Translate a Word document into Japanese

What changes when a Word text becomes Japanese

Japanese mixes three scripts in a single sentence: kanji for content words, hiragana for grammar and katakana for foreign words and names. “Smith Ltd annual report” becomes スミス社の年次報告書: the company name in katakana, the rest in kanji and hiragana.

• No spaces between words: a line can break between almost any two characters. Justified paragraphs lose the uneven gaps you see in Western languages, and a word split across lines is perfectly normal.
• Full-width punctuation: the comma becomes 、 and the full stop 。, each taking the width of a whole character. Neither should start a line.
• Quotation marks: “ ” or « » are replaced by 「」, with 『』 for book titles or quotes within quotes.
• Length: Japanese usually needs fewer characters than English or other European languages, but every character is full width. A narrow table cell that held one line in the source may wrap onto two.

Fonts and italics: the Japanese typography trap in Word

Manuce keeps the original fonts, run by run. If your document is set in Calibri, Arial or Times New Roman, those fonts contain no kanji: Word then displays the Japanese with the East Asian font defined in the style, or with a fallback font. The result can differ from one computer to another, particularly on a recipient's machine in Japan.

• The safest option is to set a Japanese East Asian font in your styles (Normal, Heading 1 and so on), such as Yu Gothic, Meiryo or MS Mincho, before or after translation. The PDF supplied then fixes the appearance.
• Italics have no tradition in Japanese: slanted kanji are an artificial distortion and hard to read. Because Manuce preserves the original italics, replace them afterwards with 「」 or bold for emphasis.
• Bold, colours, sizes and numbering stay as in the original and carry over without trouble.

Register and Japanese conventions in business documents

A report, contract or letter for a Japanese partner is written in the polite です・ます form, with keigo (honorific language) when addressing the reader or referring to their company. The Professional level, handled by the domain specialist, aims at this ready-to-send register.

• Personal names: family name first, followed by 様 in addresses and letters (田中様). Western names are written in katakana.
• Dates: 2025年3月14日; some official Japanese documents use the imperial era (令和7年). Say so if you need it.
• Numbers: Japanese groups by ten thousands, so “1.5 million dollars” is commonly 150万ドル. The decimal separator is a point.
• Plurals: a single form (CLDR category other). “1 file” and “3 files” look the same, with a counter word instead: 3件, 3部, 3枚 depending on what is counted.

What Manuce returns, and what it does not do

Manuce translates paragraphs, tables, headers and footers, and text boxes. A merged table cell is translated and charged once only. The Japanese replaces the source text inside the same .docx: styles, numbering and table widths remain those of the original. An automatic check then compares the form of the translated document with the original and flags any discrepancy.

You receive the file in its original format, a Word version, a PDF and the plain text, all stored in your client area.

• Automatic fields: the table of contents and cross-references keep working, but their page numbers are not recalculated for you. As Japanese changes paragraph lengths, update the fields in Word once you receive the file.
• Layout: the document stays horizontal, left to right, like the original. Vertical setting (tategaki) or adding furigana are layout decisions to make afterwards.
• No sworn translation: for an official document required by a Japanese authority, you need a certified expert translator.

Preparing the file and checking the result

1. Make sure the text is real text, not a pasted image: a scanned chart will not be translated.
2. Set a Japanese East Asian font in your styles, or plan to do so on delivery.
3. Remove manual line breaks in the middle of sentences: in Japanese they cut the sentence at an arbitrary point.
4. Ask for the free sample paragraph: it shows the register you get at the chosen level before you pay.
5. On delivery, update the fields, look through narrow tables, replace italics and check in the PDF that no 。 or 、 opens a line.

In practice

1. Upload your .docx and get a quote based on the exact word count.
2. Read the free sample paragraph translated into Japanese at your chosen level.
3. Pay, then download the translated .docx, Word version, PDF and plain text.
4. In Word, update the fields and check fonts, italics and tables.