- Translation makes your words correct; localisation makes your message land
- Japanese forces choices English doesn't: politeness level, script, and who is speaking to whom
- Brand names, taglines, humour and bold claims are where direct translation fails most often
- Machine translation is a good first draft and a poor final one — budget for native review by someone who knows the market
Translation vs localisation
| Translation | Localisation | |
|---|---|---|
| Question it answers | “Is this correct Japanese?” | “Will a Japanese customer trust this and act on it?” |
| Scope | Words | Words, tone, structure, imagery, names, units, prices, legal wording, support |
| Who does it | A translator | A translator, a native copywriter and someone who knows the market |
| Measured by | Accuracy | Conversion, recall, and the absence of awkward moments |
Most Western brands budget for translation and discover they needed localisation after launch — when the Japanese site is live, the campaign is running, and something feels off that nobody on the team can read well enough to name.
Five places English-to-Japanese goes wrong
1. Politeness is not optional
Japanese grammar forces you to decide how formal you are being, and who is higher in the relationship. English “you can return your order within 30 days” has several possible Japanese versions, from plainly neutral to highly deferential (keigo). Choose too casual and a premium brand sounds cheap; choose too stiff and a lifestyle brand sounds like a bank. This is a brand decision, not a translation decision, and it needs to be consistent across the site, packaging, emails and customer service.
2. “You” mostly disappears
Western copy leans heavily on the second person — “you deserve”, “your skin”, “made for you”. Japanese copy often drops the subject entirely, or speaks from the brand's side (“we would be delighted if…”). Translating every “you” literally produces copy that feels pushy or oddly intimate.
3. Bold claims read differently
American-style superlatives — “the best”, “revolutionary”, “game-changing” — can sound empty or even suspicious to Japanese readers, who tend to trust specifics: how it is made, how long it lasts, who uses it, what testing was done. In some categories (cosmetics, health foods, supplements) Japanese law also strictly limits what can be claimed, so literal translations of Western claims can be non-compliant.
4. Humour and wordplay rarely survive
British understatement and irony are part of many UK brands' personalities. In Japanese they can simply read as confusing. Japanese has its own rich tradition of wordplay (dajare), but it has to be written natively, not converted.
5. Length and layout break
Japanese text is often shorter in characters but needs different line breaks, and cannot be broken in arbitrary places. Buttons, banners and mobile layouts designed around English frequently break. Fonts matter too: Japanese web fonts are large files, and poorly chosen system fallbacks make a site look dated.
Names, taglines and katakana
Your brand and product names will be written or spoken in katakana by customers, press and search engines, whether or not you choose an official version. Decide it deliberately:
- How is it pronounced in Japanese? Sounds such as “th”, “v”, and “l/r” shift; long names become abbreviated. Many foreign brands are known in Japan by a four-syllable nickname.
- Does it resemble anything? Check the katakana reading against Japanese words, slang and existing brands.
- Keep or translate the tagline? Many global brands keep an English tagline for style and add a Japanese line that explains. Japanese consumers are comfortable with English as design — less so with English as information.
Beyond the words
- Dates, units and currency: year–month–day order, metric units, tax-inclusive yen pricing.
- Addresses and forms: Japanese addresses run from postcode and prefecture down; forms usually ask for name in kanji and its reading in katakana.
- Imagery: stock photography of Western homes and faces signals “imported”. Sometimes that is the point; often it is not.
- Payment and support: localisation includes offering the payment methods and support hours Japanese customers expect — see Japan payment methods.
How to run a Japanese localisation project
- Write a Japanese voice guidePoliteness level, how you refer to the customer, words you use and avoid, how your brand name is written.
- Adapt the message before translatingDecide what Japanese customers need to hear, in what order. Cut what doesn't travel.
- Use machine translation for drafts, humans for decisionsA native copywriter should own every customer-facing line.
- Localise keywords separatelySearch terms are research, not translation — see Japan SEO.
- Review in contextCheck copy on the real page, on a phone, with Japanese fonts. Many problems only appear there.
- Test with real Japanese customersA small survey or group discussion on names, taglines and key visuals costs little compared with a relaunch.
Why it matters more in Japan
Japanese consumers are unusually literate about detail. When I led the Japan market for a global furniture brand, the thing I saw most clearly was this: Japanese audiences notice instantly when a global message has simply been translated rather than considered. They rarely complain. They just don't buy. Localisation is how you make sure they never have that feeling.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Japanese translation and localisation?
Translation converts text from English into correct Japanese. Localisation adapts the whole message — tone, politeness, structure, imagery, names, units, pricing and legal wording — so that it feels as if it was created for Japanese customers in the first place.
Is machine translation good enough for Japanese?
For internal documents and first drafts, modern machine translation is very useful. For customer-facing copy, it often produces Japanese that is grammatically acceptable but unnatural in tone or politeness. Japanese readers notice immediately, and it affects trust. Always have customer-facing Japanese reviewed by a native speaker with marketing experience.
Should my brand name be written in katakana?
Usually you keep the Latin-alphabet logo and also decide an official katakana reading, because Japanese customers, media and search will use one. The key is to choose it deliberately — and check how it sounds and what it might accidentally resemble — rather than let the market decide for you.