Japanese Copywriting Tips: Things to Consider Before Launching a Japanese Website (Guest Post)
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Although my services are primarily designed for small- to medium-sized Japanese companies that seek to engage global audiences, I’m often asked about what it takes to do business in the opposite direction: marketing to Japanese companies in Japanese.
To answer this question, I turned to an expert in my network, Takatomo Homma, who kindly agreed to write a guest blog post on this topic. He’s a globally experienced, bilingual B2B content creator living in Japan, and I’m confident that you’ll find his advice valuable. Read on to learn why you’ll need more than just a translated website to achieve marketing success in Japan.
Japanese Copywriting Tips: Things to Consider Before Launching a Japanese Website
By Takatomo Homma, B2B writer, Digital Digizen
So, you think your business has a good chance to succeed in Japan. You’ve already done research on the Japanese market. You have a beautiful website and all you need is a good translator who can apply the final touch.
So, you just get on a freelancer platform to find a native-Japanese translator with good reviews and place an order. Just wait for a couple of days and boom—done.
Easy, right? Well, it depends.
If you think it’s easy, just read on. Especially if you haven’t lived in Japan.
Whether you are planning to write on your own or hire a Japanese freelancer, here are the few important points to consider when you want to launch a Japanese website.
Speak Their Language
Well, it's obvious you have to write in Japanese, but there's more to it than that. It’s important that you write in an appropriate tone your target audience is used to. English can often sound casual to Japanese audiences.
Let’s say you like to write very casually on your English website. And now you simply try to translate that into Japanese.
It may end up being OK, but there’s also a good chance that your directly translated copy will sound out of place. The Japanese language is, by nature, very indirect, while English is often black and white. Overall, it’s better to have someone transcreate—someone who understands cultural context but also can think along with you as a business owner.
Between the Lines
There are reasons English easily gets lost in translation in Japan. Japanese sentence structures are unique, so when a translator just translates word for word without knowing the context, it literally gets lost in translation.
English humor or even common everyday expressions are not always translatable. For example, in Japan there is no custom to say “bless you” when someone sneezes. Let’s say there is a scene in a movie where a character uses this expression. You could translate literally, but it’s just not a phrase a Japanese person would typically use.
The opposite of this is just as true because there is no literal translation of words like itadakimasu, gochisousama, or otsukaresama in English. So, if you are outsourcing, hire someone who understands the big picture and, again, cultural context.
Be Clear About Your Target Audience
This advice holds true for copywriting in any language, but this is especially so in Japanese because the language has so much variation in politeness. There are different levels of politeness in English as well, but at least in English you don’t have to worry about which version of “I” or “you” you have to use.
There are a few different ways to say “I” in Japanese—watashi, watakushi, boku, and ore—which people use depending on the situation. Not to mention that native Japanese speakers often omit subjects when speaking. They also rarely say anata wa (are/do you?) when asking questions.
Confused yet? Can I confuse you even more?
Should you use tousha (当社), heisha (弊社) or just the name of your company when you want to say “our company” or “we?” Similarly, kisha (貴社) and onsha (御社) are used in Japanese when you want to say “your company” to show respect. Or maybe, depending on your company, you won’t even have to use this type of formal language on your website.
Takeaway
I hope these tips about copywriting in Japanese shed some light on the challenges of localizing for the Japanese market. The most important thing is that you write in an appropriate tone that your readers are used to hearing.
Also, don’t forget to keep your writing simple and crisp. When translating, there’s a tendency to include all kinds of information in an attempt to make a website seem more than what it really is.
Confuse your readers with muddled copy and your visitors will leave your site in a hurry. Don’t let poor translation ruin your chances for success in Japan.
About the Author
Takatomo Homma is a freelance B2B copywriter and translator based in Japan. He specializes in creating engaging content for companies in a variety of industries including digital marketing, language learning, and tourism. Learn more by visiting his profile on LinkedIn.