Which paper product brands do AI assistants recommend in Japan? Q4 2026
In Japan, AI assistants most often recommend Kleenex, Nepia and Scottie for paper products. Kleenex is named by 5 of 5 assistants.
What the data says
Kleenex is the paper product brand AI assistants recommend most in Japan, taking 19.4% of all recommendation points across 5 assistants. Nepia follows with 17.5% and Scottie is third with 15%.
The top spot is close: only 1.9 points separate Kleenex and Nepia, so a small change in how either brand is described online could flip the order.
DeepSeek puts Kleenex first, while ChatGPT favours Elleair, Claude favours Scott's, Gemini favours Elleair and Grok favours Scottie.
The top five brands hold 71% of recommendations out of 23 brands named in total, leaving room for challengers to break into AI shortlists.
| # | Brand | Owner | AI share | ChatGPT | Claude | DeepSeek | Gemini | Grok |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kleenex | Kleenex | 19.4% | 52 | 35 | 105 | 24 | 75 |
| 2 | Nepia | Oji Nepia | 17.5% | 82 | – | 52 | 72 | 57 |
| 3 | Scottie | Nippon Paper Crecia | 15% | 57 | – | 8 | 65 | 95 |
| 4 | Elleair | Daio Paper | 13.6% | 85 | – | – | 95 | 24 |
| 5 | Pigeon | Pigeon | 5% | – | – | 75 | – | – |
| 6 | Scott's | Kimberly-Clark | 4.1% | – | 45 | 16 | – | – |
| 7 | Bounty | Procter & Gamble | 4% | – | 35 | – | – | 25 |
| 8 | Crecia | Nippon Paper Crecia | 2.9% | – | – | 44 | – | – |
| 9 | Tempo | Essity | 2.7% | 16 | 25 | – | – | – |
| 10 | Handy | Handy | 2.4% | – | 36 | – | – | – |
| 11 | Charmin | Procter & Gamble | 2.3% | – | 35 | – | – | – |
| 12 | Renova | Renova | 1.7% | – | 25 | – | – | – |
| 13 | Japanese | Generic | 1.6% | – | 24 | – | – | – |
| 14 | Reed | Lion | 1.3% | – | – | – | 20 | – |
| 15 | Scotties | Kimberly-Clark | 1.3% | – | 20 | – | – | – |
| 16 | Viva | Kimberly-Clark | 1.3% | – | 20 | – | – | – |
| 17 | Crown | Generic | 0.5% | – | – | – | – | 8 |
| 18 | Local premium | Local / Independent | 0.5% | – | – | – | – | 8 |
| 19 | Local brands | Local / Independent | 0.5% | – | – | – | – | 8 |
| 20 | Hanataba | Independent | 0.5% | 8 | – | – | – | – |
Questions about AI paper product recommendations
- Which paper product brand does ChatGPT recommend most in Japan?
- ChatGPT recommends Elleair most often for paper product in Japan. Across all assistants, Kleenex leads with 19.4% of recommendations.
- Which paper product brand is improving fastest in Japan?
- Bounty has the strongest momentum among challengers: AI names it first in 1 of 2 answers where it appears, while holding 4% share. This is the first Q4 2026 reading; change over time will be shown from the next update.
- How is the ranking calculated?
- We ask each AI assistant the questions shoppers ask in each category and market, record the top five brands it names, and give 35, 25, 20, 12 and 8 points for positions one to five. Share is a brand's points divided by all points awarded.
Paper Products: AI rankings by country
Covers: Paper Towels, Tissues, Toilet Paper.
Method: each AI assistant is asked the shopper questions for every segment in the category and market; the top five brands named score 35, 25, 20, 12 and 8 points. Share is a brand's points divided by all points awarded. Rankings reflect AI answers, not sales.
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