App Store keywords in Japan

Storefront code

JP

Research language

Japanese

App Store localizations

Japanese, English (U.S.)Default first, as listed by Apple.

Locale LocalASO writes

ja

Apple says people can search for your app using localized keywords in every country or region where the App Store supports that language (Apple). For Japan, Apple lists 2 localizations (Apple: App Store localizations):

• Japanese: listed only here among the storefronts covered here.
• English (U.S.): also listed in 1 other storefront covered here.

Each of these localizations has its own name, subtitle and 100-byte keyword field. Name and subtitle are visible to users, so keep them real text in that language. See App Store localization for keywords.

Japan is one of the few storefronts where Apple lists English (U.S.) rather than English (U.K.) as the second localization. Japanese keywords also use more bytes per character, which matters for the 100 limit.

Example: for language learning, people here type phrases like “語学学習” rather than “language learning”.

Translate the intent, not the words: find the phrase people in Japan type for the same need, then check that the top results are apps like yours. A step-by-step method is in App Store keyword research.

Your iPhone only shows the store of your Apple Account’s country. Apple’s public search data returns the top 200 apps for a term in any storefront; your rank is your app’s position in that list:

https://itunes.apple.com/search?term=%E8%AA%9E%E5%AD%A6%E5%AD%A6%E7%BF%92&country=jp&entity=software&limit=200

More on reading and tracking ranks: App Store ranking by country.

1. Add your app and your keywords.
2. Click “Localize”: LocalASO asks your AI for the Japanese phrase people in Japan type and checks it in the JP store.
3. Read rank, estimated volume and difficulty for Japan next to every other country, and track the rank daily.
4. In Optimize, get a name, subtitle and keyword field for the ja localization.