Why it’s important (crucial) to make your product available in Japanese

Is it crucial to have your product in Japanese? This is the question I often get from my clients. They come to me, hoping for their product’s success in Japan. They want it to be as easy as possible. I understand that. You, too, may want to make it as easy and hassle-free as possible. One of the ways to make the project economical is to skip the very first process, which is to localize/translate your product to Japanese.

But would that work really?

Conclusion: Japanese localization is crucial

Let me start with the conclusion. It’s important and crucial that you make your product fully available in Japanese. Not partially. This concept may be difficult to grasp for some of you. In Japan, users require your product to be in Japanese before they will consider using it.

It has something to do with the education of Japan. It has something to do with the education of Japan. 

I don’t blame the whole Japanese education system. But, there is an issue with how we teach English in schools. Long story short, the majority of us are not fluent in English. Many don’t bother to try to translate English text into Japanese. With the advent of AI and machine translation, it is true that we have useful tools at hand, but it does not mean that Japanese people are comfortable using them to employ products with English interfaces. The truth is there’s still the language gap.

How WordPress gained popularity

The other day, I attended a WordPress event. For those unfamiliar with WordPress, it is a simple, easy-to-use CMS. It is a tool for creating and managing your website. WordPress is extremely popular in Japan. In the event I attended, they nicely summarized how it gained popularity in Japan. I was fascinated to know that one of the key reasons was the community’s effort for its Japanese localization.

I can imagine that without such effort, WordPress would have taken a different path in Japan. In the case of WordPress, contributors helped localize every part of the open-source software. Huge kudos to the early contributors. Thanks to them, we enjoy the easy access to the blogging platform.

How do you localize your product?

Let’s return to our talk about the importance of Japanese translation for your product. What should you do to make your product available? Definitely, turning to the community is one option. You can choose to ask for their help. However, to do so, you need to position your brand carefully. WordPress gained strong community support due to its open-source nature.

What about your product? If your product is commercial vs open and public, the natural course of action is to translate your product by yourself or with the help of a professional translator. The first choice should be made only when you are fluent in the language. The second option is the most trustworthy in terms of the quality of the output.

Don’t forget also to check how to evaluate the quality of your Japanese translation. I know it can sound daunting. However, localizing your product is not a simple, one-time task. You can’t just ignore the continuous maintenance. It’s like growing a tree. You need to water it and make sure that it has enough sunlight. So, you must decide. Do it yourself or hire a professional.

What if you offer a service?

You may ask, “What if I offer a service instead of a product?”. Let’s consider a consulting service case. Maria (I have changed the name and the type of business to protect her identity) came to me. She asked me if I could help bring customers to her consulting business. She had a website. She had all the necessary pages, from About to Services and Pricing. She accepts her clients online through her simple booking system on the website.

I made and gave her a marketing proposal. The first step was translation. She seemed surprised. She asked me to skip that and “bring the customers immediately.” Well, I could bring customers from Japan. But, how could she serve them? Remember, her service is consultation. She offers a one-hour session to help organize their thoughts on a personal relationship. How can she help customers with relationship issues if she can’t communicate with them?

I know this is an extreme case, but I thought bringing this up would be a good idea. You can clearly see the point here. Whatever you offer, be it a product or service, should be easily accessible to your customers. This is the key to your business. The more friction you have in the process, the more likely they will give up and look for another solution.

You are one of the solutions they can choose from. You need to make the experience incredibly easy so they can consider you.

Starting today, forget “they will figure out how to communicate with me in English.” They won’t. Instead, they will find someone else to do business more easily. The key concept here is to remove the obstacle. Remember that many Japanese don’t speak or understand English. This language barrier is huge for them.

Translation or localization is a step to remove the roadblock for customers. Imagine you run a coffee shop. In front of it, a big tree has fallen.

Would you leave it there, hoping that customers will somehow manage to make it to your shop?