Localization leaves Apple behind
Japan @ Watch is the successor to Japan Apple Watch, an English-language site I created to highlight products for the Mac market here.
While I'm a longtime user of the Macintosh and remain a big fan, I've decided to expand the scope of the site to include other desktop and portable technologies as well. Since purchasing a Sony Vaio, I've discovered that Windows 2000 isn't as bad as I feared, and I've concluded that readers will be better-served by a site that covers Japanese innovations for both Macs and Windows systems as well as the handheld market.
One common point between Apple's and Microsoft's OSes: Neither is a Japanese invention. Both of these dominant desktop systems are U.S. imports, and development efforts for each remains oriented toward the American market.
That's why Japanese users (like other non-English speakers) have demanded increasingly sophisticated tools to localize Macs and Windows for their desktop environments. When these OSes were new, the main task of localization was simply allowing for language differences by translating menu items, dialogs and help topics to Japanese. Lately, however, developers have turned their efforts toward optimizing the working environment for the style and culture of Japanese users.
Here's an example: Eidos Interactive has tried to match the breakaway success of the Tomb Raider series of games in the United States with a sales push in Japan. Despite the company's best efforts, however, Lara Croft hasn't achieved nearly the same level of popularity here.
Eidos recently announced that it will collaborate with Japanese game maker Capcom to promote and distribute Tomb Raider IV in Japan this summer; company representatives said they'd enlisted Capcom to help them to understand the Japanese game market.
One clue to the cultural differences that might hamper the series' adoption here: When reporting on the Eidos-Capcom deal, a Japanese TV announcer commented, "Lara is really male-looking; she is not cute.
"Why don't they change the face if they know the characters of the other popular Japanese games? I doubt if Japanese players will like her unless they change her face."
Localization is more than simple translation. As you know, Mac OS and Windows are available in Japanese localized version, both denoted by the letter J. MacOSJ and Windows2000J are localized the conventional way, which means that English components are translated into the two-byte characters of Japanese.
Both Mac and Windows can deal with multilingual languages and have been adopted in countries around the world, but the companies' product lines have been shaped by American users, from Bill Gates and Steve Jobs on down.
Since Jobs returned to the helm of Apple, he has revived the company with a simplified product scheme focused on the iMac; in the process, he has attracted a new population of users.
As a Japanese user of Apple's portable computers, I've been disappointed by the company's product announcements. I was a big fan of PowerBooks, and I've owned PowerBook 180, a PowerBook 5300, a PowerBook 1400 and two PowerBook 2400 models. However, I didn't purchase any of the recent PowerBook G3 systems, since they were far from what I wanted.
Like many other dedicated Japanese PowerBook users, I dreamed of a new Mac subnotebook computer that would fill the void left by the 2400, a model that still maintains a hard core of adherents in this country. In fact, I started Japan Apple Watch to press Apple for another PowerBook that fit as well with the needs of Japanese users.
However, Jobs' strategy for promoting the Macintosh seems focused on providing products that will appeal to U.S. buyers first and foremost; after a couple of years of waiting, I gave up on the prospect of a new subnotebook from Apple.
My desire for a viable subnotebook systems has led me to look at other options. Since I started Japan Apple Watch, I have learned about many attractive products from Japanese computer makers.
In particular, Sony has come up with many attractive products for Japanese Windows users. The Sony Vaio computer offers striking design, solid applications, and innovative hardware features.
It also offers the localization that is lacking from Apple's offerings. The competition among Japanese PC manufacturers is acute; in order to survive in the market, each has added value with its own hardware features that are created especially for the Japanese market. These in turn have required the manufacturers to create additional applications that leverage those hardware tweaks.
The more finely tuned Windows systems are to the needs and tastes of Japanese users, the more Apple will suffer from the generalized product strategy mandated by its global headquarters in Cupertino, Calif.
Yuji Tai publishes Japan @ Watch, an English-language site that focuses on Macs and third-party products in Japan. He can be reached at ytai@kms.ac.jp