create html pages in japanese language

[lokikit webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

a client wants me to create a stripped down version of his website for submission to the japanese search engines. he will write the text and get a translator to translate it into japanese. he then wants me to create and submit the page (if it were in english you 'might' call it a doorway page) to the japanese search engines.

is this as simple as copying and pasting the japanese text (kunji?) into a template and adding a language meta to the head of the page?

[David Powers]

lokikit wrote:

> a client wants me to create a stripped down version of his website
> for submission to the japanese search engines. he will write the text
> and get a translator to translate it into japanese. he then wants me
> to create and submit the page (if it were in english you 'might' call
> it a doorway page) to the japanese search engines.
>
> is this as simple as copying and pasting the japanese text (kunji?)
> into a template and adding a language meta to the head of the page?

Japanese text is made up of kanji and kana. Quite a few people do succeed in
doing a cut and paste job. You need to make sure you use the correct page
encoding - Shift_JIS is the most common, and it's what anything written in a
Microsoft program will be in.

I'm biased because I can speak and read Japanese, but personally, I think
anyone relying on a translator and a web designer who can't read the
language is asking for trouble. However good you are at your job, you're
groping in the dark. Even with the best of intentions, you could create
something that "looks Japanese" but reads like nonsense. Don't know if
you've come across the Japanese video game Zero Wing. It gained cult status
because the English was so bad ("All your base are belong to us"). Just make
sure that doesn't happen to your client, even unintentionally.

--
David Powers
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