Frequently Asked Questions

We retrieve up to 100 pages from your original Japanese site and translate them into the languages you choose. The maximum number of languages varies by plan: 3 languages for the Starter Plan and 10 languages for the Business Plan and above. With the Business Plan, up to 100 × 10 = 1,000 translated pages can be delivered. The page limit is counted by the number of Japanese pages retrieved and is 100 pages on every plan.

It is the number of HTML pages (URLs) retrieved from your original Japanese site. Images, PDFs, CSS, and JavaScript are not counted. A page counts as one page no matter how many languages it is translated into. For sites with 101 or more pages, the first 100 pages in sitemap order are covered.

Yes. Because we fetch and translate your publicly available HTML, it works regardless of your CMS or hosting. It works with WordPress, STUDIO, Wix, Jimdo, Shopify, Webflow, static HTML, and custom CMSs. Pages that require login and content rendered solely by JavaScript are not supported.

Because we translate and serve the HTML of your public pages as is, forms and embedded widgets work on translated pages too, and submissions still go to your original site. Pages that require login, pages whose content varies per user (such as shopping carts), and content rendered solely by JavaScript are not translated.

Yes. Sotomuke automatically detects images containing text, such as banners, menus and price lists, and translates the text. On translated pages, the translation can be shown below the image or overlaid on top of it (free, on all plans). "Automatic redrawing," which redraws the image itself as a translated version, is a one-time purchase of ¥100 per image per language, and you can preview the result before buying. You can also upload a translated image created by a designer to replace the original. Image alt text is translated as well.

The approach is different. JavaScript tag-based tools replace text in the visitor's browser, so depending on the setup, search engine and AI crawlers may still see the page in Japanese. Proxy-based tools require changes to your production domain's DNS or CDN. CMS plugins must be installed and maintained on your site, such as in WordPress. Sotomuke serves translated HTML pages on a separate subdomain, so no changes to your site are needed, you can publish with a single DNS record, and crawlers receive the translated pages directly. Your Japanese site is never touched.

Sotomuke has no setup fees, and the Starter plan (up to 100 pages and 3 languages) is ¥4,980/month (excluding tax). Unlike hiring a translation agency, costs don't increase with the number of pages or updates, and adding languages within the same plan incurs no extra charge. Previews are free, and no card details are required.

Yes, as long as the URL is accessible from the internet. Environments protected by Basic authentication or IP restrictions cannot be retrieved. You can review the site in preview before it goes live, then rebuild it using the production URL after launch.

No. All you add is a single CNAME record for a new subdomain (e.g. global.example.co.jp). Every language is served under that subdomain on its own path, such as /en/ or /zh-Hans/. Your existing records and Japanese site are left completely untouched.

A language code path such as /en/, /zh-Hans/, or /ko/ is added under the subdomain you publish to (e.g., global.example.co.jp). For example, /company/ on the original site becomes /en/company/. All URL conversion and link rewriting is automatic.

Sotomuke automatically issues and renews certificates for your publishing subdomains (via Cloudflare). No action is required on your part.

Publishing is currently supported on subdomains. Serving content under the root domain, such as example.co.jp/en/, requires routing configuration on your own CDN or server, so please contact us to discuss your case.

You can correct translations sentence by sentence in the dashboard's editor. Corrected translations are locked and won't be overwritten by subsequent automatic updates. Add company and product names to the glossary to ensure they're always translated consistently. Turn on "Review before publishing" and new translations won't go live until you approve them.

We automatically check your original site (weekly on the Starter plan, daily on Business and above) and translate and publish only new or changed pages. If you want changes reflected right away, click "Re-fetch" in your dashboard. We'll email you a summary of the changes.

We use the latest large language models, translating paragraph by paragraph with the surrounding context in mind. Sentences containing links or bold text are handled as a whole, so translations never read like words pieced together. You can lock specific terms using the glossary.

We do not currently arrange human translation within the service. However, translations reviewed by your translation agency or in-house staff can be applied and locked sentence by sentence from the editing screen.

Only delivery of the translated pages stops. Your Japanese site keeps running as usual. Translated page URLs redirect to the original Japanese pages. You can cancel anytime from "Billing" in the dashboard, and your pages stay published until the end of the billing period. We do not offer prorated refunds, but there is no minimum contract period or cancellation fee. You can export your translations and glossary as CSV at any time.

Your first charge is made once you select a plan and complete payment, and your subscription then renews automatically on the same day each month. Billing begins even before DNS setup is complete, but the steps to go live take only a few minutes. Previewing and signing up are free, with no card details required.

We accept credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and JCB). Receipts and invoices showing our Qualified Invoice Issuer registration number are emailed to you by our payment processor, Stripe, and can be reissued at any time from "Billing" in your dashboard. For annual contracts, please contact us about paying by bank transfer or invoice.

You can add as many sites as you like from your dashboard. If you publish five or more sites, the Agency Plan (¥29,800/month for up to 5 sites, plus ¥4,980 per site from the 6th site onward) offers better value. Web production companies and agencies are welcome to ask about partner terms via "Contact Us."

You can change your plan at any time from "Billing." Upgrades take effect immediately with the difference prorated, while downgrades apply from your next renewal date. If your number of languages exceeds the new plan's limit, please reduce your languages first.

Translated pages are pre-generated and served from Cloudflare's edge network in over 300 cities worldwide. For overseas visitors, this is almost always faster than serving directly from a server in Japan.

Each language page has its own URL, and pages are linked to one another using canonical and hreflang tags. This is exactly the multilingual site structure Google recommends.

Yes. Tags on your pages are delivered as-is, so existing Google Analytics, GTM, and ad tags also work on translated pages. Because the serving hostname changes (e.g., global.example.co.jp), add that hostname to a data stream in the same GA4 property.

Yes. Translated pages are returned from the server as translated HTML, so crawlers from OpenAI, Anthropic, Perplexity, Google, and Bing can read them as-is. The robots.txt includes Content Signals declarations permitting use for search and AI answers, an llms.txt listing pages in all languages is generated automatically, and requests with Accept: text/markdown receive Markdown. After publishing, updates are also notified to Bing and others via IndexNow.

Only the translated pages are affected; your Japanese site is not impacted. Pages are served on Cloudflare's infrastructure, and generated pages are cached at the edge.

We only retrieve your public pages and do not require access to your servers or CMS. Card details are handled by Stripe and are never stored by us. Login is passwordless via an email link, so no passwords are stored.