UI/UX Design in Japan — The cultural differences and how they affect UI/UX Design

Photo by Aditya Rao on Unsplash

I moved from Japan to the UK in 2020 and have worked in both countries as a designer in UI/UX. Recently, I realised that design tendencies differ between Japan and Western countries. Such differences can be affected by cultural aspects. As a person who has spent much time in Japan, I have struggled with adapting to Western culture since then. These struggles are not only from the language point of view but on the difference of ways of thinking. On the flip side, it is not hard to imagine many Westerners struggling with how their UI/UX strategies fit into Japan’s market. In this article, I will examine Japanese cultural uniqueness and how they affect UI/UX Design in Japan. Then by doing so, I hope it could be helpful in how you can apply your digital strategies to the Japanese market.

Cultural Uniqueness in Japan

So, how do you imagine Japan’s cultural uniqueness? You might answer manufacturing companies like Toyota and Sony. Great! That’s true. Due to the long-term recession, its economic power declined, but the country still has the third-largest economy in the world. This economic power has been supported by people’s attitudes to make existing things more valuable.

Or perhaps you’re thinking about our famous Tea Ceremonies? Yes, of course! It represents Japan’s spirituality based on the sense of ‘Zen’. It is held only in limited situations, but it is still a symbol of Japanese beauty.

Such cultural uniqueness can be summarised as the following six points.

1. Language

Firstly, the Japanese language is unique in terms of being mainly used only in Japan. Particularly, written Japanese that has the following characteristics creates unique and complicated typographical landscapes;

• It consists of imported characters like Kanji (Chinese characters), the alphabet and Arabic numerals, and Kana (Katakana and Hiragana), simplifying Kanji aligning with spoken Japanese.
• It can be written both horizontally and vertically.

Figure 1: Written Japanese

2. Complexity

The second point is that landscapes in Japan look dense and complicated, particularly in urban areas like Tokyo and Osaka. You can see a lot of colourful signs on small shops and restaurants that are located vertically on buildings. This complexity also comes from the language situation. As I mentioned above, written Japanese consists of different characters. Moreover, other languages like Chinese, Korean and English are often written together for foreigners. Such typographical combinations make the space even more complex.

3. Simplicity

The third is the opposite of the previous one: many Japanese consider simplicity special. The concept is mainly seen in art and literature such as Tea Ceremony, ‘Haiku’ Poems and ‘Ikebana’ (Flower Art); which are based on the sense of ‘Zen’ and traditional perspectives on nature. Although it is not often seen in ordinary daily life, and many modern and busy Japanese people cannot afford to achieve it, they recognise the importance of simplicity for a more qualified life.

4. Omotenashi

‘Omotenashi’ is a Japanese word that means a sense of hospitality or welcoming guests when inviting them to home or tea ceremonies. It expands to service providers like restaurants and hotels as a foundational attitude to provide more qualified services. By supporting customers kindly with their ‘Omotenashi’ minds, they aim to make customers feel satisfied and comfortable.

5. Kaizen / Kufu

Japanese companies like Sony, Toyota and Honda have created innovations in the manufacturing industry. They have strengths in modifying existing things to make them more valuable called ‘Kaizen’ and/or ‘Kufu’ rather than creating entirely new ones. (‘Kaizen’ is the iterating process widely known to improve their products at Toyota.) The power of Japanese manufacturers is decreasing these days, but these ideas can still effectively improve things. In the digital field, a telecommunication company, NTT Docomo, created Emoji, which expands Unicode to express emotions in the limited mobile device, now spread worldwide.

6. Gods (Spirits) Everywhere

As the Japanese have been affected by natural disasters such as earthquakes and typhoons, they have believed in the gods or spirits around them. Every natural thing can be a god for them. Such existences have been expressed as horrible, but sometimes humorous and cute (‘kawaii’). It is widely said that characters in mangas and games, like My Neighbour Totoro, Pokémon and Hello Kitty, come from such traditions. Also, in business, people use characters to humanise their services and products to make them closer to users.

UI/UX Design cases in Japan

As described, Japanese culture and tradition have affected the current Japanese business world. You also can see such tendencies in UI/UX Design. In this section, I will share three different types of design use cases and explain how they are influenced by Japanese cultural background.

Case 01: Rakuten Travel

Rakuten Travel is a company that offers one of Japan’s most dominant online services to book hotels and tickets, like Booking.com. The company is part of the Rakuten group that offers various online services and originally started as an e-commerce service.

Figure 2: The screenshots of Rakuten Travel homepages (Left: Japanese version, Right: English version)

Overall, it looks conventional and outdated, but service providers are worried about confusing users and their complaints due to the radical change in the services. Consistency is more important. Interestingly, they use different UI Designs by language. While the English version suggests only one search option, the Japanese one initially provides as many search options as possible, and visitors can choose their preferred one. These differences are mainly due to the differences in ways that we communicate. Japanese tend to think informative and functional are more supportive and trustworthy than simplified. Many different styles of ad banners on their homepage are hard to control the visual design but are distinctive. The details are more vital for them, like gods are everywhere. Banners can be placed s in a portrait orientation which gives the design more flexibility due to being able to write Japanese vertically; giving designs more flexibility.

Figure 3: The elements on the Japanese homepage

Figure 4: The elements on the English homepage

Figure 5: The comparison of the search procedures between Japanese and English versions

Case 02: PASMO

PASMO is a contactless electric payment service that started as a travel payment card service in Tokyo, like Oyster Card in London. This website provides an overview of the service and how to use its cards.

Figure 6: The screenshot of PASMO homepage

Japanese designers are becoming more likely to use simpler and clearer visual design styles. Many customers have accepted this tendency as they understand the necessity to adapt to multiple devices (e.g. Mobile First). On this website, a cute robot is used to navigate the service. Even if the design is simple, people tend to feel more friendly and can empathise with the service by doing so. As their main visuals, Japanese websites often use carousel advertisements. It’s due to balancing the company’s internal politics and providing as much information as possible in a smaller space.

Figure 7: The elements of PASMO homepage

Case 03: FIL

FIL is a product brand of furniture and other interior products using local wood materials in Oguni Town, located in South West Japan. On the website, they promote and sell their products.

Figure 8: The screenshots of FIL homepage (Left) and the product page (Right)

This case is an example of using Western visual design styles. Japanese are curious about such styles that are simpler and have more white space. However, this case is radical and challenging as many Japanese might feel less supportive and secure about less information. As previously described, the Japanese can consider simplicity as special, so this direction can be effective for luxury products and services. This is a successful example that builds their unique differentiation from competitors. Its strong concept and brand positioning are necessary to succeed even in Japan. (Another successful example in this direction is MUJI.)

In Conclusion

In today’s fast-paced world, the situation is changing even in Japan, but UI/UX Design in Japan is still affected by the traditions and cultural uniqueness to much extent. The tendencies could be summarised as the followings;

1. Being complex is not negative among the Japanese. They can feel more trustable and comfortable when they visit a digital service or product with plenty of information and functions.
2. Providing as many options and functions as possible can be more effective for the Japanese than fewer but more recommended ones. It is based on Japanese ways of communicating.
3. Banners are often used on digital services and products in Japan because putting banners is thought to be the best solution for putting a lot of information in limited spaces. However, it can cause information overload and confusion in use.
4. A simplified and clear visual style can be effective even in Japan in building strong branding and structuring for multi-device use. However, the service should be reliable and supportive at the same time. (The writing style or using navigators or characters can complement this point.)

Even if your design does not match the Japanese market yet when you want to approach the country, do not worry. I believe the more important thing is to keep modifying your original one to adapt to the market by understanding these cultural tendencies and involving the residents. It is not easy and might need more time, but Japanese people should support you as they are curious about Western culture and are keen to continually improve.