Your game is gorgeous.
Don't let a default font ruin its Japanese release.
Translations get reviewed. Fonts usually don't — and Japanese players notice in the first second. We check and select Japanese fonts that keep your game's voice, so your localization never reads as "cheap" in Japan.
Check my font — $39 See the difference
We don't sell or redistribute fonts. Independent advice only.
DEFAULT FONT
Same art. One font swap. Tap each screen.
The relief you feel when it flips to the right font? Japanese players feel the reverse every time a localized game ships with a default Japanese font. That's the launch-day impression we protect you from.
DEFAULT FONT
DEFAULT FONT
DEFAULT FONT
Mock title screens for illustration. In English you can spot the mismatch instantly — in Japanese, you can't. We can.
Why Japanese fonts go wrong — even for careful teams
It's not carelessness. Japanese type is genuinely hard to judge from outside:
It looks fine to you — dated to us
Fonts that look "Japanese enough" often read as 1990s office documents or cheap flyers to native players.
The 7,000-glyph problem
Japanese needs thousands of characters. Distinctive fonts cover fewer — missing ones silently fall back to a system font, breaking your look mid-sentence.
Licensing maze
Free vs. paid, embedding clauses, subscription tiers that don't cover games — scattered across Japanese-only pages.
Style mismatch
A beautiful Latin font paired with a mismatched Japanese font makes the two languages feel like different games.
How it works
No meetings. No back-and-forth. Just a clear, professional answer.
Purchase & submit
Pick a plan, pay by card, and fill a 5-minute form about your game, your current fonts, and where Japanese text will appear.
A native designer evaluates
Kino — a Japanese game UI designer with 16 years of experience — personally evaluates design consistency with your original font, readability at your sizes, and how it reads to Japanese players.
Get your report
A concise English report with a clear verdict, specific findings, and licensing notes — in 3–5 business days.
Plans
Start free, or get a professional evaluation for less than the cost of one bad launch review.
Font Check
- Verdict: use it / use with conditions / don't
- Design consistency with your original (Latin) font
- Readability at your actual sizes & screens
- How it reads to Japanese players
- Character coverage & weight check
- Licensing summary (public sources)
- Delivered in 3 business days
Basic — Font Selection
- 3 curated candidates + our top pick
- Why each matches your original font's impression
- Coverage vs. impression trade-off, explained
- Free & low-cost fonts prioritized
- Licensing notes with sources & dates
- Delivered in 5 business days
Standard — with Visual Sample
- Everything in Basic
- Your actual game screen rendered with all 3 candidates
- Font purchase for sampling included (up to $50)
- Limited slots per month
- Delivered in 10 business days
Free — AI Font Suggestions. Tell us about your game and get 3 AI-generated Japanese font suggestions by email. No human review, no guarantees — a taste of what we do. Try it free →
Full — Complete Japanese type design for your game (from $599). Title, UI, body and numerals designed as one system, with multiple screens sampled. Contact us →
What's in a report
Written by a designer, for developers. No fluff, no jargon without explanation.
A clear verdict
Approved / Conditional (with exact conditions like "18px minimum, Medium weight for body") / Not recommended — and why, specifically.
The native's eye
Things you can't Google: whether kana feel stiff for your casual characters, whether thin strokes vanish on your dark backgrounds, what mood the font carries in Japan.
Design-match reasoning
Why a candidate matches your original font — skeleton, contrast, roundness, era — in plain English.
Licensing, sourced & dated
Commercial use, game embedding, subsetting, credits — summarized from official sources with verification dates. (Not legal advice; you license directly from vendors.)
Who's behind this
Kino — Japanese game UI designer with 16 years of experience across game UI, prototyping, and product design. Based in Tokyo, operating as Surface Inc. Every paid report is personally evaluated — AI helps with research, but the judgment that matters is human and native.
FAQ
Do you sell fonts?
No. We don't sell, license, or redistribute fonts, and we're not a vendor's agent. We give independent advice; you obtain licenses directly from font vendors.
Is the licensing information legally guaranteed?
No — it's a carefully sourced summary of public information as of the stated date. Licenses change; always confirm with the vendor before shipping. Our reports tell you exactly what to confirm.
What if my font is fine as-is?
Then the report says "Approved" and you ship with confidence. Knowing it's right is the product.
Which engines do you support?
Engine-agnostic. Recommendations are TTF/OTF fonts that work in Unity, Unreal, Godot, GameMaker, and custom engines. We flag rendering caveats (e.g., pixel fonts need integer scaling).
How do revisions work?
Font Check and Basic are single-pass by design — that's how we keep prices low. Standard includes one revision round. Scope is listed on each plan.
Refunds?
Full refund before work starts, or if we can't evaluate your font. After delivery, reports are non-refundable (digital, personalized). See Terms.
Ship Japanese text you're proud of.
From $39 · 3-day turnaround · No meetings · Independent advice