Dos and Don'ts of Bringing a Game to the Japanese Market

In 2022, the gaming market in Japan was estimated to be worth $22.35 billion. It is anticipated to reach $40.74 billion by 2032. Here are five things to consider if you want to enter this sector.  

1. Choose the right game genre

The tastes in games in Japan are specific to that market. The top 5 video genres in Japan in 2024, per Statista, were: 

• Action games
• Role-playing (RPG) 
• Action-adventure
• Simulation
• Sports

Naturally, this does not imply that if you want to release a game for the Japanese market, it has to be made in one of these genres. Still, these tendencies show you what to expect to succeed in Japan (with the right localization).

Another aspect of Japanese game tastes is that players enjoy multi-genre games. For instance, it could be an RPG, but it might also have puzzles to complete.  

2. Understand linguistic differences

Japanese has many subtleties, making it a complicated language:

• It has varying degrees of politeness and gender-neutral watashi or boku, for men, as first-person pronouns to distinguish between the sexes throughout a discourse.
• Unlike English, Japanese does not use spaces to separate words.
• If the text wrapping is not done manually and strictly according to grammar, a word could be broken up into awkward-looking, grammatically incorrect bits.
• There are also tonal differences in speech between Japanese and English. While a neutral English phrase might seem too informal in Japanese, an imperative form might be acceptable in English but overly strict in Japanese.

Tip: Reproducing a phrase's meaning and context rather than the original text's exact wording is a better translation strategy than a "literal" translation. An excellent example of a video game localized into Japanese is Ni No Kuni, where specific dialogue segments were recreated and rewritten from the English original to fit the game's generally upbeat vibe. 

3. Be aware of sensitive topics

You should think about and might decide to stay away from certain delicate subjects in Japan when playing your game, such as: 

• Violence: a gamer shouldn't act excessively violently, kill children or innocent people, or pretend to be a murderer. For instance, the PC Murder Mystery game's distribution over consoles was prohibited since the user finds himself to be the murderer in the game. 
• Drug use: in video games, it should be removed if possible.
• Religion: a game should not promote a particular religion.

You can refer to the CERO's (Computer Entertainment Rating Organization) rating for a more detailed explanation.

Tip: Verify again that the game's cultural components—if any—are Japanese, not Chinese, for instance, as this could offend or confuse gamers. Instead of combining the traditions of several Asian nations, it is preferable to customize the cultural aspects of each nation. 

4. Make no assumptions that the text is clear

There are numerous methods to translate even the most basic sentence. Give your Japanese translators context and references so that the translation accurately reflects the original meaning.

An illustration of how this might go wrong can be found in The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 game. In one of the game's sequences, a man tells the player, "And remember—no Russian." You would assume that translating just two words could not possibly go wrong. However, the Japanese translators misinterpreted the meaning, resulting in the disastrous sentence "Kill them—They are Russians" appearing in the Japanese version of the scene. 

Allow your translators to ask direct questions to ensure quality translations and avoid typical linguistic errors. Either a chat app like Slack or a localization platform with the necessary features can be used for this. 

5. Do not cut out all English text

Contrary to popular belief, localization does not usually entail translating everything. Do not eliminate English titles and words from your game; people expect and enjoy them. You can choose to keep the menu and some user messages in English. For example, the Alt key is called "Alt" in Japanese, so it seems logical to leave that phrase untranslated for Japanese gamers.

These are just five things to consider while translating a game for the Japanese market. However, it's complicated, so you might require a partner who can take care of everything. To assist with expanding the market for your product, please get in touch with us. 

Every nation has its laws and customs. Alconost provides the cultural knowledge of more than 800 native speakers of languages who translate into more than 100 languages while upholding global ISO standards and quality control procedures.