Japanese Localization for Indie Games
Not just translated — culturally native. One person handles your translation, store art, UI, and cultural accuracy. All of it.
Get a Free DiagnosisThe Problem
Japanese Steam reviews are negative at nearly 20% — that's 4–8 points higher than the global average of 15.6%. Japanese players don't write reviews when they're happy. They write essays when they're not.
Hollow Knight: Silksong got 11,800 negative reviews in one language due to bad localization — tanking a 92% positive game to 39%. Team Cherry had to publicly apologize. This can happen in Japanese too.
Here's the worst part: you can't read Japanese, so you don't even know it's broken. Machine translation silently corrupts your game's personality. Your witty dialogue becomes robotic. Your store page looks amateur. Your UI overflows because Japanese text behaves differently.
Players notice. They just stop playing — or leave a review that tanks your score.
What I Do
01
EN→JP game text localization. AI-assisted for speed, human-finalized for nuance. Your jokes stay funny. Your lore stays deep.
02
Steam store page images, banners, logos — redesigned for Japanese. Not just text-swapped. Actually re-typeset with proper Japanese typography.
03
Japanese font selection from free & licensed libraries. UI layout adjustments so nothing overflows, truncates, or looks wrong.
04
Character names, customs, visual details, social norms — I review everything so your game feels authentic to Japanese players, not just translated.
About
25 years with Adobe tools. 20 years building automated publishing systems. I've built catalog production pipelines for 20+ clients using Adobe, AppleScript, and FileMaker. I know how to ship polished output at scale — print and digital.
Born and raised in Japan. I catch things a translator never would — the name that sounds weird, the sign that's grammatically correct but no Japanese person would ever write, the honorific that doesn't match the character's age.
Most translators hand you a text file. I hand you finished assets. Translation, store images, UI fixes, cultural review — one person, one invoice, no coordination overhead.
AI for speed. Human for soul. I use AI to accelerate the mechanical parts, then apply 25 years of design instinct and native judgment for the final pass. Fast turnaround, no quality compromise.
Puzzle games and RPGs are my thing. I understand game UI conventions, player expectations, and what makes dialogue feel alive. This isn't just a job — I'm your target audience.
Process
Steam link, build access, or just your store page URL. I'll take it from there.
I play your game in Japanese and send you a visual report — screenshots with annotations showing exactly what's broken and what's at risk. No cost, no obligation.
Translation, typography, UI, store art, cultural accuracy — delivered as production-ready files you can drop into your build.
Let's Talk
Send me your Steam link. I'll tell you what's broken — for free.