diff --git a/TTS/tts/utils/text/japanese/phonemizer.py b/TTS/tts/utils/text/japanese/phonemizer.py
index 969becfd..7f915388 100644
--- a/TTS/tts/utils/text/japanese/phonemizer.py
+++ b/TTS/tts/utils/text/japanese/phonemizer.py
@@ -4,7 +4,10 @@
 import re
 import unicodedata
 
-import MeCab
+try:
+    import MeCab
+except ImportError:
+    raise ImportError("Japanese requires mecab-python3 and unidic-lite.")
 from num2words import num2words
 
 _CONVRULES = [
diff --git a/requirements.ja.txt b/requirements.ja.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..69061d6b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/requirements.ja.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+# japanese g2p deps
+mecab-python3==1.0.6
+unidic-lite==1.0.8
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 111d1b57..90d238b7 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -32,9 +32,6 @@ coqpit>=0.0.16
 # chinese g2p deps
 jieba
 pypinyin
-# japanese g2p deps
-mecab-python3==1.0.6
-unidic-lite==1.0.8
 # gruut+supported langs
 gruut[de,es,fr]==2.2.3
 # deps for korean
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 464bbdd7..df14b41a 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -64,7 +64,9 @@ with open(os.path.join(cwd, "requirements.notebooks.txt"), "r") as f:
     requirements_notebooks = f.readlines()
 with open(os.path.join(cwd, "requirements.dev.txt"), "r") as f:
     requirements_dev = f.readlines()
-requirements_all = requirements_dev + requirements_notebooks
+with open(os.path.join(cwd, "requirements.ja.txt"), "r") as f:
+    requirements_ja = f.readlines()
+requirements_all = requirements_dev + requirements_notebooks + requirements_ja
 
 with open("README.md", "r", encoding="utf-8") as readme_file:
     README = readme_file.read()
@@ -113,6 +115,7 @@ setup(
         "all": requirements_all,
         "dev": requirements_dev,
         "notebooks": requirements_notebooks,
+        "ja": requirements_ja,
     },
     python_requires=">=3.9.0, <3.12",
     entry_points={"console_scripts": ["tts=TTS.bin.synthesize:main", "tts-server = TTS.server.server:main"]},