Designing websites that are clear for international visitors

According to the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), the number of foreign visitors to Japan in August 2017 reached 2.478 million—a 20.9% increase compared to the same month in 2016. It was in 2015 that the number of inbound visitors from overseas first exceeded the number of outbound travelers from Japan. Since then, the number of foreign visitors has continued to rise. With the Tokyo Olympics scheduled for 2020, foreign tourism is expected to grow even more going forward.

JNTO Statistics on Foreign Visitors to Japan

So, where do these foreign visitors get their information from?
According to the "Consumption Trends of Foreign Visitors to Japan, October–December 2016 Quarterly Report" published by the Japan Tourism Agency, beyond word of mouth from acquaintances and guidebooks, much of the information is gathered online—through personal blogs, travel agency websites, and similar sources.

Japan Tourism Agency Survey on Consumption Trends of Foreign Visitors

The number of foreign residents living in Japan is also increasing year by year, so creating websites that are easy to understand for these residents is becoming increasingly important as well.

The impressions associated with specific colors vary by culture.
What image do you associate with the color "orange"? Many people probably think of brightness, energy, and vibrancy.
However, in Mexico, "orange" is a color associated with funerals. During Mexico's famous Day of the Dead, altars are decorated with abundant orange marigolds.
In Japan, the color associated with funerals is typically black, so the cultural associations differ significantly from those in Mexico.
When producing content for an international audience, it's important to consider these differences in color sensibilities and carefully evaluate whether the colors you choose will convey the appropriate impression.

The images associated with the same symbol can differ across cultures.
For example, you may often see a "?" mark used as a pictogram for "tourist information center" on guide maps.
The "?" mark is officially adopted by JIS standards as the pictogram for tourist information centers and is familiar to Japanese people. However, some foreign visitors have said that to them, this symbol looks like the "treasure mark" on a treasure map, and they didn't realize it indicated a tourist information center.

When using icons or pictograms, it's important to consider whether people from different cultural backgrounds can understand them.
To prevent misinterpretation, it's better to avoid using pictograms that could be misunderstood.

Just as the impressions of Gothic and Mincho fonts differ in Japanese, serif and sans-serif fonts in Latin script also give very different impressions.
You may feel that serif fonts have a traditional, classical image, while sans-serif fonts have a simple, modern image. However, for Japanese people whose primary language is Japanese, it can be difficult to fully grasp the specific impressions that each font conveys.
When considering whether a particular font is best suited to your design concept, it's useful to examine the contexts where the font is actually used or to seek input from non-Japanese audiences who are accustomed to Latin script fonts.

In the Latin alphabet, uppercase and lowercase letters give very different impressions.
When using English text for titles or headings, you may sometimes see entire phrases written in all capitals, but this requires careful consideration.
Generally, all-uppercase text is used in the following cases:
・Titles
・Cautionary notes
・Emphasizing specific parts within a sentence
・Proper nouns such as personal names and place names
Using all capitals unnecessarily outside these cases can give the impression of "shouting" or appearing "too assertive or exaggerated."
Additionally, long passages written entirely in capitals are harder to read and reduce overall readability. All-caps should be used appropriately, only where emphasis is genuinely needed.

When the main visual or heading text is rendered as an image, it isn't recognized as text and therefore cannot be automatically translated.
When visiting a foreign-language site, many people probably run the page through a translator if no Japanese version is available.
Of course, having properly localized multilingual pages is ideal, but supporting many different languages and maintaining high-quality foreign-language pages can be quite difficult.
In such cases, rather than recklessly creating foreign-language pages, it may be better to focus on making your pages translation-friendly.
For example, instead of creating titles and headings as images, embedding the text directly in the code allows them to be translated and helps deepen understanding. Additionally, keeping each sentence short and concise improves the accuracy of automatic translation.

The foreign visitors who view Japanese websites include not just tourists, but also foreign residents living in Japan.
For information aimed at residents—such as disaster information and information needed for daily life in Japan—"Easy Japanese" (yasashii nihongo) is often used.
"Easy Japanese" is a writing method that uses grammar and expressions at the N4 and N5 levels of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (beginner level) to convey information simply. Many municipal websites include a toggle feature for switching to "Easy Japanese" or provide pages written in "Easy Japanese."

"MATCHA," a tourism site targeting foreign visitors to Japan, allows users to select "Easy Japanese" as their language. Not only does it use simple vocabulary, but it also breaks up sentences by phrase for easier comprehension and adds furigana (reading aids) to kanji characters.

MATCHA

English is used in international communication around the world, but not everyone understands it.
When producing websites for foreign residents living in Japan, using "Easy Japanese"—within the range of vocabulary that residents commonly understand—may actually result in a site that's easier to understand than one in English.

How was that? Even though we often use the term "foreigners," each person has their own cultural background and perceives things differently.
While creating a site that's friendly to absolutely every user is challenging, the first step is to clearly define exactly who you want to reach.
On top of that, examining the design of icons and pictograms to avoid misunderstandings, and incorporating "Easy Japanese" to make the site clear even for those who don't read English or Chinese, can result in a more thoughtfully designed site. As the number of foreign visitors and foreign residents continues to grow, let's aim to build websites that accurately convey the information they need.