2026-09-01 –, Conference Management Room4
FOSS4G software often has an international user base.Therefore, many FOSS4G software programs include internationalization features when they are created. These internationalization features are used to localize the software for various languages. This presentation will discuss the history, current status, and challenges of Japanese localization.
FOSS4G software often has an international user base. Therefore, many FOSS4G software programs include internationalization features during development. These features are used to localize the software into various languages. In Japan, information on FOSS4G software with extensive localization is widely available, but the availability of Japanese documentation for software that hasn't been localized is limited.
QGIS has a high rate of Japanese translation in its documentation, making it widely used in Japan, and numerous Japanese explanatory books have been published. However, Japanese resources for other FOSS4G software are very scarce.
In the past, when using Japanese in computer software, there were multiple Japanese character encoding systems, and complex methods for handling them existed. Furthermore, various problems arose when dealing with such Japanese codes during localization and document creation processes.
With the advent of Unicode, a standard environment for handling Japanese on computers was established, and standard methods for software Japanese localization have also been established.
This presentation will cover the history, current status, and challenges of localizing FOSS4G software and documentation into Japanese.
Current Status and Challenges of the Internationalization and Japanese Localization of Technical Documentation for Geospatial Open Source Software https://pub-files.atlas.jp/fs/public/gisa2024/ver_3/abstract/ja/E7-01.pdf
Indicate what is (are) the open source project(s) essential in your talk:QGIS , GRASS, PostGIS
I make my conference contribution available under the CC BY 4.0 license. The conference contribution comprises the abstract, the text contribution for the conference proceedings, the presentation materials as well as the video recording and live transmission of the presentation:
My first encounter with GIS was about 35 years ago when I developed a program on VAX. The first FOSS4G conference I attended was held in Victoria, Canada. I was working on the Japanese localization of QGIS. In recent years, I've been mostly involved with organizations that support those who need IT during disasters, and I sometimes use spatial information in those activities.