Yoshiko Nonaka
Brand & CX Language Strategist | Japan Market
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Yoshiko is ready for their next project!
TikTok – Language & Content Adaptation for Japan
Context
Global platform brand, with work spanning campaign executions, copy guidelines, and educational content across different contexts.
Challenge
Adapting messaging under strict structural constraints, where timing, format, and production decisions were already defined—leaving limited flexibility for phrasing and delivery.
Approach
Worked across multiple projects over time—from localizing global copy guidelines to adapting campaign executions and supporting recording sessions—each with its own constraints.
In some cases, it came down to clarity and flow, with little room to intervene. In others, particularly in copy guidelines, it involved reworking tone and expression to reflect cultural expectations around voice, inclusivity, and how content is meant to feel accessible and immediate.
In campaign executions and recording, the focus shifted to timing and delivery—ensuring that language fit within fixed formats while matching the intended pacing and energy.
Across these contexts, I worked with constraints to shape how the message could land—using them to define how far the language could go while preserving the brand’s energy—a dynamic inherent to localization.
Outcome
The messaging remained natural, clear, and consistent with the brand voice, allowing content to retain its intended energy and impact within tight production constraints.
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SK-II – Dialogue & Narrative Adaptation for Japan
Context
Global content-driven campaign spanning TV and digital formats, with involvement from storyboard-level materials through subtitle adaptation.
Challenge
Maintaining emotional nuance and character-driven humor in Japanese, where repeated dialogue in the TV commercial risked flattening tone and reducing engagement.
The dialogue also shifts between English and Japanese, requiring subtitles to align seamlessly with lines delivered in Japanese.
Approach
Adapted dialogue for the TV commercial, reshaping repeated lines such as “I’m the Pitera Master!” into varied expressions that kept conversational rhythm and character voice—prioritizing natural flow over literal repetition while staying aligned with the brand’s tone.
At the same time, I ensured that subtitles integrated seamlessly with Japanese lines in the dialogue—particularly in moments where Naomi Watanabe shifted into Japanese while James Corden continued in English—so the overall exchange would feel coherent and effortless.
This approach carried through across campaign materials, maintaining consistency in tone and expression despite limited visibility into the full campaign context.
Outcome
The dialogue remained engaging and natural in Japanese, preserving both character integrity and the campaign’s emotional and narrative impact across formats.
Photo © SK-II. Used for portfolio purposes.
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PUMA – Brand Repositioning for Japan
Context
Global brand repositioning campaign (“FOREVER FASTER”) at pitch stage.
Challenge
Adapting a disruptive global message into Japanese without losing credibility or pushing beyond what would feel acceptable in the local context.
Approach
Proposed a Japanese tagline at pitch stage, reframing “Calling All Troublemakers” into a character-driven expression that kept the campaign’s rebellious edge while staying within a culturally credible range. This calibration extended to subtitles for the TV commercial featuring Usain Bolt, ensuring the same narrative energy held on screen without creating cognitive friction.
Outcome
The tagline was selected for the Japanese market, and the campaign landed with its intended positioning intact.
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Four Seasons – Brand Voice Consistency for Japan
Context
Ongoing content production across global microsites, campaigns, experience-led materials, and mobile app UI under distributed workflows.
Challenge
Maintaining a consistent luxury brand voice in an environment driven by translation memory and multi-team production, where segment-level consistency does not guarantee coherence at the experience level.
Approach
Worked across global teams under distributed workflows, spanning both hands-on copy development and high-level review.
Shaped tone, phrasing, and flow within existing systems—keeping the language aligned without letting it drift over time.
At that level, the work often came down to word choice.
A slight shift toward casual phrasing could quietly flatten the sense of refinement—especially as everyday language has become more casual, influenced by social media and online culture.
What matters is not just what is said, but how it is experienced. Once it shifts, it rarely reads the same again.
Outcome
The brand voice remained consistent and recognizable across touchpoints, preserving refinement, trust, and a cohesive experience in the Japanese market—ensuring the brand continued to feel personal and consistent with how guests expect to be treated, even within the system and workflow constraints of localization.
*Representative visual. Project for Four Seasons.
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