup).
- Corrections: providers and users are welcome to submit corrections — [email protected] goes straight to the operator. Include a source URL and we will review it.
- No exaggeration: jpcite does not claim "industry's largest" or "No.1". Our numbers are verifiable on about.html and through regular data checks.
Related pages
- About jpcite — why we don't use aggregators, who runs it
- Pricing — interfaces for API, MCP, email notifications, Widget, and advisor affiliate
- 5-minute Quickstart — first REST + MCP call