As of 2024, Japan is the fourth largest economy in the world. A nation with high consumer spending, a strong professional class, and a stable commercial environment, it’s an enticing expansion prospect for any business leader who thinks they can compete.
But not so fast! While Japan is fertile economic soil for international commerce, it’s also a distinct culture with its own traditions, sensibilities, and cultural norms.
And the Japanese language, evolved in isolation from Western tongues for most of its history, operates in dramatically different ways from English, the de facto international language of business.
We recently explored how this impacted the growing video game industry throughout the ‘80s, ‘90s, and 2000s in a two-part translation guide, but the upshot is that a growing business seeking a slice of Japanese market share faces a two-fold problem: delivering marketing and product assets in linguistically sophisticated Japanese while also reaching hearts and minds through a deep understanding of its associated culture.
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The cultural ignorance that cost Pampers a fortune
First, the good news: Japanese expansion is hardly an insurmountable prospect; a successful launch simply requires the right guidance to resonate in the country.
In a way, it’s no different than the work that preceded it. If a company is successful enough to expand internationally, it’s likely that leaders did their due diligence. They investigated the regulatory framework, completed their market research, and formulated a business strategy based on cold, hard facts. To invoke the cliche, knowledge is power. And localization knowledge makes the difference between a successful expansion and an embarrassing flop.
The problem? Japanese language and society are so nuanced that one small mistake can scuttle years of planning.
Procter & Gamble’s 1970s Pampers diapers fiasco is a cautionary business tale for a reason. According to their market research, disposable diapers should have been an easy sales pitch for stressed-out Japanese parents — until one stork spoiled it all.
Pampers 1970s advertisement portraying a stork delivering diapers was a hit with Americans, where the bird’s association with babies is common cultural shorthand. Evidently, no one checked whether Japanese parents shared the same understanding. Business leaders learned too late after running similar ads that to them, it landed as nonsense.
What’s worse, Japan does have a folklore tradition concerning baby delivery — it just happens to be a giant peach. One simple adaptational tweak could have saved the entire marketing campaign, but instead, Pampers lost their momentum, and Japanese companies seized the initiative. Armed with superior knowledge of the country’s practical realities, they were soon producing disposable diapers better suited to Japanese babies and homes. While P&G eventually achieved profitability in Japan, one ill-advised stork dealt incalculable damage.
Human insight: the antidote to human error
OK, fine, Pampers made a mistake. But that was 50 years ago. Surely modern technology has evolved to eliminate the possibility of similar unforced errors.
Or has it? While machine and AI translation can introduce new efficiencies into localization workflows, it’s no replacement for human expertise. Large language models can dazzle with their ability to replicate conversational speech, but at the end of the day, they’re still just algorithms detecting patterns and delivering results based on statistical probability.
In the Pampers predicament, it’s hard to say whether AI would have identified and flagged the cultural cul-de-sac that proved so costly. Much depends on the individual model and how it was trained and customized. But the point remains that when it comes to cultural nuance, technology is no replacement for human experience. Only people who have lived and breathed a society and its conventions can reliably push back when they see troubled waters ahead.
That’s why a professional team is still essential. When there’s so much at stake in international business, automating key localization steps is a courtship with disaster. Only human experience brings the cultural insights, linguistic sophistication, and market expertise that can make the difference between success and failure. In other words, professional localization teams are a bulwark against brand disaster. Don’t risk becoming the next Pampers; hire a professional.
