Copy and Paste Fonts in Japan: A Guide

In Japan, major companies rely on specific fonts to ensure consistency and readability across different platforms. As someone who has lived and worked in Japan, I've done my research to summarize the recommended practice for using fonts in Japanese websites.

The current recommended font family is:

`font-family:'ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3', 'Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro', Osaka, 'メイリオ', Meiryo, 'ＭＳＰゴシック', 'MS PGothic', sans-serif`

This order makes sense because Mac users may have Meiryo installed from Microsoft Office, and Hiragino is more familiar to Mac users. Additionally, some older browsers may not recognize font names in English or Japanese, so it's safe to include both versions.

For older operating systems like Windows XP, it's recommended to add the default fonts MS Gothic (or MS Mincho) and Osaka for compatibility. The latest options are Meiryo and Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro.

Interestingly, most Japanese websites rely on the default font sets provided by Windows or Mac, resulting in limited variations of Japanese fonts. This is because Japanese users tend to care less about fonts compared to those who use Latin characters. Creating new fonts for Japanese requires a significant amount of work, as it typically involves creating 8,000-16,000 glyphs.

Web-fonts for Japanese are not practical due to the large size of the font data, making them difficult to download. Despite these challenges, understanding the recommended practices and default font sets used in Japan can help developers and designers create more effective and user-friendly websites for Japanese audiences.

Copy and paste fonts japanese