Translate a CSV String Table into Japanese

What Japanese changes in a string table

Japanese mixes three scripts (kanji, hiragana and katakana), puts no spaces between words and uses full-width punctuation: the comma becomes 、 and the full stop becomes 。. In a CSV this is mostly good news, as 、 is not the delimiter and cannot break your columns. Values that were quoted in the source stay quoted, because quoting is preserved.

• Plurals: a single CLDR category, other. Both “{count} file” and “{count} files” become {count}件のファイル. If your table has files_one and files_other keys, expect identical or near-identical Japanese values.
• Counters: Japanese counts with suffixes (件, 個, 人, 回), so “3 attempts left” becomes 残り3回.
• Word order: the verb comes last, so placeholders move: “Welcome, {name}” becomes {name}さん、ようこそ.
• Register: polite です／ます forms for messages, short noun forms for buttons: “Save” becomes 保存, “Cancel” becomes キャンセル.
• Loanwords: written in full-width katakana (ログイン), not half-width katakana (ﾛｸﾞｲﾝ), which is best avoided in a modern interface.

Length, fonts and line breaks

Counted in characters, Japanese is often shorter than English or other European source languages: “Settings” (8 characters) becomes 設定 (2). Each character, however, is full-width and roughly square, so the rendered width shrinks far less than the character count. A length limit written as a character count in your context column does not carry over directly.

• The font used by your labels must include Japanese glyphs, or the game will show empty boxes. Plan a CJK font or a fallback font.
• With no spaces, automatic wrapping breaks between any two characters. Check that 。、 and small kana such as っ or ャ do not start a line (the kinsoku rule).
• Long katakana runs such as アカウントセキュリティ can overflow a narrow button: test those strings first.

A comment or context column is used as context for the translation. Writing “button, very short” or “menu title” there helps choose between 保存 and 保存する, or between a noun heading and a polite sentence.

What Manuce returns, and what it does not do

Manuce reads a developer-style CSV: one key column (key, id…) and language columns (en, fr, de_DE…), as used in Unity or Godot. If the Japanese column exists, it is filled; otherwise it is added as the last column. You get the same file back: key order, quoting, comments, line endings, encoding and BOM are preserved; only the values change.

• Each translated value is compared with its source. If {name}, %d or <b> is missing or altered and the mismatch persists, the source value is kept and the report says so.
• Left untranslated: keys, empty values, URLs, email addresses, numbers, colours (#FF8800), date formats (YYYY/MM/DD), identifiers and anything marked as non-translatable.
• The report lists translated strings and those left as they were, with the reason.

What Manuce does not do: it does not test rendering in your game or app, pick a font or adjust line breaking. A CSV without a key column is not treated as a language file; it is translated as plain text. Pricing counts the words in the values only, keys and tags excluded, with a ×1.6 language coefficient for Japanese.

Preparing the file and checking the result

• Encoding: Manuce keeps the original encoding. A CSV saved as Latin-1 or Windows-1252 cannot hold Japanese characters, so save it as UTF-8 before uploading.
• Excel: a UTF-8 CSV without a BOM may look garbled in Excel on Windows even though the file is fine. Check it in a text editor and avoid re-saving it from Excel, which can change the encoding or quoting.
• Header: if your engine expects ja_JP rather than ja, add the empty column under that name yourself before uploading.
• Terms to keep: game title, character names, brand names: check the free sample, then the delivered translation.
• After delivery: read the report, look for values still in the source language, then test the busiest screens and every message containing placeholders.

For a game or app released in Japan, the Professional level aims at text ready to ship; Essential is enough for an internal test build.

In practice

1. Save the CSV as UTF-8 and check the key column (and the ja column if you need a specific header).
2. Upload the file, choose Japanese and a level: the quote appears straight away.
3. Read the free sample, paying attention to names and strings with placeholders.
4. After payment, download the translated file and the report from your client area.
5. Put the CSV back into the project and test rendering: font, line wrapping, narrow buttons.