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Doing business with Japan

Localising Your App Store and Google Play Listing for Japan

By the Hanabuddies team · · 3 min read

To reach Japanese users, localise your App Store and Google Play listing, not just your app: a natural Japanese app name and subtitle, Japanese keywords that people actually search, screenshots with Japanese captions, and a description that answers Japanese users’ questions in detail. Japan is one of the largest app markets in the world by spending, and Japanese users tend to trust apps that look made for them. A word-for-word translation of your English listing usually misses the keywords and the tone.

What to localise

  • App name and subtitle: short fields where every character counts. Japanese packs more meaning into each character, so you can often say more than in English.
  • Keywords (App Store) and search terms in your description (Google Play).
  • Screenshots and captions: the first two or three screenshots do most of the selling.
  • Description and promotional text.
  • What’s New notes for each update.
  • Replies to reviews, in polite Japanese.

Keywords: think like a Japanese searcher

Japanese has three scripts, so the same idea can be searched in several ways: 家計簿 (household budget, in kanji), かけいぼ (in hiragana) or a katakana loanword. People also search with everyday words that a translator might not choose, and Japanese searches often don’t use spaces. Good keyword work means:

  • Researching what Japanese users really type, rather than translating your English keywords.
  • Including common variants and katakana versions of English terms where people use them. See katakana loanwords.
  • Not repeating words already in your app name, where the store allows that.

The same thinking applies to your website. See SEO for Japan.

Screenshots and design

  • Use Japanese captions written for the screen, not long translated sentences.
  • Japanese users are used to dense, information-rich screenshots. Clear benefits and features beat vague slogans.
  • Show your app running in Japanese, with Japanese dates, names and formats.
  • Check that fonts display Japanese properly and that text doesn’t overflow.

Description and tone

Japanese descriptions tend to be longer and more detailed than English ones: what the app does, who it’s for, key features in a list, pricing and subscriptions explained clearly, and how to get support. Use polite, friendly Japanese (です・ます), and avoid hype that sounds exaggerated in translation. For the app itself, see localising your product for Japan.

Reviews and support

Japanese users read reviews carefully, and a polite, prompt reply in Japanese to a complaint builds trust. Start replies with thanks or an apology, explain what you will do, and avoid casual English-style replies. See customer support for Japanese customers.

Common mistakes

  • Machine-translated listings with unnatural or wrong Japanese.
  • An app name that’s translated literally and means nothing to Japanese users. See choosing a brand name for Japan.
  • English-only screenshots on a Japanese listing.
  • Localising the listing but leaving the app, onboarding or support emails in English.

How Hanabuddies can help

We translate and localise App Store and Google Play listings into natural Japanese: app name and subtitle ideas, keyword suggestions, screenshot captions, descriptions, release notes and review replies. Native Japanese writers handle the copy, and we can localise your app’s interface text and support emails too. Send us your current listing for a quote.