If you have opened a new business in Japan or anywhere in the world and if your target audience is Japanese then the first thing you need to do is offer your website in English as well as Japanese. There are many businesses that are running out of US and other parts of the world and are targeting the Japanese consumers. Such websites have been translated from English to Japanese in order to make them more accessible for the Japanese target audience. So how do you go about website translation into Japanese?

To make website translation into Japanese possible, you will need to approach a professional website design firm who offer the following deliverables:

• Translation of your existing website into Japanese or develop a new website that offers English and Japanese language pages so that the consumer or internet user can choose any one of them

• Identify keywords for SEO and they should be the most effective Japanese keywords so that your website remains ahead of the rat race

• Professional copywriting services with emphasis on Japanese keywords and using the appropriate tone for the Japanese audience

• Programming script customization

• Meta tags in Japanese

Alternatively, you can also add a language translation tool on your website, which can effectively translate from English or any other language to Japanese. This way those who want to read in English can do so and those who want in Japanese or any other language will also get to read through your website. There are mainly two ways of initiating website translation into Japanese:

Web-based language translation tools offered by AltaVista, Google, Babelfish, dictionary.com and WorldLingo provide a translation box where you can add the script or paragraph that you need to be translated. This is a long process and hence not good for big websites.

Alternatively, you can always integrate a translation form that will assist in website translation into Japanese and will not require your web visitor to go to any external website or page for translation of text. For effective website translation into Japanese the best option is Google as they can translate from English, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, Italian, Chinese and Korean into Japanese and vice-versa.

If you are wondering why is it important for your website to be translated into Japanese if you are trying to capture the Japanese market or the Asian market then here is something you should know. The most important factor that drives B2B business is the size of the ecommerce market in Japan. Although Japan is new to the e-commerce and internet/virtual market as compared to the US or the EU, the potential is great. Take a look at the comparative analysis below:

Source: the Next Generation Electronic Commerce Promotion Council of Japan

The US B2B market is worth 92 Trillion Yen while the Japanese B2B market is worth 140 Trillion Yen. The growth of e-commerce in Japan is 12.9% as compared to 5.7% in the US and hence this is one of the high potential markets for businesses.