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Japanese companies redesigning for international audiences need a stripped-back English-first structure with a clear hero and less information density. Foreign companies entering Japan need a site built to Japanese conventions: more trust signals, phone prominence, company details in the footer, and copy that reads as Japanese, not translated. We handle both. They are not the same project.
Your company has a strong Japanese-language site built for a domestic audience. It is dense, detailed, and trusted by Japanese visitors. You are now expanding into the US, UK, Australia, or Southeast Asia. The English version of the site, if it exists, reads like a translation rather than a conversation. International visitors do not stay. The problem is not language. It is that the site was designed for a different audience's information needs and trust signals.
Your global site was built for Western audiences. Clean hero, minimal copy, a form at the bottom. In Japan, that structure reads as thin. Japanese business buyers want company history, physical address, phone number in the header, named executives, and enough detail to verify legitimacy. Your current site fails those checks before a visitor has read a word of copy. You need a Japan-convention redesign, not a translation of your existing site.
Your site was built over a decade ago. It has been patched rather than rebuilt. Mobile performance is poor. The navigation has accumulated layers that made sense at the time but now obstruct the most important journeys. You do not need a new brand identity. You need the structure and performance of the site rebuilt properly.
When a Japanese site is built first and the English version is produced by translating the same content, the output is technically accurate but structurally wrong. International audiences navigate and process information differently. An English site that mirrors Japanese information density loses international visitors at the hero. The English site needs to be designed as a separate IA project, not a translation project.
Foreign companies entering Japan consistently underestimate how much trust infrastructure the Japanese market expects. A phone number. A registered address. Named leadership. A corporate history section. A visible company number. These are not optional enhancements. They are filtering signals. A site that omits them is filtered out before the product is evaluated.
Japan has one of the highest smartphone-only usage rates in the world. Japanese mobile users expect fast load times, large tap targets, and content that reads well on a small screen without horizontal scrolling. Many legacy Japanese sites were built for desktop and have not been properly adapted. The mobile experience is treated as a compressed version of the desktop, which is not the same thing.
Japan's Act on the Protection of Personal Information requires clear consent for data collection and explicit disclosure of data use. Many sites operating in Japan have contact forms and analytics running without proper APPI-aligned consent mechanisms. A redesign is the correct time to rebuild this architecture, not patch it.
We audit the existing site with reference to the specific brief: international expansion or Japan market entry. For international expansion briefs, the audit focuses on information density, hierarchy, and hero clarity. For Japan market entry briefs, it focuses on trust signal gaps, structural conventions, and content expectations. The audit is scenario-specific, not generic.
For Japanese-to-international redesigns, we reduce content layers and prioritise the top-of-funnel journey. For foreign-to-Japan redesigns, we add the content layers and page types that Japanese visitors expect. The IA document reflects the conventions of the target audience, not the conventions of the originating market.
Wireframes are built in the language and layout direction of the target audience. For Japan-market sites, this includes right-to-left layout planning for Japanese copy and phone/contact prominence in the header. For international sites, this includes English-first hero design with reduced information density. Design follows approved wireframes.
We build the new site, migrate content with rewrites where needed, and produce the full redirect map. For bilingual sites, we handle the structural relationship between language versions and ensure both are correctly indexed.
Every Japan-market project includes a review and rebuild of consent architecture to APPI standard. Analytics continuity is confirmed before launch. We monitor for indexing and redirect issues for 30 days post-launch.
We begin by confirming the redesign brief: Japanese company going international, or foreign company entering Japan. The audit framework is different in each case. We review the existing site, current analytics, and any available data on visitor behaviour. For international briefs, we include English-language SERP analysis. For Japan market briefs, we review Japanese search behaviour for the relevant category.
We build the IA and sitemap appropriate to the brief, present for sign-off, then move into wireframes. For Japan-market sites, wireframes are reviewed with phone placement, corporate footer structure, and content depth in mind. For international sites, wireframes are reviewed with hero clarity, CTA hierarchy, and information weight in mind.
High-fidelity designs are produced and reviewed. Build follows approved design. For bilingual sites, both language versions are built in parallel. Content is migrated and rewritten where needed. Redirect maps are built before launch.
We run QA across devices and browsers, confirm APPI consent architecture, verify analytics tracking, and launch. Both language versions are tested independently. Post-launch monitoring runs for 30 days.
They are the same structured process applied to two different briefs, with different audit frameworks, IA priorities, and design conventions. A Japanese company going international needs a different IA outcome than a foreign company entering Japan. The process — audit, IA, wireframes, design, build, launch — is the same. The decisions made at each stage are different.
Yes. For foreign-to-Japan redesigns, Japanese copy is written by native speakers as part of the project, not translated from English. We do not translate your existing English site into Japanese. We write Japanese copy designed for Japanese audiences. The English and Japanese versions are structured as separate content projects, not translations of each other.
Every Japan-market project includes a review of the existing consent and data disclosure setup. Where the current architecture does not meet APPI requirements, we rebuild it as part of the project. This includes contact forms, analytics consent, cookie disclosure, and the privacy policy. APPI compliance is not a bolt-on. It is part of the build.
Phone number in the header, visible on mobile without scrolling, is the standard expectation for Japanese business websites. Many Japanese buyers will not enquire without this signal being present. For foreign companies entering Japan, this is often the single most impactful structural change. It signals that a real business exists and can be contacted.
Yes. For Japanese companies redesigning for international markets, we can scope the project to the English-language version only, while preserving the existing Japanese site. This is a common project structure. The two versions do not need to be redesigned simultaneously.
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A Japanese company expanding internationally and a foreign company entering Japan have structurally opposite redesign briefs. Ignited Nepal has completed both. We start with an audit that identifies which structural problems need solving before any design work begins.
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