Translate a user manual into Japanese

What changes when a manual is written in Japanese

Japanese readers expect a manual to follow specific writing conventions, whatever language it started in.

• Polite register: consumer manuals are written in the です・ます style. "Press the button" becomes ボタンを押してください, a polite request rather than a bare command.
• Interface labels in corner brackets: button and menu names are usually set in 「」. "Tap Settings" reads 「設定」をタップしてください.
• Safety signal words: DANGER, WARNING and CAUTION have the usual equivalents 危険, 警告 and 注意. Their hierarchy must match the source exactly.
• No plural, but counters: Japanese has a single form (one CLDR category, "other"), yet it counts with classifiers that depend on the object: 2台 for two devices, 2枚 for two sheets, 2本 for two cables.
• Full-width punctuation: comma 、 and full stop 。, with no spaces between words.

Layout, numbers and fonts: Japanese-specific pitfalls

Japanese text often takes up less width than English or French, but it is hard to read at very small sizes: complex kanji need a reasonable font size. Diagram captions and narrow table cells are the first places to check.

• Line breaks: with no spaces, Japanese can break between almost any two characters, but a line should not begin with 。, 、 or a closing bracket 」.
• Digits and Latin letters: in a modern manual, model numbers and values stay half-width (USB-C, 5 V, MX-200), which reads better than full-width versions.
• Dates: Japanese runs from year to day, 2025年3月14日 or 2025/03/14.
• Fonts: a Japanese Word document displays with the Japanese fonts installed on the reader's computer. If your styles force a Latin-only typeface, check that the characters still render properly when the file is opened.

What Manuce returns, and what it does not do

Your manual is translated by Dédale, the engine specialised in technical writing: procedures, specifications, troubleshooting and warnings. You get back the same type of file you uploaded (Word, PDF, PowerPoint, Excel, plain text, Markdown, HTML, RTF or CSV), with its layout intact: headings, numbered steps, specification tables. A typical manual is translated within minutes and stays available in your client area.

Limits worth knowing:

• Scanned PDFs: a manual scanned as images, with no selectable text, cannot be read. Start from the source file or a PDF exported from your word processor.
• Screenshots: these are images; the labels they show are not part of the file's text.
• Terminology: Manuce does not take glossaries or translation memories. If a product or feature name must stay in Latin script, check it in the free sample and again in the delivered translation.
• Certified translation: Manuce does not produce sworn or certified translations. If an authority requires one, you will need a sworn translator.

Japanese carries a surcharge: a ×1.6 coefficient applies to the per-word rate, already included in the quote you see.

Preparing the manual and checking the Japanese version

A little preparation saves most of the corrections.

1. Use the source file rather than a printed and rescanned PDF: Word or an exported PDF keeps the text readable and the layout intact.
2. Keep instructions as text: a step written in a text box can be translated; a step baked into an image cannot.
3. Match the manual to the real interface: if the device already shows its menus in Japanese, readers will look for 設定 on screen, not "Settings". Note any mismatch between manual labels and on-screen labels.
4. Have a Japanese speaker review the safety pages and the troubleshooting table before printing: that is where the difference between 警告 and 注意 matters most.
5. Check tables and captions when you open the file: column widths, line breaks, font size.

For a manual handed to customers, the Professional level is the "ready to pass on" option; Essential is enough to understand a manual you have received for internal use.

In practice

1. Export the manual as Word or a text-based PDF, not a scan.
2. Upload the file and choose Japanese: the quote appears straight away.
3. Read the free translated paragraph, especially product names.
4. Pay, then download the Japanese manual in its original format.
5. Have the safety pages and tables checked before release.