JP Locale

Many fan-translations rely on the original JP fonts or text encoding (what allows you to see Japanese Characters on your computer).
That also goes to say: JP games need JP locale.

Did you know?

Some official translations actually do require JP locale or use Locale Emulator, because of the programming work required to change from JP encoding to English encoding.

It’s more cost-efficient to stay with JP encoding and include a program like Locale Emulator to emulate the ability to see JP (or English-translated) characters.

Setting up system-wide JP Locale

Windows

Download Locale Emulator. That’s all you need.

Optionally, you can also download the JP Language Pack from the Windows System Settings.

  1. Go to System Settings > Languages > Click Add a language.
  2. Select 日本語 and check Language Pack.
  3. Uncheck Text-to-speech, Speech Recognition and Handwriting, then click Install.

Linux / Steam Deck

For Unix systems, you need JP Locale if you want to use any JP files.
If you don’t do this, your games won’t work, and you can have issues deleting JP files because your system can’t read those language files– this includes Steam Deck.
Follow these steps depending on your OS.
After you’ve finished running these commands, proceed to the Lutris step.

​

Run these commands in the Terminal:

sudo pacman-key --init
sudo pacman-key --populate archlinux
sudo pacman -S glibc
sudo sed -i "s%#ja_JP.UTF-8 UTF-8%ja_JP.UTF-8 UTF-8%" /etc/locale.gen
sudo locale-gen
Warning

After the SteamOS 3.5 update the Japanese locale is installed on the Steam Deck by default, making the following instructions no longer necessary. Run these commands in the Terminal:

sudo steamos-readonly disable
sudo pacman-key --init
sudo pacman-key --populate archlinux
sudo pacman -S glibc
sudo sed -i "s%#ja_JP.UTF-8 UTF-8%ja_JP.UTF-8 UTF-8%" /etc/locale.gen
sudo locale-gen

and if you don’t plan on modifying your Steam Deck anymore than this, run this as well:

sudo steamos-readonly enable

Lutris JP Locale

Flatpak

Info

For all platforms that use the flatpak version (including Steam Deck): Run these commands in the Terminal:

After enabling system-wide JP locale (see above), we’ll also need to setup the Lutris program so it can read JP files & play them.
Thankfully, Lutris has a new locale option! Although, you need to enable it manually.
Type the following commands in the Terminal.\

flatpak config  --system --set languages 'en;ja'
flatpak config  --user --set languages 'en;ja'
flatpak update

After, you will see a new Locale Drop Down Menu in the System Options tab in the Lutris game config permanently.
Select ja_JP.utf8 for all games that require it.

Warning

This only tells your VN to use JP Locale. If you don’t have system-wide JP Locale enabled, you can’t read/copy/delete files that have JP characters in them, meaning your VN. Please follow the above section first!

Automatic Script for Steam Deck

Sometimes your JP Locale settings can get reset because of a major Steam Deck update or because you needed to reimage your OS.
You can download this script from XargonWan to automate things.
To run it, open the Terminal in the location of the script, then run this command:\

sh ./japanese_locale_enabler.sh

This script does the same thing as the above system-wide commands for the Steam Deck.