The translation was written by a native-Japanese friend who was born, raised, and currently lives in Japan. (I'm sure he'll see the feedback here.) If you've got more specific feedback on the translation or copywriting, I'm sure he would appreciate it and it would help our efforts.
We'll have a direct support line in Japan soon. In the meantime if a Japanese-speaker did call the number we've got listed, we should be able to solve any problem or answer any question they have the same way we would for our English-speaking customers.
I'll take your advice about coming over there. :) I'd love a chance to meet more developers over there. I actually just missed a chance to come back over recently to visit one of our consulting clients in Yokohama because the meeting was too soon after my daughter's birth. Let me know if you can think of any events in particular that would be good to attend.
To your point about PR, though: Publishing the site in Japanese (even as a work in progress) is a part of our efforts to do PR in Japan. Launching the site enabled us to get coverage on Penn-Olson (http://www.penn-olson.com/2011/10/20/limelight/) which I'm hoping will help lead to some Japanese-language coverage as well.
Again, thanks so much for the time you took to provide the feedback!
Trust me when I say that you should take down the JP site immediately. Your friend might be "native-Japanese," but he or she is only directly translating your text from English.
The biggest part might be simply that you are not incorporated inside of Japan. It's fine to state your fondness of Japanese culture to the JP press, but if you want to get serious about Japan, get incorporated and let your Japanese 代表 ("daihyou") take care of things for you.
The worst thing you could do in Japan is release a (in your words) "Work in Progress." Keep things that are incomplete in the labs and refine them until they are ready for society to enjoy. Japanese society is all about keeping risk low for oneself, one's partners and especially the general public.
If you are really serious about Japan, feel free to drop me a line. If you really think that directly translating English to Japanese will add value to your company, you are gravely mistaken.
Remember to manage your customer's expectations. If they expect you to be a Japanese company and you are not one, you are in for a world of hurt.
I have to agree that, there is no mistake when translation became a degree in many universities all over the world. It's not something that could be mastered simply by knowing two languages (even native speaker of both)
I think for the 代表 part of things, it applies to any places in Asia, almost. You can't pretty much get around anything if you don't have a local to sort things out for you. Either partner with one or hire some for this matter.
The translation was written by a native-Japanese friend who was born, raised, and currently lives in Japan. (I'm sure he'll see the feedback here.) If you've got more specific feedback on the translation or copywriting, I'm sure he would appreciate it and it would help our efforts.
We'll have a direct support line in Japan soon. In the meantime if a Japanese-speaker did call the number we've got listed, we should be able to solve any problem or answer any question they have the same way we would for our English-speaking customers.
I'll take your advice about coming over there. :) I'd love a chance to meet more developers over there. I actually just missed a chance to come back over recently to visit one of our consulting clients in Yokohama because the meeting was too soon after my daughter's birth. Let me know if you can think of any events in particular that would be good to attend.
To your point about PR, though: Publishing the site in Japanese (even as a work in progress) is a part of our efforts to do PR in Japan. Launching the site enabled us to get coverage on Penn-Olson (http://www.penn-olson.com/2011/10/20/limelight/) which I'm hoping will help lead to some Japanese-language coverage as well.
Again, thanks so much for the time you took to provide the feedback!