Books on game localization and selling your game worldwide
日本語版はこちらLocalizing a game (adapting it for players in other languages) and selling it abroad are areas where good books are scarce and scattered. This page lists the ones we keep recommending, grouped by what they help with, with a reading order for three kinds of readers.
This page contains affiliate links (Amazon Associates). Links open Amazon.co.jp — check the current price and edition there.
Where to start, by reader
Selling my game overseas, solo
You want players in other countries, and you will do most of the work yourself.
- インディーゲーム・サバイバルガイド (Indie Game Survival Guide)
- 日本人の英語 (The English of Japanese speakers)
- ゲームと法律 攻略ガイドブック (Games and the law)
Translating or checking game text
You translate, or you review translations, and want the craft and the constraints.
- 出版&映像翻訳 完全ガイドブック
- 翻訳のレッスン (Lessons in translation)
- Localizing Apps
- 記者ハンドブック (Kisha Handbook)
Deciding how a studio localizes
You own the decision to outsource, what to ask for, and how to check what comes back.
- The Game Localization Handbook
- 日本語スタイルガイド (Japanese Style Guide, Japan Technical Communicators Association)
- ゲームをテストする (Testing games)
How these books were chosen
- Written by practitioners or official bodies — people who did the work, not summaries of other summaries.
- Still in print and current as of 2026; the edition and year are shown on every card.
- Actionable: each one leaves you with a decision you can make or a step you can take, not just background.
Descriptions are based on each book's table of contents and publisher information. No invented reviews or star ratings — those are for you to read on the product page.
Game localization and LQA
How game text gets translated, built, and tested — the process books, plus the two Japanese titles on QA and UI that cover the problems localized text actually runs into.
Affiliate links (Amazon Associates) — they open Amazon.co.jp.
Japanese · イカロス出版 · 2022
出版&映像翻訳 完全ガイドブック (Complete guide to publishing & media translation)
イカロス出版(編)
A Japanese mook on entertainment translation with a dedicated game-translation section: how the localization process runs, how people get into the work, and interviews with working game translators. The only in-print Japanese title that covers game translation as a job.
Best for: Anyone in Japan considering game translation as work, and developers who want to know what the translator on the other side does. Not a technique manual.
English · Routledge · 2015
Localizing Apps: A practical guide for translators and translation students
Johann Roturier
The practical side of software localization for translators: how strings are stored and extracted, placeholders and encodings, resource files, and how localized output gets checked. Not about games specifically, but every problem it covers shows up in game text.
Best for: Translators moving into software or games, and developers who want to understand what breaks in a localization file. Assumes comfort with technical reading in English.
English · John Benjamins · 2013
Game Localization: Translating for the Global Digital Entertainment Industry
Minako O'Hagan, Carme Mangiron
The academic treatment of game localization from within translation studies: culturalization, transcreation, the industry's history, and how game translation differs from literary and audiovisual translation, with case studies — many of them Japanese titles.
Best for: Translators and students who want the framework behind the practice. Not a production manual.
English · Jones & Bartlett Learning · 2011 · 2nd ed.
The Game Localization Handbook
Heather Maxwell Chandler, Stephanie O'Malley Deming
Written for the person running a localization project rather than translating in it: planning and budgeting, pre-production, working with vendors, and testing, with case material from shipped titles. Tool and platform details are dated; the sequence of decisions is not. The print import is expensive — the Kindle edition is the realistic way to buy it from Japan.
Best for: Producers, leads, and solo developers planning their first localization. Not for translators looking for sentence-level craft.
Japanese · 翔泳社 · 2022
ゲームをテストする (Testing games — knowledge and methods behind bug-free games)
花房輝鑑
Game QA from the ground up: what testing is for, the types of tests, how test cases are written and run, where automation fits, and what a tester's job looks like. The closest Japanese book to what localization QA (LQA) actually does.
Best for: Developers setting up any kind of check before release, and anyone moving into LQA work. Written about QA in general, so localization is one case among many.
Japanese · 翔泳社 · 2022
実践ゲームUIデザイン (Practical game UI design)
太田垣沙也子
Game UI design from concept to implementation, by a working UI designer: layout, text boxes, readability, and the constraints that decide how much text fits where. Read it for the chapters on text and layout — that is where translated strings overflow.
Best for: Developers and localization owners who keep hitting text overflow and want to fix the layout side. Not about translation itself.
Translation craft and the translator's job
For the person doing or reviewing the translation: sentence-level craft for English to Japanese, what working translators say the job demands, and one classic for Japanese developers writing their own English.
Affiliate links (Amazon Associates) — they open Amazon.co.jp.
Japanese · アルク · 2018
翻訳地獄へようこそ (Welcome to translation hell)
宮脇孝雄
A veteran literary translator walks through real English-to-Japanese mistranslations and why they happen: idioms read literally, cultural references missed, tone flattened. Short chapters built around concrete examples.
Best for: Translators working English to Japanese, and developers who review Japanese translations and want to know what to look for. Not for the Japanese-to-English direction.
Japanese · 講談社 · 2016
翻訳のレッスン (Lessons in translation, by four working professionals)
高橋さきの、深井裕美子、井口耕二、高橋聡
Four working translators — literary, technical, and industrial — on what a good translation is and how they actually produce one: reading the source properly, choosing Japanese that reads as Japanese, and checking their own work.
Best for: People starting out as translators, or anyone who wants to judge translation quality with more than 'it sounds off'. Conversational, not a textbook.
Japanese · アルク · 2017
翻訳スキルハンドブック (Translation skills handbook, English to Japanese)
駒宮俊友
A process-based course in English-to-Japanese translation: reading, research, drafting, and revision as separate skills, each with exercises. Treats translation as a repeatable procedure rather than a talent.
Best for: Self-learners who want structured practice, and teams defining what 'review' should mean. Translators with years of experience will find it basic.
Japanese · 筑摩書房(ちくま学芸文庫) · 1995
英文翻訳術 (The craft of English-to-Japanese translation)
安西徹雄
A long-standing Japanese classic that teaches English-to-Japanese translation through grammatical analysis and worked short passages, building sentence-level technique rather than theory.
Best for: Translators working English to Japanese who want drilled technique. Not aimed at the Japanese-to-English direction.
Japanese · 岩波書店(岩波新書) · 1988
日本人の英語 (The English of Japanese speakers)
マーク・ピーターセン
The classic on the English mistakes Japanese speakers make without noticing — articles, countability, tense, word order — explained from the inside by a native speaker who reads Japanese. Still in print after decades because the mistakes have not changed.
Best for: Japanese developers writing their own English store page, patch notes, or emails to overseas players. Not a translation manual.
English · Routledge · 2020
Japanese–English Translation: An Advanced Guide
Judy Wakabayashi
Thirteen thematic chapters on the problems that recur in Japanese-to-English translation (register, omission, sentence structure, genre conventions), with exercises and examples across text types.
Best for: Translators already working Japanese to English who want a structured reference. Assumes experience; not a first primer.
Notation and style standards
The references a QA checklist can cite instead of arguing: published Japanese notation standards, the technical-writing style guide used in Japanese UI work, and the English equivalent.
Affiliate links (Amazon Associates) — they open Amazon.co.jp.
Japanese · 共同通信社 · 2022 · 14th ed.
記者ハンドブック 新聞用字用語集 (Kisha Handbook — Kyodo News usage guide)
一般社団法人共同通信社(編)
The usage guide Japanese newsrooms standardize on: kanji versus kana, okurigana, orthography, and guidance on discriminatory and offensive terms, with worked examples. The reference to name when a Japanese team needs one rule to settle spelling disputes.
Best for: Teams with a lot of Japanese text who need one authority for notation. Not a guide to creative style.
Japanese · 日本エディタースクール出版部 · 2012 · 2nd ed.
日本語表記ルールブック (Japanese notation rulebook)
日本エディタースクール(編)
A short, itemized reference to the basic rules of Japanese notation: punctuation, brackets, numerals, okurigana. Small enough to read through and use as the base of a team style guide.
Best for: Editors and translators who need the rules in one place quickly. Not a systematic writing course.
Japanese · テクニカルコミュニケーター協会 · 2016 · 3rd ed.
日本語スタイルガイド (Japanese Style Guide, Japan Technical Communicators Association)
一般財団法人テクニカルコミュニケーター協会
Rules for Japanese in manuals, UI, and technical documents, from the industry body for technical writing: sentence length, katakana loanwords and the long-vowel mark, numerals and units, symbols, and consistency. Newspaper guides cover prose; this one covers the kind of text a game's menus and help screens are made of.
Best for: Localization owners and LQA teams writing the notation section of a Japanese style guide. Overkill for a story-only project.
English · University of Chicago Press · 2024 · 18th ed.
The Chicago Manual of Style
The University of Chicago Press Editorial Staff
The standard reference for English editing and publishing: punctuation, capitalization, numbers, citation, and manuscript preparation, expanded in the 18th edition for digital publishing and inclusive language.
Best for: Whoever owns English UI copy or documentation and needs a tie-breaker for house style. Unnecessary for a Japanese-only team.
Japanese · オライリー・ジャパン · 2022
戦略的UXライティング (Japanese edition of Strategic Writing for UX)
Torrey Podmajersky(著)、中橋直也(監訳)、松葉有香(訳)
UX writing from a practitioner: the principles behind product text, defining a voice and applying it consistently, and a working process for the short strings that make up an interface. A software book, but menus, errors, onboarding, and store copy are the same problem in a game — and strings written this way translate better.
Best for: Anyone writing UI strings or a store page before sending them for translation. Not for narrative prose.
Selling your game, at home and abroad
Releasing, promoting, and running a small game business — the Japanese indie guides, the legal basics a Japanese developer needs before selling overseas, and two English handbooks on marketing and studio business.
Affiliate links (Amazon Associates) — they open Amazon.co.jp.
Japanese · 技術評論社 · 2021
インディーゲーム・サバイバルガイド (Indie Game Survival Guide)
一條貴彰(著)、PLAYISM(監修)
Japanese-language guide to finishing a game, getting it noticed, delivering it, and keeping going: press releases, exhibiting at events, publisher contracts, with interviews with working indie developers.
Best for: Japanese indie developers planning a release, including overseas. Familiar ground for anyone already working with an overseas publisher.
Japanese · 技術評論社 · 2026
ゲームと法律 攻略ガイドブック (Games and the law — a guidebook for development, promotion, and operations)
前野孝太朗
Q&A-style basics of the law around making and selling a game in Japan: intellectual property, contracts, terms of service and privacy, advertising rules, gacha disclosure, and ending a service. Published July 2026, so it reflects current rules.
Best for: Japanese developers about to sign a publisher or platform contract, or to sell directly. Japan-specific; not a substitute for a lawyer on overseas law.
Japanese · 自費出版(Kindle / ペーパーバック) · 2021
ゲーム開発者の地図 (A map for game developers — 20 years of solo development)
SmokingWOLF
Twenty years of solo development distilled by the author of WOLF RPG Editor and 片道勇者: how to keep finishing games, what to spend time on, and how to stay in the work for the long run. Self-published, so the print edition is print-on-demand.
Best for: Solo developers who want to keep doing this for years, not just ship one game. Not about marketing or overseas release.
English · Routledge (Focal Press) · 2015
A Practical Guide to Indie Game Marketing
Joel Dreskin
Launch planning, press outreach, and community building for small teams on small budgets, organized as checklists rather than theory. Channel specifics are dated; the per-market structure is the useful part.
Best for: Developers running their own launch in more than one market. Not needed if a publisher handles marketing.
English · Bithell Games · 2023
The GameDev Business Handbook: How to build the business you'll build games with
Michael Futter, Mike Bithell
Running a small studio as a business: budgeting, incorporating, contracts, intellectual property, hiring, and PR, written by a games journalist with an indie studio founder. The softcover edition is the 2023 update.
Best for: Anyone turning a hobby project into a company, in any country. Examples are US/UK; Japanese company law is not covered.
Free primary sources to read alongside
Several of the most useful references are free and official. Read these first; the books above are what you reach for when you need depth the free sources do not give.
- JTF Japanese Standard Style Guide (Japan Translation Federation) — Free PDF from the translation industry body. The notation rules most Japanese translation vendors default to — cite it before writing your own.
- Microsoft Localization Style Guides — Per-language style guides for software UI, including Japanese. The most widely copied conventions for katakana loanwords, the long-vowel mark, and half-width versus full-width characters.
- Guidelines for drafting official documents (Agency for Cultural Affairs, 2022) — The Japanese government's own notation policy: kanji usage, okurigana, numerals, punctuation. A primary source the newspaper handbooks build on.
- Steamworks documentation: Localization and Languages — What Steam supports per language, how store page translations work, and how language support is shown to players. Read before deciding which languages to ship.
Questions
- Print or Kindle?
- Reference books you will flip through while checking text — the notation guides and style manuals — are easier to use in print. Books you read once, start to finish, are fine on Kindle. Where a Kindle edition exists, the card links both.
- Some of these are old. Are they still worth it?
- The older titles here are on this list because what they teach has not moved: how to read a source sentence, how a localization project is sequenced, which English mistakes Japanese writers make. Anything tied to current rules — law, platform requirements, tooling — is covered by the recent titles and the free official sources, not the old ones.
- Why are there no prices or ratings on this page?
- Amazon's program rules only allow prices and ratings that are fetched live from Amazon, which this page does not do. The product page has the current price, edition, and reviews.
- How were these chosen, and is anything on the list paid placement?
- No publisher or author paid to be here, and nothing was added to have more links. Each title answers a question readers of this site actually bring: how to ship in another language, how to judge a translation, what rule to cite in a review. The affiliate links pay a small commission on purchases; they do not change which books are listed.