--- title: Why Japanese Websites Look So Different | daily.dev description: Japanese websites often feature walls of text, bright colors, and numerous fonts due to several intertwined factors including font creation challenges,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/why-japanese-websites-look-so-different-licw6jvkb twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Why Japanese Websites Look So Different | daily.dev og:description: Japanese websites often feature walls of text, bright colors, and numerous fonts due to several intertwined factors including font creation challenges,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/why-japanese-websites-look-so-different-licw6jvkb og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/liCW6jvKb.png og:image:alt: Why Japanese Websites Look So Different og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Why Japanese Websites Look So Different **[Community Picks](https://daily.dev/sources/community)** · 8 min read · 595 upvotes · 27 comments ## Summary Japanese websites often feature walls of text, bright colors, and numerous fonts due to several intertwined factors including font creation challenges, technological development and stagnation, and cultural influences. These design choices are deeply rooted in Japan's approach to web design and reflect broader societal and technological trends in the country. Understanding these nuances helps to comprehend why such designs differ significantly from Western website aesthetics. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@dagelf** · 7 upvotes > TL;DR Their fonts contain ~850 glyphs, so high barrier to make one, so most fonts look the same... they have to compensate somehow. Interesting. **@jolenek** · 6 upvotes > Interesting analysis! I could never understand all the sites I saw Chinese using, but this makes sense. **@ghost** · 5 upvotes > Simply put the main reason is a Japanese website's goal is more tilted towards providing information vs providing visual stimulation and entertainment value leading to a sale. > > The respectful and cultured approach towards the audience is perfectly demonstrated by how CTA is performed differently. > > Japanese: "Please Look Forward to This" > US/Western: "Buy Now!" > > It is interesting how Germany is mentioned in the article, since they too, while creating high tech and global trends in design, are surprisingly using outdated tech and approaches in many ways. > > The goal is to be efficient, low cost,... **@exceptionalfrontend** · 4 upvotes > Great read! Now I'm wondering what the consensus of accessibility is on a Japanese website. > > For example, heavy use of text in images is usually something to avoid, since you'd either have to cram all of the text in an alt tag (not a good practice) or avoid it altogether and place text over the image with HTML and CSS. That way a screen reader can pick up on it. **@alexparker21** · 3 upvotes > Japanese is hard, it has higher information density than phonetic languages and it affects --- Tags: [#frontend](https://daily.dev/tags/frontend), [#ui-design](https://daily.dev/tags/ui-design) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/why-japanese-websites-look-so-different-licw6jvkb) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Why Japanese Websites Look So Different","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/why-japanese-websites-look-so-different-licw6jvkb","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/why-japanese-websites-look-so-different-licw6jvkb"},"datePublished":"2024-07-22T16:45:38.350Z","dateModified":"2024-08-23T14:07:58.061Z","description":"Japanese websites often feature walls of text, bright colors, and numerous fonts due to several intertwined factors including font creation challenges,...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/489a927e5a7dd016555893ea703817e1?_a=AQAEuiZ","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/489a927e5a7dd016555893ea703817e1?_a=AQAEuiZ","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Community Picks","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Community Picks","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1655817725/logos/community","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/community"},"commentCount":27,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/why-japanese-websites-look-so-different-licw6jvkb","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":595},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":27}],"keywords":"frontend,ui-design","timeRequired":"PT8M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Community Picks","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/community"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Why Japanese Websites Look So Different"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/why-japanese-websites-look-so-different-licw6jvkb","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"TL;DR Their fonts contain ~850 glyphs, so high barrier to make one, so most fonts look the same… they have to compensate somehow. Interesting.","datePublished":"2024-07-23T14:31:38.286Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/liCW6jvKb#c-gDUJUdulA","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Coenraad Loubser","url":"https://daily.dev/dagelf","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocKTqPc3hPJWpb5VqRpugmyFPQ03MFFKDZhzd4W476oXfD3NMxjZFg=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":7}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Interesting analysis! I could never understand all the sites I saw Chinese using, but this makes sense.","datePublished":"2024-07-23T12:16:04.181Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/liCW6jvKb#c-xFweItkgl","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Jolene Kearse","url":"https://daily.dev/jolenek","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--hzXedQCA--/f_auto/v1721913049/avatars/avatar_uquWdygd7S7azFvRNHB8n"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":6}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Simply put the main reason is a Japanese website’s goal is more tilted towards providing information vs providing visual stimulation and entertainment value leading to a sale.\nThe respectful and cultured approach towards the audience is perfectly demonstrated by how CTA is performed differently.\nJapanese: “Please Look Forward to This”\nUS/Western: “Buy Now!”\nIt is interesting how Germany is mentioned in the article, since they too, while creating high tech and global trends in design, are surprisingly using outdated tech and approaches in many ways.\nThe goal is to be efficient, low cost, and effective, not “modern”. And often, an old approach simply fits better.","datePublished":"2024-07-30T07:24:22.125Z","dateModified":"2024-07-30T07:33:00.851Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/liCW6jvKb#c-zhShjiVtO","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Deleted user","url":"https://daily.dev/ghost","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--hNIUzLiO--/f_auto/v1705327420/public/ghost_vlftth"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":5}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Great read! Now I’m wondering what the consensus of accessibility is on a Japanese website.\nFor example, heavy use of text in images is usually something to avoid, since you’d either have to cram all of the text in an alt tag (not a good practice) or avoid it altogether and place text over the image with HTML and CSS. That way a screen reader can pick up on it.","datePublished":"2024-07-28T23:58:31.782Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/liCW6jvKb#c-K9SCznj8K","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Mauro","url":"https://daily.dev/exceptionalfrontend","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--637HjJ3V--/f_auto/v1742054537/avatars/avatar_BjXaGbRi4T2yKyiFGl0Hg"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":4}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Japanese is hard, it has higher information density than phonetic languages and it affects","datePublished":"2024-07-24T10:14:50.803Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/liCW6jvKb#c-YEyU1JcVw","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Alex Parker","url":"https://daily.dev/alexparker21","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--SoFN_8t6--/f_auto,q_auto/v1695725746/avatars/avatar_VHpsKMdvl8rEOd8omEZxW"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":3}}]} ```