For most of the App Store's history, "distribute your iOS app in Japan" meant exactly one thing: submit to the App Store, pass App Review, done. With iOS 26.2, that's no longer true. To comply with Japan's Mobile Software Competition Act (MSCA), Apple has opened iOS in Japan to alternative app marketplaces, payments outside of In-App Purchase, alternative browser engines, and a stack of new system controls. If you've followed the EU's DMA changes, the shape will look familiar — but the Japanese rules, fees, and deadlines are their own thing, and they're live now.
This guide walks through what actually changed, the three ways you can now distribute in Japan, how Notarization differs from App Review, what the new commissions cost, and how to set it all up — plus an honest read on whether any of this is worth your time as a solo or small-team developer.
What actually changed in Japan#
iOS 26.2 introduced a set of MSCA compliance changes that apply to users in Japan. The headline items for developers:
You can now distribute apps through alternative app marketplaces instead of (or alongside) the App Store. You can operate an alternative app marketplace yourself, if Apple authorizes you. You can process payments outside Apple In-App Purchase — either with an in-app alternative payment processor or by linking users out to a website. And on the platform side, users in Japan now see browser and search-engine choice screens, can use browsers built on alternative engines (not just WebKit), can set default navigation and marketplace apps, and can even uninstall Safari.
The practical upshot: the App Store is no longer the only road onto an iPhone in Japan, and Apple In-App Purchase is no longer the only checkout. That's a genuine structural shift. But "no longer the only option" is not the same as "the obvious better option," and the rest of this guide is about reading that gap correctly.
The three ways to distribute in Japan now#
There are now three distinct paths, and they don't cost or behave the same.
1. App Store with Apple In-App Purchase. The status quo. No changes required on your part, worldwide payment processing, tax handling, and customer service all included. If you do nothing, this is what you keep.
2. App Store with alternative payments. You stay on the App Store but offer your own payment processor inside the app, or link users out to a website to buy. The catch: if you merchandise a digital good using an alternative method, you're required to present Apple In-App Purchase as an option at the same time, implement in-app disclosure sheets, and follow child-safety rules for those purchases.
3. Alternative app marketplaces. You distribute through a third-party marketplace app whose whole job is discovering and installing notarized iOS apps. Apple In-App Purchase isn't available on this path, and sales are subject to a Core Technology Commission (more on fees below). You manage eligibility and updates through App Store Connect and its API.
Notarization vs. App Review — they're not the same bar#
This is the part most developers get wrong, so it's worth being precise.
App Review is the full process App Store apps go through. It includes Notarization plus enforcement of all of Apple's content and commerce policies — the higher bar for safety, security, and privacy that the App Store has always held.
Notarization is the baseline review that applies to every iOS app regardless of distribution channel, including apps headed to alternative marketplaces. It's a narrower, faster check — a combination of automated analysis and human review — focused on platform integrity rather than full editorial policy. Notarization checks for:
- Accuracy — the app must accurately represent the developer, its capabilities, and its costs.
- Functionality — the binary must be reviewable, free of serious bugs and crashes, and compatible with the current iOS version.
- Safety — no promotion of physical harm.
- Security — no malware, no downloading executable code, no reading outside the container, no quietly lowering device security.
- Privacy — no collecting or transmitting private data without the user's knowledge or contrary to the app's stated purpose.
Information from Notarization also feeds the app installation sheet — the at-a-glance card a user sees before installing a sideloaded app, showing the developer, screenshots, and other essentials. So even on the "lighter" path, your metadata and screenshots aren't optional decoration; they're a reviewed, user-facing part of the install.
A subtlety worth internalizing: passing Notarization is not the same as passing App Review. If you later want the same app on the App Store, it still has to clear the full content and commerce policies. Build as if you'll need both, because you probably will.
What the new commissions actually cost#
Here's where the romance of "escaping Apple's fees" meets arithmetic. Japan has its own fee table, and it is not free.
On the App Store in Japan, the commission is 10% for App Store Small Business Program participants, Mini Apps and Video Partner Program members, and for auto-renewable subscriptions after their first year — and 21% for other digital goods and services, including sales made through alternative in-app payments. On top of that, Apple In-App Purchase carries a separate 5% payment-processing fee.
If you link users out to a website to buy (the "store services" path), Apple charges a store services commission of 10% for program participants and post-first-year subscriptions, or 15% otherwise — but only on sales made within 7 days of the link tap.
If you distribute through an alternative app marketplace, sales are subject to a Core Technology Commission (CTC) of 5% — covering digital goods sold within apps distributed via the marketplace, the marketplace's own sales, paid app downloads, and out-of-app link sales within that 7-day window.
Run the math before you switch anything. For a small developer already in the App Store Small Business Program at 10%, leaving Apple's payment rails to dodge a fee can easily cost more once a third-party processor's fees, FX, tax remittance, and your own time are added in. The fee escape is real for some businesses and illusory for others.
How to set it up#
If you've decided a path beyond the default is worth it, here's the sequence.
Step 1 — Agree to the latest license agreement. The Apple Developer Program License Agreement was updated with the new Japan options and business terms. The Account Holder of your membership has to accept it. Doing so unlocks the alternative-distribution tools in App Store Connect and the entitlement for alternative payments. Note that all Apple Developer Program members were required to agree to the updated DPLA by March 17, 2026, so if you've logged into your account recently you may have already done this without registering what it enabled.
Step 2 — Get your app notarized. When you submit, select the alternative-distribution option in App Store Connect. Your build is evaluated against the Notarization Review Guidelines (the subset described above). Apple encrypts and signs the app, and it goes through integrity checks at install time.
Step 3 — Wire up the marketplace. To put your app on an alternative marketplace, you use App Store Connect and the App Store Connect API to register the marketplace and your Developer ID, add the marketplace token the marketplace gives you, select which of your apps are eligible for alternative distribution, and send the marketplace a notification whenever an update is available.
Step 4 — Handle payments and child safety. If you're using alternative payments, implement the in-app disclosure sheets, present Apple In-App Purchase alongside your alternative when merchandising digital goods, and build the parental gates the rules require. The child-safety requirements are strict: purchase flows for users under 13 must sit behind a parental gate and can't link out to a website; for users 13–17, out-of-app offers are allowed but still gated; Kids-category apps can't offer out-of-app purchases at all.
So should an indie developer actually do this?#
For the vast majority of solo and small-team developers, the honest answer is: operate a marketplace, no; evaluate alternative payments or a niche marketplace, maybe.
Operating an alternative app marketplace requires Apple authorization, ongoing security and safety obligations, and infrastructure that's a business unto itself — that's a path for funded platforms, not weekend builders. Alternative payments can pencil out if your margins are thin and your volume in Japan is high enough that even a few points of fee difference clears the cost of running your own billing, taxes, and monthly reporting. A niche marketplace can make sense if it reaches an audience the App Store buries you under.
But for most people, the right move in 2026 is to understand the options, keep your App Store presence sharp, and revisit the alternative paths when your Japan revenue is large enough to justify the operational tax. Optionality is the real win here, not an obligation to use it.
Where this leaves your store assets#
Whatever path you choose, one thing doesn't change: every channel still demands accurate, reviewed, localized store assets. Notarization checks your metadata and screenshots and surfaces them on the install sheet. App Review demands the full set. An alternative marketplace will want listing copy that fits its own surface. The asset problem multiplies across channels — and it's exactly the kind of repetitive, per-locale, per-spec work that eats indie weekends.
This is where Stora fits. Point it at your repo and it generates store-ready screenshots across every required device size and locale, drafts listing copy from what the app actually does, and runs a pre-submission compliance pass that catches the accuracy and policy mismatches Notarization and App Review reject for — before you submit, to any channel. The Japanese market just went from one road to several. Stora keeps the asset-and-compliance work from multiplying along with them.
Start by understanding the fee math and the Notarization bar. Build your store assets once, cleanly, and you'll be ready for whichever distribution path Japan's new rules make worth taking.