On this page
- Who actually needs a bilingual website in Japan?
- English only, Japanese only or both? A quick decision table
- How should a bilingual website be built so Google shows both languages?
- 1. Give each language its own URL
- 2. Link the pairs with hreflang
- 3. Add a visible language switch
- Why isn't an auto-translate widget good enough?
- What needs localising besides the words?
- What are the most common mistakes on bilingual websites?
- Questions people ask
- Does a bilingual website hurt SEO?
- Do I need to translate every page?
- How much more does a bilingual website cost?
- Can I start in one language and add the other later?
A lot of business owners in Japan ask me the same thing: "Do I need an English website, or is Japanese enough?" Overseas owners ask the mirror question about Japanese. Building a second language costs time and money, so it's a fair thing to ask.
The short answer: you need a bilingual website if a real share of your customers search, read or book in the other language. If they don't, one language done well beats two done badly. And if you do go bilingual, how you build it matters as much as the translation.
I'm a web designer and developer based in Japan, and I build English and Japanese websites for restaurants and small businesses here. My own site runs in both languages, so the advice below is what I actually do, not theory.
In short
- Go bilingual when your customers search or book in both languages: tourists, foreign residents, overseas buyers, or Japanese customers of a foreign-run business.
- Give each language its own URL and link the pairs with hreflang, as Google recommends.
- Put a visible language switch on every page, and don't redirect people by browser language.
- Use real translation, not an auto-translate widget, and localise addresses, phone numbers, payment and opening hours.
Who actually needs a bilingual website in Japan?
Three kinds of business come to me most often.
Businesses in Japan serving foreign residents and tourists. Japan had 4,125,395 foreign residents at the end of 2025, a record, according to the Immigration Services Agency (reported by nippon.com). JNTO counted 42,683,600 international visitors in 2025, also a record. If you run a restaurant near a station, a clinic, a salon, a hotel or a tour business, a good share of those people are searching for you in English.
Overseas businesses targeting Japan. Japanese customers generally expect to read about a product or service in Japanese before they buy or get in touch. An English site with a contact form often isn't enough to win their trust.
Foreign-run businesses in Japan. Many restaurants, shops and agencies here are run by people from abroad, and their customers are mostly Japanese. The owner thinks in English, but the site has to work in Japanese. Often the owner needs the admin side in English too.
Two of my restaurant clients show the pattern. Taj runs Indian restaurants in Nikko, Kawaguchiko and Okinawa, all tourist areas, so I built full English and Japanese versions with bookings in both languages, plus a booking form for travel agencies sending tour buses. Urban Tadka, near Tama Plaza station in Yokohama, has a website in English and Japanese and a bilingual admin panel for staff.
English only, Japanese only or both? A quick decision table
Start from who your customers are, not from what feels international. This is the table I walk clients through.
| Your customers | What you need | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Mostly Japanese locals, few foreign visitors | Japanese only | One language done well. Add English later if tourists start finding you. |
| Tourists and foreign residents, few Japanese locals | English first, Japanese for the basics | Visitors book in English, but hotels, tour agencies and Japanese partners still check your Japanese pages. |
| A mix of Japanese locals and foreign customers | Both, in full | Each group needs the same menu, prices, hours and booking. |
| Overseas buyers, you're selling into Japan | Both, with Japanese written for Japan | Japanese customers expect native-quality Japanese and local details. |
| Foreign-run business, mostly Japanese customers | Japanese for customers, English where you work | The public site must read naturally in Japanese, while you manage it in English. |
| Only overseas customers, none in Japan | English only | A Japanese version wouldn't be read by anyone you sell to. |
If you're unsure, check where your calls, bookings and messages come from now. That's the real answer.
How should a bilingual website be built so Google shows both languages?
This is where most bilingual sites go wrong. The translation can be perfect and still never show up in search, because Google can't find it. Google's own guidance on multi-regional and multilingual sites is clear on the basics.
1. Give each language its own URL
Google recommends "using different URLs for each language version of a page rather than using cookies or browser settings." If English and Japanese share one URL and a button swaps the text, Google sees one language only.
Google lists a few options: a country domain, a subdomain like jp.example.com, or a subfolder like example.com/jp/. It says URL parameters such as ?lang=ja are not recommended. I use subfolders: on my own site, English pages live at / and Japanese pages at /jp. Taj works the same way.
2. Link the pairs with hreflang
Hreflang is a small tag in the page's head that tells Google "this page also exists in Japanese, here." Google's localized versions guide says each version "must list itself as well as all other language versions," and if two pages don't point to each other, "the tags will be ignored." It also describes x-default, the fallback for searchers whose language doesn't match.
On my site, every page with a Japanese twin gets three tags automatically: hreflang="en", hreflang="ja" and x-default pointing to English. Pages that haven't been translated yet simply don't exist under /jp. They return a 404, so search engines never find English text at a Japanese URL.
3. Add a visible language switch
Put a language switch on every page, in the same place, labelled in each language: "English" and "日本語", not flags. Google suggests "adding hyperlinks to other language versions of a page" so people can choose.
The switch should take you to the same page in the other language, not back to the homepage. On Taj, switching language keeps you on the same page, with the same menu filters and scroll position.
What you shouldn't do is redirect people automatically. Google says to "avoid automatically redirecting users from one language version of a site to a different language version." A Japanese person on an English phone, or a tourist on a hotel computer, gets stuck in the wrong language.
Why isn't an auto-translate widget good enough?
Auto-translate widgets look like a cheap shortcut, but they cause three problems.
- Search can't see it. The translation happens in the visitor's browser, so there's no Japanese page at its own URL for Google to index. Google says it uses "the visible content of your page to determine its language."
- The quality shows. Machine translation between English and Japanese often gets tone, politeness and menu names wrong. Japanese customers notice quickly, and it reads like a business that doesn't care.
- The best-known option isn't open to most businesses. Google's 2020 announcement on its Website Translator limited it to "government, non-profit, and/or non-commercial websites" and pointed everyone else to its paid Cloud Translation API.
Machine translation is fine as a first draft. A fluent person then needs to rewrite it for the reader, not just correct it.
What needs localising besides the words?
A translated page that keeps the other country's formats still feels foreign. These are the details I check on every bilingual build.
- Addresses. Japanese addresses run from postcode and prefecture down to the building. In English, write them in the order foreigners expect, and keep the Japanese version too, for taxi drivers and maps.
- Phone numbers. Locals dial 045-xxx-xxxx. Overseas visitors need +81 45-xxx-xxxx, with the first 0 dropped. Make the number tap-to-call in both.
- Forms. Japanese keyboards often type full-width digits. On Taj, phone numbers typed in full-width digits are converted before saving, so no booking fails because of the input method.
- Payment. List what people actually use. Urban Tadka takes card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPay and cash, and it's worth spelling that out for visitors who don't know PayPay.
- Opening hours and holidays. Explain last order times and regular closing days in plain English. Tourists don't know a Japanese public holiday is coming.
- Dates, prices and names. Use yen with the right format for each language, and decide which order names go in.
What are the most common mistakes on bilingual websites?
- One URL for both languages, with a button that swaps the text. Only one language gets indexed.
- Hreflang on one side only. If the Japanese page doesn't point back to the English one, Google ignores both.
- Translating the menu bar but not the content. Google warns that translating only the boilerplate "can create a bad user experience."
- Redirecting by browser language, so people can't reach the version they want.
- Letting one language fall behind. New prices or hours go up in Japanese, and the English page shows last year's. Update both together, or keep fewer pages in the second language.
- Flags as the switch. English isn't one country, and a flag doesn't tell a foreign resident in Japan where to tap.
Questions people ask
Does a bilingual website hurt SEO?
Not if it's built properly. Separate URLs with hreflang is exactly the setup Google describes for this, and each version can rank in its own language.
Do I need to translate every page?
No. Translate the pages each group actually uses: home, menu or services, prices, access and booking or contact. Leave the rest in one language and don't link it as if it were translated.
How much more does a bilingual website cost?
Most of the extra cost is writing and checking the second language, not the code. I give a fixed quote in writing before work starts, so you know the price for both languages up front. You can get a rough figure with the website cost estimator.
Can I start in one language and add the other later?
Yes, if the site is built with language URLs from the start. Adding /jp or /en pages later is simple. Retrofitting a site that was built for one language usually means rebuilding the structure.
If your customers speak both languages and you want a site that works properly in each, see my simple business websites in Japan, or tell me about your business.