Eliminating language barriers for companies with global ambitions: The story of DeepL’s spectacular growth in Japan
For many, Japan is a prime example of what a business can achieve when it thinks beyond its own borders. It’s a center of tech innovation and adoption that also served as the Asian hub for some of the world’s largest global enterprises and most iconic global brands.
However, Japan also demonstrates the challenges that such global organizations can face. Two-thirds (67%) of people in the country do not speak English, which puts barriers in the way of new startups looking to access international markets. For established global enterprises, this holds back productivity and competitiveness by imposing language barriers between different areas of operations. These challenges have contributed to a lag in corporate growth in the country over the past few decades; while Japanese brands gain strength domestically, it’s become increasingly difficult to globalize.
This is now changing, however, and it’s changing because of that appetite for tech adoption and innovation that is so fundamental to Japan. Beyond the Code, the new series produced by BBC StoryWorks Commercial Productions, reveals how Japan has been one of the earliest adopters of DeepL’s Language AI platform, with organic growth and word of mouth establishing it as DeepL’s second-largest market. In fact, the country has seen a surge in the use of AI-powered translation tools. The proportion of large enterprises using such tools grew 24% between 2022 and 2023, to reach 72%. And by 2024, 85% of Japanese multinationals plan to have integrated AI language models into their global communication strategies.
Transforming communication and productivity for global organizations
What were Japanese enterprises so quick to see in Language AI? The immense value that’s unlocked by helping anyone in an organization communicate clearly, quickly, and with the confidence that they’ll be understood in any language they use.
“Communication is very important in our industry,” explains Shohji Ohtsubo, Senior Manager at Panasonic Connect, the R&D division that plays a central role in the growth of Panasonic Group’s B2B solutions business. “To communicate with people in other countries, we have to use English – and it’s always urgent. I conduct research on AI prediction and optimization, and I also discuss our company’s technology strategy in English. We need to be able to communicate these important details quickly. It used to take staff half a day to translate a document from Japanese to English. Now that we are using DeepL, we can do this task very quickly.”
Ohtsubo’s role positions him at the heart of many of the challenges that language barriers can create for global businesses. He coordinates teams of researchers across a broad range of countries, communicates continually with his Germany-based chief on AI and tech strategy, and publishes thought leadership content and research papers in a range of international publications.
“AI research evolves rapidly,” he says. “I have to read and present many papers every day, and reading and writing in English would slow me down significantly. When you’re managing an R&D department, a single incorrect word can cause an unforeseen outcome. Using DeepL has really changed our world. It’s a big change to be able to communicate correctly and quickly in multiple languages. The translation is as natural as if you were writing in that language.”
Panasonic Connect and DeepL: leveraging Language AI for better global communication
Read this case study to learn more about how Panasonic uses DeepL.
Creating impact in every market
As a regular speaker and thought leader, Ohtsubo is an early adopter of DeepL Write, which provides writing suggestions to improve clarity and impact, and adapts to different tones and scenarios. “When we used DeepL Write to edit papers that had been translated into English, we got 5-6x more editing suggestions than we received from paid proofreading services,” he says. “These were very effective for improving the text.”
Transforming productivity and elevating brands through thought leadership are just some of the ways that Language AI is accelerating growth for Japanese enterprises. LegalOn Technologies, which is also based in Tokyo, uses the DeepL API to build instant, high-quality translations into its Legal AI technology, adding value for customers and fuelling plans to become a global tech company. The investment group, Daiwa Securities uses entire document translation from DeepL to quickly circulate transcripts of the sessions it hosts with investors and analysts, globally. It can do so with confidence, thanks to the Glossaries feature that ensures consistent translations of complex corporate and industry terminology.
Many of Japan’s most famous brands have been built on quality and customer service, with a reputation for outcompeting rivals in their own home markets. DeepL translations are enabling the Tokyo-based workplace software company Cybozu to embed the same levels of agility and responsiveness that helped to establish the likes of Toyota, Honda and Sony.
DeepL is enabling multilingual customer support for Cybozu’s solutions as it expands into the United States, Australia, China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Vietnam. Equally important is the ability to recruit software developers from a wide range of countries, who speak a wide range of languages. “If we’re going to create a product that will be used in diverse markets, we need to understand them,” says Cybozu’s Head of IT, Shuichi Suzuki. “For some development teams, whether a candidate is a Japanese national or speaks Japanese doesn’t matter anymore.”
Japan remains a symbol of global enterprise and innovation. And by taking proactive steps to remove prohibitive language barriers, DeepL is helping to ensure a growing future of global enterprise and ongoing innovation.