Interviewing Japanese Customers: Market Research, Polite Answers and Translation
Interviews with Japanese customers are one of the best ways to understand the Japanese market, but the answers are easy to misread. Japanese interviewees tend to be polite, avoid direct criticism and say “we’ll consider it” when they mean no. To get useful results, run the interviews in Japanese, ask about specific past experiences rather than opinions, record them with permission and have the recordings transcribed and translated with the nuance intact, not just summarised.
Why interview Japanese customers?
Surveys and analytics tell you what people do. Interviews tell you why. For a company entering Japan, they reveal what customers compare you with, which details they need before buying and which words they use for your product. See entering the Japanese market for where interviews fit in a launch.
Reading polite answers
Japanese communication often relies on context and indirect phrasing. In an interview, that means positive-sounding answers can hide real doubts.
| What you hear | Literal meaning | What it often means |
|---|---|---|
| 検討します (kentō shimasu) | “We’ll consider it.” | Polite lack of interest, unless followed by a next step. |
| ちょっと難しいですね (chotto muzukashii desu ne) | “That’s a little difficult.” | Usually a no. |
| いいと思います (ii to omoimasu) | “I think it’s good.” | Mild approval, not necessarily intent to buy. |
| 特にないです (toku ni nai desu) | “Nothing in particular.” | Possibly real, or reluctance to criticise. Ask a more specific question. |
Pauses, hesitations and qualifiers such as まあ (“well”) carry meaning too. That is why the transcript matters: a summary that says “positive about the product” can hide exactly the doubts you needed to hear.
Designing questions that work
- Ask about the past, not the future. “When did you last buy something like this, and how did you choose?” gets better answers than “Would you buy this?”
- Make criticism easier. “Was there anything that confused you?” or “If you could change one thing…” gives permission to be critical.
- Avoid yes/no questions. Polite interviewees tend to say yes.
- Interview one person at a time. In a group, people often defer to the most senior person or the general mood.
- Use a native Japanese interviewer. People speak more openly in their own language, and a native interviewer catches the cues that matter.
Consent and privacy
Ask permission before recording, explain how the recording will be used and who will see it, and store it securely. Japan has its own personal information law, and your home country may have rules too, so check what applies to your project. Many teams remove names and company details from transcripts before sharing them widely.
Transcription and translation
For research, a transcript and translation give your team the customers’ own words. A few choices to make early:
- Verbatim or clean. Verbatim keeps hesitations and fillers, useful for analysing tone. Clean verbatim removes them for easier reading. See Japanese transcription.
- Translation style. Ask for a translation that stays close to what was said, with notes where a phrase carries a nuance English loses.
- Timestamps and speakers. They make it easy to go back to the recording for important moments.
- Side-by-side format. Japanese and English in two columns lets bilingual team members check meaning.
Turning interviews into decisions
Read the translations as a team, tag recurring themes and pull out the exact words customers use. Those words are useful in your Japanese marketing and on your website. See marketing to Japanese customers and SEO for Japan.
Common questions
How many interviews do I need?
For early research, patterns often appear after around eight to twelve interviews per customer group.
Can I run the interviews in English?
Only with customers who are comfortable in English, and that is not a typical Japanese customer. For most research, run interviews in Japanese.
Should I offer a thank-you gift?
It is common to offer a gift card or similar thank-you for the interviewee’s time. Mention it when you invite people.
If you have Japanese interview recordings that need transcribing and translating, tell us how many there are, how long they run and how your team will use them. You can get in touch for a free consultation.