When referring to written Japanese:

• Kanji is the word for the Chinese derived characters that dominate the language.
• Kana are sound-based (syllabic) characters and are much simpler in design than Kanji.
• Modern written Japanese is a mixture of kanji and kana characters.

Japanese Translation

Due to major differences between Japan and the West in terms of traditions and cultures, there are often challenges in translating certain concepts and subjects.

When translating western company and personal names, the approximate sounds of the English names are reproduced in Japanese characters.

Japanese Typesetting

Even though Microsoft Office applications and web design programs can read Japanese fonts (double byte characters), Japanese translation is most often inserted in the design file as .eps file.

Occasionally, space issues can arise as Japanese translations often take up a little more space than the equivalent English text.

Japanese text can run either vertically or horizontally, with the latter being more common these days.

Keep your layout flexible: Japanese script should not be too small otherwise it will 'fill in', and line breaking is critical.