How to Auto-Post an RSS Feed to Hatena Blog (2026)

Updated: 2026-09-28

Short answer: enter your Hatena ID, the blog domain (for example example.hatenablog.com) and the API key from blog settings → Advanced settings → AtomPub into PostRSS under Accounts → Add new Hatena Blog account. There is no app to register. Then open Tikslai → Add feed, choose Hatena Blog in Target settings — where you also decide whether entries go live immediately or are saved as drafts — and add your feed under Add source (Type = RSS feed, Link = your feed address). Each item becomes a full blog entry with its title, text, picture and a link back to the original, sent through Hatena Blog's official AtomPub API. Hatena Blog is included from the Professional plan.

Hatena Blog is one of the largest blogging platforms in Japan, and it occupies a position that has no real equivalent in the English-speaking web: a general blogging service with a genuinely engaged technical and literary readership, and a bookmarking service attached to it that still drives serious traffic. This guide is the long version; the auto-post RSS to Hatena Blog page has the short one.

AtomPub, and why that is good news

Hatena Blog publishes through AtomPub, a standard publishing protocol rather than a proprietary API. The practical consequence is that there is no application to register, no review to wait for and no OAuth consent screen — you generate an API key in your own blog settings and that is the whole authorisation.

Three values go into PostRSS: your Hatena ID, the blog domain, and the API key from Advanced settings → AtomPub. The domain matters because a Hatena account can hold several blogs, and the ID alone does not say which one you mean.

Published or draft

The Target setting lets each incoming item go live immediately or land as a draft you review inside Hatena Blog.

Drafts are the right default for a first run, and for a specific reason: your source feed produces HTML written for your own theme, and how that renders inside a Hatena Blog entry is worth seeing once before it is public. Check two or three, adjust the feed if the formatting is rough, then switch to immediate publishing.

Hatena Bookmark, and why the first hours matter

Hatena Blog does not exist in isolation. Hatena Bookmark, the social bookmarking service attached to it, is still one of the more effective ways an article travels in Japan: enough bookmarks in a short window and a post reaches the service's own popular listings, which carry it far beyond your followers.

That has a practical implication for automation. Because the early hours matter, an entry that appears at three in the morning local time starts from behind. If Japanese readership is the point rather than an archive, it is worth thinking about when your source feed publishes, or using a narrower category feed that only carries the posts you actually want seen there.

None of this is a reason not to automate. It is a reason to treat the Target as a publishing decision rather than a mirror switch.

Who this is for

• Companies with a Japanese-language site that want a presence where Japanese readers actually are.
• Technical writers. Hatena's engineering readership is real, and bookmarks still carry articles a long way.
• Anyone already publishing in Japanese elsewhere who does not want to paste each article twice.
• Publishers maintaining a mirror, with the link back to the original in every entry.

If you also publish technical articles, Qiita is on the same plan and reaches an overlapping but distinct audience.

Setting it up, step by step

1. In your blog settings, open Advanced settings → AtomPub and copy the API key. Note your Hatena ID and the blog domain as well.
2. In PostRSS, open Accounts and choose Add new Hatena Blog account. Enter the Hatena ID, the blog domain and the API key.
3. Open Targets and click Add feed. One feed going to one destination is one Target.
4. In Target settings, choose Hatena Blog and the account you just connected. This is also where you choose published or draft.
5. Click Add source. Set Type to RSS feed and paste your feed address into Link. Save.
6. Check the first item that arrives. PostRSS checks the feed every 5 minutes, and every minute on Enterprise plans.

PostRSS publishes items that appear in the feed after the Target starts running. It does not import the back catalogue — the alternative would be a destination flooded with years of archive on its first day.

Get the source feed right first

These are full-post destinations, so the feed decides the quality of the result more than any setting does.

• Full text, not summaries. A summary-only feed produces a blog of stubs. If your CMS has a full-text feed option, turn it on before connecting anything.
• An image inside the item. The picture has to be in the feed — in the item content or as an enclosure — not merely on the page the item links to. Many themes show a featured image without putting it in the feed.
• Absolute links. Relative URLs work on your site and break everywhere else.
• Anything new since you connected it. Only items appearing after the Target starts running are published.

Which plan includes it

Hatena Blog is included from the Professional plan. Each destination you connect counts as one Target, and your plan decides how many Targets and how many posts a month you get. An annual subscription is cheaper than paying monthly. Current limits per tier are on the pricing page, and the full lineup of 66 networks is on the supported networks page. The Hatena Blog page has the short version of the setup.

When posts stop appearing

• The API key was regenerated. Keys are managed in the blog's own settings and stop working the moment they change.
• The wrong blog identifier. An account can hold more than one blog; check the value you entered.
• Posts arrive without a picture. The feed item carries none. Check the raw feed before blaming the connection.
• Posts arrive truncated. The source feed publishes summaries rather than full text.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to register an application with Hatena?

No. Hatena Blog publishes through AtomPub, a standard protocol, so a key generated in your own blog settings is the whole authorisation. There is nothing to submit for review.

Where do I find the API key?

In your blog settings, under Advanced settings → AtomPub.

Why does PostRSS need the blog domain as well as my Hatena ID?

Because one Hatena account can hold several blogs, and the ID alone does not identify which one the entries belong in.

Can entries arrive as drafts?

Yes, and it is the sensible default for the first few. The Target setting lets each item publish immediately or wait as a draft for you to review.

Will the article picture be included?

Yes, when the feed item carries one. Each entry gets the title, the text, the picture and a link back to the original.

Does this create duplicate content problems?

Publishing the same article on two domains is duplication, and search engines pick one version to rank. Every entry links back to the original, so treat the Hatena copy as distribution rather than as a page you expect to rank.

Which plan includes Hatena Blog?

The Professional plan, alongside Livedoor Blog, FC2 Blog, Qiita and Chatwork.

The bottom line

Hatena Blog is one of the easier full-post destinations to connect precisely because it uses a standard protocol: three values from your own settings, no application, no review. Start with drafts, make sure your feed carries full text and an image, and a Japanese-language blog keeps itself current. It is included from the Professional plan.