Cross-border · Multilingual · Osaka
Selling into Greater China, designed language by language.
Adding a language to an existing site starts at ¥200,000. A new cross-border store starts at ¥800,000. Japanese, Chinese, and English, with translation, hreflang, and the language switcher handled as one piece of work.
Our founder is a native Chinese speaker with hands-on cross-border e-commerce experience, and built a cross-border platform for the Chinese market — a WeChat mini-program with its admin screen. Wording is settled in-house against the product rather than sent out to a translation vendor.
Service overview
Cross-border e-commerce and multilingual sites covers everything needed to put Japanese products in front of buyers in Greater China and English-speaking markets: adding languages to an existing site, building a store with multi-currency and cross-border payment, and running it after launch.
- For
- Small and mid-sized businesses selling into Greater China or English-speaking markets, or courting inbound visitors
- Price
- Adding a language ¥200,000–400,000 per language; new cross-border store ¥800,000–2,000,000
- Lead time
- Adding a language 1–2 weeks; cross-border store 5–10 weeks
- Languages
- Japanese, Chinese, English
- Coverage
- Based in Osaka, working with clients across Japan
Problems this solves
The site exists only in Japanese, so it is awkward to send to an overseas partner. Someone ends up attaching a separately translated document every time an introduction goes out.
Languages were added by machine translation, but product names and material descriptions read oddly, so the pages never went live. Chinese is particularly exposed here: simplified versus traditional characters, and phrasing that differs by market.
There is interest in selling abroad, but no clear picture of how payment and shipping fit together. International shipping rates, currency handling, and answering buyer questions all have to be decided before anything can launch.
You want inbound bookings, but the site lists only a Japanese phone number. When the language changes, the order in which information needs to appear changes with it.
What is covered
Adding languages to an existing site means translation, hreflang configuration, and the language switcher, done together. If search engines are not told clearly which page serves which language, translated pages do not get credited — which is why we do not split translation from implementation.
A new cross-border store is built on Shopify multi-language and multi-currency, with cross-border payment and international shipping configured. Shipping cost and delivery time vary by country, so the priority is that a buyer never gets stuck near the end.
For inbound sites, the measure is whether a visitor from overseas can complete a booking or an application. Rather than translating the Japanese site line for line, we reorder it around what someone decides on before they travel.
We also run these sites after launch: product listings, translation, answering enquiries, and social channels, on a monthly basis. This is the option when there is nobody in-house who works in Chinese.
This is merchandising, not translation
When a multilingual site underperforms, the cause is usually not translation accuracy. It is that the Japanese structure was carried over intact, so the information a buyer in that market needs is simply missing.
For Greater China, delivery time and how customs duty is handled weigh heavily on the decision. Neither field exists on a domestic Japanese page, so a straight translation cannot contain them. In the other direction, a courteous Japanese preamble can read as padding once translated.
Before any translation begins, we work out what a buyer in that language actually looks at. Fields absent from the Japanese version get added; paragraphs that no longer earn their place get cut. The three languages therefore do not end up as copies of one structure.
Because our founder is a native Chinese speaker, that judgement stays in-house. Wording can be tuned to the product rather than merely checked — the difference from routing the work through a vendor.
Price and lead time
Adding a language to an existing site is ¥200,000–400,000 per language over 1–2 weeks. A new cross-border store is ¥800,000–2,000,000 over 5–10 weeks. An inbound-focused site is ¥600,000–1,500,000 over 4–8 weeks. Ongoing operations run ¥100,000–300,000 a month. All listed prices exclude tax. Figures are indicative and vary with requirements.
In a first conversation we ask which market you want to sell into, what you sell, the state of the current site, and which languages you can already handle internally. The first consultation and quote are free.
Frequently asked questions
Do you work in simplified or traditional Chinese?
Both. Simplified for mainland China, traditional for Taiwan and Hong Kong, and separate switching where both are needed. Our founder is a native Chinese speaker, so differences in phrasing between markets are handled as part of the work.
Can languages be added without rebuilding the current site?
Usually yes. We review the existing structure and how the site is updated, then add the language switcher and hreflang. If the structure itself lacks what an overseas buyer needs to decide, we will say so and propose what to add.
What do cross-border builds cost, and how long do they take?
A new cross-border store is ¥800,000–2,000,000 over 5–10 weeks. Adding languages to an existing site alone is ¥200,000–400,000 per language over 1–2 weeks. Product count, number of languages, and payment and shipping conditions all move the figure. All listed prices exclude tax.
Talk to us about selling abroad.
Even "we do not know which language to start with" is a fine place to begin. Tell us what you sell and where you want to sell it, and we will suggest an order of work. The first consultation and quote are free.