App Store Keyword Research for the Japanese Market
A single large storefront with its own script mix and its own metadata conventions
One storefront, but not one script
Japanese text mixes three scripts in ordinary use: kanji (adopted Chinese characters, dense with meaning), hiragana (a phonetic syllabary for native grammar), and katakana (a second phonetic syllabary, used heavily for loanwords and brand names). Users search across all three depending on the concept and how familiar it is.
A single concept sometimes has valid keyword candidates in more than one script — a loanword-derived term is often searched in katakana even when a native kanji equivalent exists. Testing both forms as separate candidates, rather than picking one, is standard practice for Japanese ASO.
Romanized Japanese (writing Japanese words in Latin letters) also appears in search behavior for some app categories, particularly among younger or more casual users, and is worth including as a lower-priority candidate.
Japanese App Store copy conventions differ from English defaults
Japanese app descriptions and product pages tend toward more detailed, feature-by-feature copy than the concise, benefit-led style common in US listings. This is a cultural convention, not a translation quirk, and applies to promotional text and description even though neither is indexed for search.
Politeness register matters in visible copy (subtitle, description) more than in raw keyword-field terms — formal, polite Japanese ('teineigo') is the safe default for a professional or utility app aimed at a general audience.
Character count behaves differently with Japanese text: the same 30-character subtitle limit holds far more semantic content in Japanese than in English, since single characters often carry more meaning than single Latin letters.
What a straight translation misses
Register, dialect, and script adjustments worth checking before you reuse one market's list in another.
- Test both kanji and katakana forms of a concept as separate keyword candidates where a loanword equivalent exists.
- Default to polite, formal register (teineigo) in visible subtitle and description copy.
- The 30-character subtitle limit holds proportionally more information in Japanese than in English — don't assume a direct English word-count translation fills the same space efficiently.
Frequently asked questions
- Should I target kanji or katakana keywords for a loanword-based app category?
- Score both. Categories with English-derived names (fitness, delivery, and similar borrowed-word categories) often see meaningful search volume in katakana even when a native kanji term exists, and the two forms can have different difficulty.
- Does romanized Japanese (using Latin letters) matter for keyword research?
- It carries real but generally smaller search volume than native-script terms. Worth including as a secondary candidate, particularly for apps aimed at younger or tech-forward users, but not a substitute for scoring the native-script terms first.
Other languages
- SpanishOne language, at least eight storefronts, and real vocabulary differences between themRead more
- FrenchFrance, Belgium, Switzerland, and Quebec don't share one keyword listRead more
- GermanGermany, Austria, and Switzerland share a language and not much else on difficultyRead more
- PortugueseBrazilian and European Portuguese are close in writing, far apart in usageRead more
- KoreanHangul search behavior and a market that rewards fast metadata iterationRead more
- ChineseSimplified and Traditional Chinese are different keyword sets in different storefrontsRead more
- ArabicRight-to-left text, Modern Standard Arabic, and real dialect variation across eight storefrontsRead more
- ItalianA single storefront with its own vocabulary conventions and moderate competitionRead more
- RussianCyrillic script search, and secondary Russian-speaking audiences beyond Russia itselfRead more
- TurkishA large, fast-growing single storefront with distinct vowel-harmony spelling patternsRead more
- DutchThe Netherlands and Flemish Belgium, with high English fluency complicating the keyword mixRead more
- Indonesian & MalayTwo closely related languages, two large Southeast Asian storefronts, real vocabulary drift between themRead more
- Hindi & Indian EnglishOne storefront, two languages in active use, and a fast-growing app marketRead more
- Nordic LanguagesFour small storefronts, near-universal English fluency, and four separate native languagesRead more
- PolishA large Central European storefront with moderate competition and its own case-driven grammarRead more
- VietnameseA fast-growing single storefront with tonal-diacritic spelling that search treats as meaningfulRead more
- ThaiA single storefront with its own script and no spaces between wordsRead more
- HebrewA right-to-left script, a small population, and a disproportionately active app marketRead more
- UkrainianCyrillic script, a distinct language from Russian, and a market that has shifted since 2022Read more
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