Japan

Japanese people do NOT all love cartoons. While Japan is a major market for anime, manga, and cartoons, not all Japanese people love the medium.

Japanese people have mixed views on pornographic/vulgar content. While the pornography industry in Japan is quite developed and it's common to see vulgar content in shows or comedies, this doesn't represent the majority of Japanese people, and not all are receptive to these elements. Do not assume sexual or vulgar content will be received well or represents the norm.

Japanese women are NOT all housewives, and men are NOT all breadwinners. While some Japanese women may keep house after marriage, many continue to work, especially in urban areas. Marketing material that caters to this assumed conservative household setup (with women at home and men in the workforce) may in fact cause controversy in Japan, with accusations of gender discrimination.

Japanese-sounding names will not sell well if they are meaningless. Some overseas games use unusual word/character combinations to represent Japanese names, which players in Japan notice and complain about. Be sure to spend some time researching names that reflect the character or setting.

Randomly including Japanese elements will NOT impress Japanese players if they are not researched well. In fact, misusing Japanese cultural elements can be very risky. This can range from improperly designing kimonos (be sure to pay attention to collars in particular!) to randomly including shrines, family crests, or the rising red sun flag (which can all carry militaristic connotations). See Gestures and Symbols for more information.

Kanji is NOT the same as Traditional Chinese characters. These are different writing systems entirely.

Ads that work in China will not necessarily work in Japan if they make false claims about game content, use AI (which pixiv, a major art collective in Japan, prohibits), they are overly sexual, or they use a spokesperson/cosplayer to promote the game.

Card-based gameplay may not appeal to Japanese players (such as draws or card pools without a guarantee)