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My clients often ask me to “translate” Japanese press releases into English. Or even worse, to “native check” a press release that was translated through a non-native speaker or ChatGPT.
These requests hide a larger task for me – I’m not just translating words, I’m translating context, tone, nuance, structure, reader expectations, and more.
So, when I’ve had my coffee, I explain in my most polite Japanese, “I’m sorry, I cannot accommodate your request, but I’ll be happy to retranslate your press release for you.”
Straight translation is a mistake, whether Japanese-to-English or vice versa, because it gives the reader a feeling of 違和感 (iwakan, a “feeling of unease” [a great word with no direct English equivalent]). Word-for-word (and symbol-for-symbol) translation may keep your valuable news from getting the attention you want it to get, and among the audience you’re trying to reach.
Let’s look at some key aspects side-by-side. I used PR Newswire for Global/English and PR TIMES for Japanese/Japan, as both are leading services and are frontline options here at Ellerton.
🌎 English releases normally open with a brief and attractive headline/title that hooks, with an AP‑style dateline, and follow the inverted pyramid. Editors want the 5W1H (who-what-when-where-why-how) in the first paragraphs, then supporting detail or maybe a quote, then the boilerplate and a working media contact. It should be detail-packed but concise, and flow nicely. Use plain English, because English is the global language and many/most of your readers may be ESL/EFL.
🇯🇵 Japanese is easier because you know the readers are Japanese, and their expectations are common, they’re all super-literate, and the consumption process is embedded. Japanese release titles can be quite long and contain multiple information points and symbols. They pack in information and use symbols. They still front‑load 5W1H, then move into short sections with a pretty simple narrative arc: outcome first, brief background, what changed/what’s new, and what happens next. You may see a bigger variety of images and (if online) video. Business releases have your stock “exec looking like an exec” photo.
Context, folks – very high context in Japan. This is the situation; therefore, you should know what’s going on without anyone saying it. Let’s look at some examples. I chose these because they have some common traits and clear differences, and also to illustrate how sweeping rules cannot be applied universally.
Guidance from PR Newswire favors a one‑page body – roughly 400–600 words with short paragraphs. Japanese writers keep the title and the lead paragraph compact and let the body run longer with section heads and images. PR TIMES, the king of Japanese press releases, separates title and subtitle fields, which encourages a fact-filled top and a reinforcing body to follow.
English headlines usually run in sentence case and avoid stacked clauses. The dateline appears at the start of the first paragraph, not in the headline. Subheads, when used, sit as a second line or become the first sentence of the lead.
PR TIMES uses separate title and subtitle fields. The title conveys the core message, be it concisely or elaborately. The subtitle adds one clear detail – timing, scope, or a qualifier. This split helps the page display cleanly on desktop and mobile.
Both languages use attributed quotes to add new information and a human presense. Quotes that just restate the headline are a waste of space. These points are especially true when I write scientific press releases. As the writer, I lay out the context and findings, while the quotes add scientific expertise and the researchers’ views on the study’s ramifications.
These two are the baselines, the standard, for press releases globally and in Japan, respectively.
Other common platforms
Different marks shape the tone, scanning, and, in my opinion, the credibility. If you see an English press release pull of brackets, squigglies, and exclamation points, you’re likely looking at a machine translation or an unskilled translator’s work.
English releases rely on curly quotation marks (inverted commas for UK English), a restrained approach to exclamation points, and an en-dash for ranges.
Japanese releases often use corner brackets for titles or quoted phrases, wave marks (midline tildes) for ranges, and a more liberal exclamation point in consumer‑facing headlines. Japanese characters are also standardly in 全角（zenkaku, or full-width), which changes visual weight because these characters are designed to fit in boxes, not to conserve or balance the white space.
If you ignore these patterns when you shift languages, you risk a headline and body text that look noisy in English or too muted in Japanese. Another 違和感・iwakan.
You can draw comparisons from the examples in the sections above.
Ellerton & Co. creates impactful press releases in English, and our local staff also make impactful and fully localized releases in other languages – including Japanese.
Direct translation isn’t the way to go, but your source-language press releases are invaluable references and can serve as a great foundation. As for me, I specialize in writing scientific press releases (like robot android children and frog-inspired neural networks) and localizing all types of press releases from Japanese to English.
If you’re looking for truly local press coverage in Asia or global press coverage starting from your locale, contact us today.
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Dr. Adam Goulston is Ellerton’s Strategic Advisor for Japan and the owner of MacroLingo, an Osaka, Japan-based content and business consultancy.
Delivering the impact that propels our clients’ businesses forward across multiple platforms and geographies.
