Just how to Search Engine Optimize (SEO)? And is it distinct for each nation?

I'm a developer dwelling in Japan and have lately began assembling websites but discovered it troublesome to Search Engine Optimization in general.

I sponsor my web sites on Yahoo Small Enterprise machines and have used their Research Engine Entry attribute several times to distribute my sites to Google, Yahoo!, etc. during the period of two years.

Those sites come up no issue, when I type in the organization titles in to Yahoo. When I kind the organization titles in Japanese in to Yahoo, some web sites come up, but largely just the Contact Page (maybe not the top main site) may come up. Why is that?

And it's worse when I type only keywords (perhaps not the business organization name)... my clients' web sites do not appear in searches also if I kind in town title! Strangely enough, the company websites may display up because of outside blogs or keywords from other web sites... but perhaps not a direct hit on their site...

I have learned rumors that using a Western host is better? Or utilizing a Western domain name expansion (.jp or .co.jp) surpasses (.com or .net) since our target customers are in Japan? Is this authentic?