Putting a form on your site isn’t the hard part anymore. With a popular free plugin, anyone can stand one up in minutes. The real work comes after that — getting it to a state where it actually runs well on a Japanese-language site.

A furigana (reading) field, postal-code-to-address auto-fill, a confirmation screen before sending, a thank-you email to the sender, spam protection — the things a Japanese-site form obviously needs aren’t there by default in the usual plugins. You patch the gaps with add-ons or a second plugin, look up mail-merge tags, and sometimes edit HTML. Every field you add stacks on more setup. And the moment you reach for a confirmation screen or more advanced features, you often run into a monthly or yearly charge.

Probono Form Basic exists to remove all of that “work that comes after putting up the form.” It builds in the conventions a Japanese-language site needs from the start, and lets you complete a form just by clicking field buttons — a free, one-time (buy-once), made-in-Japan plugin. No coding, and no per-feature add-on fees.

Running into these snags with the usual form plugins?

No built-in furigana field or postal-code-to-address auto-fill, so you fill the gap with add-ons or by hand
Just showing a confirmation screen before sending means adding another plugin or more configuration
You have to look up mail-merge syntax or HTML to get the notification and auto-reply you actually want
Every new field means learning a custom syntax, and the setup gets fiddly
Confirmation screens, advanced features, and add-ons sit behind monthly or yearly charges, and costs keep piling up

Putting up the form isn’t the finish line — it’s the start. Probono Form Basic takes on exactly the day-to-day work that comes after.

With Probono Form, you just click buttons

Probono Form Basic builds your form by clicking field buttons. Name, furigana, email, phone, postal code, address, inquiry details — click the ones you need, and the form appears in the live preview on the right. No HTML, no memorizing shortcodes.

There are only three steps:

Install the plugin and click “Activate”
Click the field buttons to build your form
Paste the generated shortcode into a page

That’s it — your Japanese contact form is live. The features that are expected but tedious to set up — confirmation screen, auto-reply, spam protection — are built in and working from the start.

How it differs from a typical form plugin

We won’t name names, but the differences from a typical form plugin are clear.

Setup effort — Typical plugins often expect you to learn mail-merge syntax, HTML, or a custom notation to get the form you want. Probono Form Basic is built to be assembled by clicking buttons, with no code.
Fit for Japanese-language sites — Whether the essentials a Japanese site obviously needs are built in, with no add-ons: a furigana field, postal-code-to-address auto-fill, automatic honorific (san), a confirmation screen. Probono Form Basic was designed from scratch for Japanese-language sites.
Cost — Many plugins lock the confirmation screen, auto-reply, spam protection, or add-ons behind a higher monthly or yearly plan. Probono Form Basic is free, with a one-time (buy-once) philosophy. Costs don’t grow with every renewal.
Data handling — Probono Form Basic does not send what visitors submit to external servers, and it does not track usage. Everything stays inside your site (except the postal-code lookup for address auto-fill — see “External services”).

Why “Japanese optimization” actually matters

On a Japanese-language site, how easy the form is to fill in directly affects how many inquiries you get. Probono Form Basic solves that concretely.

Postal-code-to-address auto-fill — When a visitor types a postal code, the prefecture and city are filled in automatically. No more making people type out a long address by hand — and fewer drop-offs.
Automatic furigana generation — As the visitor types their name, the furigana (reading) field is filled in for them, removing the stress of entering readings manually.
Automatic honorific — In auto-reply emails and on the form, the honorific “san” is appended to the name automatically, keeping things polite by Japanese business norms.

“Fill it in without hesitation, in Japanese” — that obvious-but-overlooked baseline, with no special configuration.

The tedious parts are automatic — so configuration stays minimal

Probono Form Basic includes many features, but the number isn’t the selling point. What matters is that the processing a contact form actually needs works automatically from the start. Misdelivery prevention via a confirmation screen, an auto-reply to the sender, spam suppression, double-submit prevention — the parts that are tedious to build yourself are covered automatically just by adding the fields. So there are very few switches you actually need to touch. Read the list below as “what’s already working behind the scenes.”

Form basics
Unlimited form creation, duplication, deletion (single/bulk), form renaming, 12 field types (name, furigana, email, phone, postal code, address, inquiry type, inquiry details, checkbox, radio button, file upload, terms agreement), required-field settings, real-time preview, shortcode output

Confirmation screen
Show/hide the confirmation screen, customizable title and message, editable button labels, success/error messages

Email
Admin notification email, subject customization, CC/BCC settings, auto-reply to the sender, reply-template selection

Style
Form border on/off, 5 color themes, button shape, button fill, font size

Japanese features
Postal-code-to-address auto-fill (zipcloud API), automatic furigana generation, automatic honorific (san)

Spam & misdelivery protection
Honeypot (bot trap), submission-time check, double-submit prevention, misdelivery prevention via the confirmation screen

Other
Responsive design, loading spinner on submit

What changes after you install it

Clicking field buttons gives you a complete form, confirmation screen included
Visitors just type a postal code to fill in their address, reducing mid-form drop-off
The moment an inquiry arrives, the sender receives a polite auto-reply
Honeypot and submission-time checks suppress bot spam
One plugin lets you create unlimited forms for different purposes (contact, document request, recruiting, and more)

The time you spent agonizing over “how do I build this form” goes back to “how do I respond to inquiries.”

Free and one-time — all of it

Everything above is free. No monthly subscription, no yearly renewal fee. “Try it free first, confirm it fits my site, then decide” — being able to make that call is the real value of a buy-once philosophy. Use it as your site’s inquiry desk without worrying about creeping costs.

Why you can use it with peace of mind

It doesn’t collect submissions — What visitors enter is not sent to external servers or tracked as usage. Submissions stay within your site and your email (except the postal-code lookup for address auto-fill).
No conflicts with other plugins — Probono Form Basic works independently and does not clash with other form plugins, avoiding trouble when switching or running side by side.
Continuous development by Japanese developers — Built and maintained by developers who understand Japanese-language sites, keeping pace with WordPress core updates.

When you want to go further (Pro)

When you need AI-powered text polishing or more advanced Japanese features, a separate Pro version is available. See https://form.prbn.org. Even the Basic version is more than enough to set up an inquiry desk for your Japanese-language site.

Just install it and try

A form isn’t something you “perfect before you publish” — it’s about quickly getting to a state where you can receive inquiries. Probono Form Basic gives you that desk with nothing more than clicking buttons. Free, buy-once, and no submission collection. There’s nothing to lose.

Install it, press “Activate,” and click the field buttons. From that day, your Japanese-language site has a contact form that simply works.

External services

This plugin connects to the zipcloud API to retrieve address information from Japanese postal codes. It is used to automatically fill in the address field when a user enters a postal code in the form.

The postal code entered by the user is sent to the zipcloud API only when the postal code field is used and the user inputs a value.

This service is provided by IBS Co., Ltd.:
– Service URL: https://zipcloud.ibsnet.co.jp
– Terms of service: https://zipcloud.ibsnet.co.jp/rule/api
– Privacy policy: https://zipcloud.ibsnet.co.jp/policy