The species was first described (as Platymetopius hyalinus) by Herbert Osborn in 1900, from specimens taken in Washington, D.C. Since it was unlikely that a native species would have remained undetected so long, he suggested it was an introduced species brought in with exotic plants.
This was confirmed in 1931 when P. W. Oman identified Platymetopius hyalinus with P. cinctus, described by Shōnen Matsumura in 1914 and found in Hokkaido, Honshu and Kyushu.

In 1931 Elmer Darwin Ball designated P. hyalinus as the type (and, at the time, only) species of a newly differentiated genus Japananus.
Since then a further five species have been placed in this genus.
Apart from hyalinus they are all native to mainland Asia and show no tendency to major range expansions.

In North America J. hyalinus has been recorded from North Carolina in the south to Ontario in the north.
The first European records, from Austria and Romania, were published in 1961, followed by reports from Germany, the former Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia (1987), Bulgaria and Hungary (1989), France, Spain and northern Italy (1994), Slovenia (2002), Serbia and southern Russia (2003), Luxembourg (2010) and Poland (2012).
It was discovered in Australia in 1997.

The status of J. hyalinus in the United Kingdom is currently uncertain.
In 1999 two insects were found during inspections of imported Acer palmatum stock that originated from South Korea.
In August 2014 the insect seen in the taxobox above was photographed in Cambridge, where the complete breeding cycle has been observed.
The species was first described (as Platymetopius hyalinus) by Herbert Osborn in 1900, from specimens taken in Washington, D.C. Since it was unlikely that a native species would have remained undetected so long, he suggested it was an introduced species brought in with exotic plants. This was confirmed in 1931 when P. W. Oman identified Platymetopius hyalinus with P. cinctus, described by Shōnen Matsumura in 1914 and found in Hokkaido, Honshu and Kyushu.
In 1931 Elmer Darwin Ball designated P. hyalinus as the type (and, at the time, only) species of a newly differentiated genus Japananus. Since then a further five species have been placed in this genus. Apart from hyalinus they are all native to mainland Asia and show no tendency to major range expansions.
In North America J. hyalinus has been recorded from North Carolina in the south to Ontario in the north. The first European records, from Austria and Romania, were published in 1961, followed by reports from Germany, the former Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia (1987), Bulgaria and Hungary (1989), France, Spain and northern Italy (1994), Slovenia (2002), Serbia and southern Russia (2003), Luxembourg (2010) and Poland (2012). It was discovered in Australia in 1997.
The status of J. hyalinus in the United Kingdom is currently uncertain. In 1999 two insects were found during inspections of imported Acer palmatum stock that originated from South Korea. In August 2014 the insect seen in the taxobox above was photographed in Cambridge, where the complete breeding cycle has been observed.
Japananus hyalinus