If an overseas company wants to increase awareness and promote its products and services in the Japanese market, creating a website in Japanese is definitely one of the most effective ways.
On the other hand, creating a Japanese website is not an easy task for overseas companies, and we often witness cases such as the following.
- The translation is too literal and difficult to understand for Japanese people (it could be mistaken for a fraudulent site).
- The structure, design amd contents have not been localized to Japan, making it difficult to get conversions from Japanese potential customers.
- Some of the contents remain in their language, so it’s unclear if the site is for Japanese or not.
Even if a Japanese website is created with much effort and cost, it is very difficult to achieve the objectives such as conversions under the above conditions.
In order to solve such problems, we offer a one-stop service for the creation of Japanese-language websites for overseas companies, including clarification of your target customers in the Japanese market, website structure design, and design of the lead-in line to conversions.
This article introduces the specific process of our support. Feel free to contact us if you need advice on how to start creating a Japanese-language website, or if you have any questions about our service.
Important Points to Achieve Successful Results by Creating a Japanese Website
Properly define your target customers in the Japanese market.
The target customers in Japan may differ from those in your home country (e.g., in your home country, you can sell directly to end users, but in the Japanese market, distributors may be your first customers), so accurately identify your target customers in the Japanese market and post effective content tailored to them.
Typical examples of unsuccessful website
Websites that only post direct translations of the contents, applying the exact same customer image to the Japanese market as the customers in the home country.
Designing a trustworthy design tailored to Japanese culture and consumer behavior
Adopt a design that gives customers a sense of security and enhances their trust in your product or service. Providing quality information that potential customers in Japan are looking for is the fastest way to achieve results.
Typical examples of unsuccessful website
The case of using a website design from the home country as it is. The website is designed in a way that is difficult for Japanese people to view, and the unfamiliar design makes it difficult for Japanese people to find the information they are looking for.
High-quality translation
It is very important that natural Japanese is used on the website. Many fraud sites in Japan have unnatural Japanese that looks like it was just translated by Google Translate, and Japanese people have an image that “a website with unnatural Japanese = a fraud site”.
Typical examples of unsuccessful website
Websites with unnatural Japanese that has been left to translation software. There is a high probability that the site will be recognized as a suspicious site.
Keyword optimization
Design your site to rank high for keywords that your target customers search for. Designing a site that will generate conversions at the lowest cost to your company is the most important factor in entering the Japanese market.
Typical examples of unsuccessful website
A website that fails to convert the customers you want to reach because you created it without clearly defining the keywords. We find many overseas companies waste time and money with this pattern.
Service Flow
Based on the above points, we proceed with website creation in the following flow.
#1 Hearing from the client
First, we conduct a detailed hearing with the client to accurately understand the client’s products, services, and sales strategy in addition to the purpose of creating a Japanese-language website, target customers in Japan, budget, etc.
#2 Preliminary research
Through analysis of existing sites (home country websites) and market research in Japan, we deepen our understanding of the circumstances surrounding the client.
#3 Proposal
Based on the preliminary research, we make a project proposal.
#4 Contract
If the client agrees to the proposal, a contract is signed and we proceed to the project.
#5 Project start
Start the creation based on the strategy we propose in #3.
#6 Publish your website to the Japanese market
After completion of pre-publication testing, your website will be launched in the Japanese market.
After the publication, we will conduct effectiveness analysis and improvement measures upon client’s request.
Conclusion
- When overseas companies want to increase awareness and to promote their products and services in the Japanese market, there are great advantages to creating a Japanese-language website, but there are also many difficulties involved in creating a localized website for the Japanese market for them.
- Due to the unique business practices of the Japanese language and Japanese market in particular, many Japanese-language websites without specific know-how end up failing.
- We offer a Japanese website creation service for overseas companies, and in addition to our extensive experience with clients, we provide support in English and Japanese by consultants who are well versed in marketing in a wide range of industries.
We provide extensive support for issues that overseas clients may be concerned about, such as content creation, site structure design, and high-quality translations based on Japan’s unique culture and consumer behavior.
If you are considering creating a Japanese-language website, please feel free to contact us.