Some server vendors on the market may claim to offer Japanese servers, but actually provide servers in other regions. Users may discover this discrepancy after deploying their services. To avoid this, it's crucial to quickly identify and verify the location of Japanese servers. This process involves not only a basic IP address query but also cross-verification using various technical methods and tools to ensure the server is indeed located in Japan.
The most basic method is to verify the server's location by looking up the IP address's location. After obtaining the server's public IP address, users can use online IP geolocation services, such as IPinfo, MaxMind, and IPIP.net. Entering the IP address will return the country, region, and carrier of the IP. For example:
curl ipinfo.io/yourserverIPThe results typically include the country, region, and city fields. If the result shows JP or a city such as Tokyo or Osaka, the IP is in Japan. However, please note that IP geolocation databases exhibit certain delays and inaccuracies, especially since some multinational carriers may allocate Japanese IP addresses in other countries. Therefore, a single query is not sufficient to fully confirm the server's location.
Secondly, using a traceroute tool can more accurately verify the location of the Japanese server. Using the traceroute or mtr command, you can analyze the path taken by packets to the server and determine the location of relay nodes. If network nodes in cities like Tokyo and Osaka appear in the routing path, the server is most likely located in Japan. For example:
traceroute your_server_ipor
mtr -rw your_server_ipIn the output, if you see a carrier node identifier such as NTT, KDDI, or SoftBank, a local Japanese carrier, combined with a reasonable hop latency (typically 30ms to 70ms from mainland China to Japan), you can confidently confirm that the server is in Japan.
Latency testing can also provide further verification. Users can ping the target server from test nodes in multiple regions and observe the latency data. If the latency from East China and South China to the server is generally around 50ms, while the latency from Europe and the United States is significantly higher than 200ms, it is highly likely that the server is located in Japan. By contrast, if the latency data is consistent with that from Hong Kong or the US West Coast, further confirmation is necessary.
Another method is to verify the server's location using BGP routing information. BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) records global routing information. By querying the BGP advertised path for a specific IP segment, you can directly determine the location of that IP segment. Using platforms like bgp.he.net, you can enter the server IP address and view its AS number (Autonomous System Number) and the carrier it belongs to. If the carrier is a local Japanese carrier like NTT Communications, KDDI, or IIJ, it's almost certain that the server is located in Japan.
During service deployment, you can also use the node testing features provided by CDNs or speed testing platforms to assist in verification. For example, use speedtest-cli to test the server's speed using a test node in Japan. If the speed is significantly higher than other nodes farther away from Japan, it indicates that the server is indeed located near Japan.
speedtest-cli --server [Japan node ID]If the test results show that the local node's connection to the target node in Japan is normal and the latency is less than 50ms, this further confirms the server's location.
Besides technical means, users can also request a test IP address from the service provider before selecting a Japanese server. By performing traceroute, latency testing, and BGP analysis on a test IP, you can confirm its true location before renting. Reputable service providers typically disclose their test IP and data center information on their official websites and support user testing. However, opaque service providers often fail to provide accurate data.
Note that some providers may use tunneling or IP mapping to disguise servers in other regions (such as Hong Kong, South Korea, and Singapore) as Japanese servers. In these cases, the IP geodatabase may display the location as Japan, but the actual routing latency is significantly higher and the routing path detours through other countries. Therefore, combining IP lookup, traceroute, and latency testing can effectively avoid such misleading information.
Further verification can include checking the server's internal time zone and locale. While this information can be modified, if the server's default language is Japanese and the time zone is Asia/Tokyo, it can be used as a reference in conjunction with other verification methods. For example:
timedatectl
localeIf the time zone displays Asia/Tokyo and the locale includes ja_JP.UTF-8, the server was likely initialized in a Japanese data center.
Through the above methods, you can quickly identify and verify the location of the Japanese server, and more comprehensively confirm whether the server is actually located in Japan, thereby avoiding affecting business operations due to incorrect choices.
