This post was published in October 2021, and describes where the Japanese localisation stood at the time, when volunteers carried the translation on Transifex. Since 2023 a dedicated translator at Odoo has taken the work on, and the translation platform itself moved to Weblate in August 2025. See Odoo's translation platform has moved from Transifex to Weblate for where things stand now.
Odoo's translation runs entirely on volunteer work.
This blog post sets out an exchange between Odoo's founder Fabien and our own Tashiro about translating Odoo, and as it explains, the Japanese translation of Odoo is not something Odoo S.A. supplies: volunteers do the work on Transifex (a web-based translation platform).
Where Odoo V14.0 stands
Looking at the state of the V14.0 translation on Transifex, 74% is translated into Japanese as things stand.
Looking at it on Odoo's own screens, the long-standing core business apps — purchase, inventory, manufacturing, sales — are almost entirely in Japanese in V14.0, and on the main screens you will hardly see an English phrase at all.
The newer apps around the edges are the other way round: English turns up anywhere from here and there to almost throughout.
That said, even where something has been translated, you do come across Japanese now and then that makes you stop and wonder.
A "from" that means a start date, for instance, has been translated as 「移動元」 — a source location — and there are help texts whose meaning only becomes clear if you switch the display back to English.
Translating Odoo is not a matter of turning English into Japanese. You have to understand the feature and put it into Japanese a user can follow.
When our own members translate, our policy is not to work mechanically from the English wording but to check how it reads on Odoo's screens. That makes translating Odoo take a considerable amount of time.
The Odoo Japanese translation team
Next, let us look at the translators who carry the Japanese localisation.
The Odoo Translators Japanese team on Transifex currently has 43 people registered — three coordinators and 40 translators.
Around half of them have actually translated something. (It appears half register on Transifex and never get to translating.)
For Odoo V14.0, two people have translated more than 10,000 strings, two more than 2,000, three in the hundreds, and a dozen or so fewer than 100.
It may sound like blowing our own trumpet, but our members contribute a great deal of Odoo's translation: Quartile members have translated more than a third of Odoo.
Because Odoo is open source it can be used free of charge, the Community Edition at least. But we think Odoo can grow in a sustainable way if users do more than simply use it and contribute in some form.
Translation is the easiest way there is to contribute to Odoo's growth, so we would be glad to see many people take it up without standing on ceremony.
For how to translate Odoo, please see this material for the procedure.
We also hold Odoo translation events regularly. If one appeals, do sign up from this event page — we look forward to having you.
On the Japanese localisation of Odoo