I first spoke to Shogo-san, CEO of Wabital Inc., at the end of 2025 to discuss a website build for his newly incorporated social media support company. Wabital helps clients both inside and outside Japan navigate the country's unique social media landscape.

The site needed to be trilingual — English, Japanese, and Spanish — given the company's strong focus on overseas client acquisition. Shogo-san also wanted the design to retain a distinctly Japanese character while remaining accessible to potential western clients.

At Tailroad Labs we specialise in multilingual sites, so the brief suited us perfectly. It was a great opportunity to put our language and cultural awareness across Japan and the English-speaking world to work.

There were two distinct challenges with this build: developing a design system that would resonate both in Japan and overseas, and handling the multilingual aspect of the site.

Japanese web design has traditionally favoured long-form text, dense information, and heavy imagery. Western digital design, by contrast, draws on a modernist tradition - running from Louis Sullivan's "form follows function" through the Bauhaus and Swiss design that emphasises minimalism, restraint, and visual hierarchy. This lineage is the reason most western software and websites feel pared back and utility-driven.

There has been a clear shift in Japan over the last decade towards a more minimalist sensibility, exemplified by brands like MUJI, which means there's now a rich body of work to draw inspiration from.

The challenge was to find a way to blend these two design philosophies. How do we keep Wabital's Japanese character intact, providing enough depth for Japanese readers, but avoiding the density that would overwhelm a western audience?

The multilingual aspect brought its own set of decisions. There are several ways to approach a multilingual website: maintaining entirely separate sites per language, building per-page translations, or hosting individual language pages on a single domain. The challenge was to land on an approach that served each language properly while keeping the site maintainable for a small team. Running multiple sites or a sprawl of language-specific pages can become a significant overhead depending on the size of the organisation.

From a design perspective, we looked at both Japanese and western websites, the wabi-sabi philosophy, and Japanese graphic design to inform our art direction. We found that similar Japanese companies in the same space leaned towards a corporate, tech-forward feel that didn't quite align with Wabital's brand. We kept some of those influences in mind for the more functional parts of the site — client success stories, blog posts, contact forms — but built Wabital's own visual identity around the call-to-action moments and brand-led sections.

More contemporary Japanese design leans heavily on 間 (ma) or ‘negative space’, giving the design room to breathe. You can see this transition in modern Japanese branding, in companies like Issey Miyake and Snow Peak.

While whitespace is a powerful tool, it was important to include enough content and information across the site to resonate with all three audiences. We brought in subtle Japanese design elements too: the Services section uses a bento-box layout, and we placed vertical Japanese text alongside each product card. These small touches help ground the site in its cultural philosophy without overpowering the western reader.

We also used video in the hero section to tell a story. The film we produced focuses on the 架け橋, cultural bridge that Wabital is aiming to build, with Japanese culture - both contemporary and traditional at its core.

For the site architecture, we used Sanity as the backend with a Next.js frontend. Sanity gave us the flexibility we needed for the multilingual functionality. As mentioned above, we needed an approach to three languages that was appropriate for a small company. Our decision was to make every content block translatable into all three languages within a single page. This means the site stays uniform across locales, new pages can be built quickly because the design is predictable, and the experience remains consistent for every user.

As part of all of website and ecommerce builds we provide custom video guides for your site so that you’re able to work with and update your site immediately after launch.

I had the pleasure of working with Dylan san on the creation of our company website.

We started talking little by little around January 2026, and the actual production process began in February. After about three months of working together, the website was completed in May 2026. Throughout the project, he was professional, thoughtful, and very easy to communicate with. He understood not only what I wanted to say, but also what I wanted people to feel when they visited the website.

As a Japanese founder building a company for both Japan and global markets, I needed someone who could understand cultural nuance, not just design a good-looking website. He did that very well. He helped turn my ideas, values, and business direction into a clear visual experience. His professional perspective was very helpful, especially when I was trying to explain abstract ideas in a simple and natural way.

What I also appreciated was his balance of careful communication and speed. He listened closely, made thoughtful suggestions, and moved things forward quickly without making the process feel rushed. He can also communicate in Japanese, which made the process much smoother. In addition, he created a user guide so that I could update the website myself after launch. That kind of support was very valuable and made a real difference. I believe this website became what it is because of his skill, patience, and human approach to creative work.

I would strongly recommend him to anyone looking for a web designer who can combine design skill, clear communication, cultural understanding, and a sincere attitude toward the client’s vision.