FAQ

Ohayo Navigator Installation

Marketing

Translation

Customer Support

Ohayo Navigator Installation

How do I install Ohayo Navigator on our Yahoo Store ?

The only installation you will need to do is to upload a Japanese help image we provide and create a link to your Ohayo Navigator hosted by our server.

Do I need to give you permission into our site for the installation ?

There is no need for you to provide your secure information such as ftp password. All the programs necessary to your Ohayo Navigator will be hosted by us.

Can it work with a legacy Yahoo Store (not Merchant Solution) ?

No problem. Your Ohayo Navigator will be hosted by us and won’t alter any of your shopping process.

Does Ohayo Navigator take any order information from our site ?

Ohayo Navigator uses normal html technique called a frame to place your Ohayo Navigator on top of your site. Because the frame doesn’t allow any access from one site to another, there is no way for our program to access your site during your customer’s checkout.

Marketing

We would like to learn more about ways to market our website in Japan.

We have a marketing service to promote your business in Japanese markets. We can create effective keywords and text ads in Japanese, which can be used in Google’s adWords or Yahoo Search Marketing.

What is the advantage of using your marketing service ? I just want to get the translation of English keywords I use for US market.

The direct translation of English keywords into Japanese may not be as accurate or suitable as they may be in English. Some keywords are very culturally specific in US and nobody in Japan knows about them. We investigate translated keywords using a tool such as adWords Keywords Tool. If we find they’re not effective, we will find better or more accurate Japanese keywords.

Are Google and Yahoo the big search engines in Japan, or are there others ?

Like US, they are the two major search engines in Japan. They are both valuable and can’t be ignored. Please see this page

Can I use the same English (US) Google AdWords account to advertise to Japanese market ?

Yes. AdWords allows you to use the same account to advertise not only in the US but in non-English countries. You need to create a new campaign and specify “Japanese” as language and “Japan” as country. To enter Japanese keywords and text ads, your system must have Japanese fonts installed.

Can I use the same English (US) Yahoo Search (Overture) account to advertise to Japanese market ?

Although you have a US account, you must create a separate Japanese account. To open an account, you have to sign up from their Japanese registration form. You can switch to English from the middle of the signup process. Even if you switch to English, any price information will remain as Yen. However, the charge will be automatically converted from Yen to US dollars.

Translation

Do we also need to translate and re-print the product manual or instruction for Japanese customers ?

We have a translation service. The price will be 20 cents/word for a regular non-technical documentation and provide a very high quality translation. The number of words will be counted by the word count tool that comes with MS Word.

Does your system translate our website pages into Japanese ?

Unfortunately, no. Translation is a very complicated process so far no machine can do better than human. If you don’t wish to use our translation service, you can try using a machine translation tool provided by Google.

Can you create a home page in Japanese at my Yahoo store ?

Yes. We have experimented with several Yahoo stores. We can construct Japanese pages through Yahoo Store Editor.

How can I see Japanese characters in my computer ?

If you are using the English version of Windows XP, you can get East Asian kit installed. Go to “Control Panel” -> “Regional Option” -> “Add other language”, where check “Install files for East Asian Language”.

Customer Support

What if they want to call and ask questions ?

The primary way for Japanese customers to communicate with you if necessary would be “email”. It might be in either English or Japanese. Unless it’s extremely urgent, you wont’t receive a call from them because there is a 16 hours time difference between two countries and not many Japanese are good at speaking English. When you receive an email in Japanese, we will be able to provide your customer a free email translation service at our Japanese blog site www.america-de-shop.com. Please send him to the site.

What if they write to us or want to send a check in the mail ?

If you receive a letter, we will translate it into English for you. However, it would be very unlikely to receive a letter while they’re capable of viewing your web site. Also, you will never receive a check as a payment from Japanese customers. Unlike the US, they don’t use checks to do business transactions. They might wire the money but both sending and receiving banks will charge a lot for their service. So, the best method is credit cards (Visa, Master card, JCB, and American Express).

Should we accept JCB ?

Yes, definitely if you can. JCB stands for “Japan Card Bureau”. It’s a major credit card in Japan. Please see their web page here.

Japanese customers can use our US Free Dial Number ?

Unfortunately, no. So, you should list non-free phone number for your international customers.

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