Narration Guide for Government DX Videos: Practical Standards for Plain Japanese and Multilingual Workflows

In government DX videos, the first thing to fix is not information volume, but comprehension speed

In government and municipal DX promotion videos, accuracy is always prioritized. Yet many scripts are technically correct and still fail to communicate. This is especially common in resident-facing digital service guides covering portals, online applications, cashless payment, and reservation systems. The issue is not simply too much information. The real task is to redesign information around the audience’s speed of understanding.

In practical narration writing, a good baseline is 40 to 55 Japanese characters per sentence, with one sentence carrying only one piece of information. For a one-minute video, Japanese narration usually works best at 220 to 260 characters. For careful step-by-step operation guidance, 180 to 220 characters is safer. During recording, a slightly slower pace than usual—roughly equivalent to 280 to 320 Japanese characters per minute—helps older residents, foreign residents, and digitally inexperienced users follow along.

Practical standards for applying Plain Japanese to narration

Plain Japanese does not mean childish wording. In public-sector video narration, I organize it into five practical standards.

First, replace technical terms with explanatory language. For example, instead of “electronic application,” say “applying by smartphone or computer.” Instead of “authentication,” say “checking whether it is really you.”
Second, do not omit the subject. Rather than saying “You can apply,” say “Residents can apply,” so the target audience is clear.
Third, avoid layered negatives. “It may not be available” is less clear than “Some procedures cannot use this service.”
Fourth, arrange instructions in chronological order. “First, log in. Next, enter the required items. Finally, send the form.” Dividing the process into three steps significantly reduces cognitive load.
Fifth, reduce kanji density. In subtitles and on-screen text, readability improves when roughly 30% is kanji and 70% is hiragana or katakana in overall visual balance.

For review, the ideal team includes the municipal staff member, public relations staff, front-desk personnel, and a supervisor with knowledge of Japanese language education. If possible, also test with two or three foreign residents and one or two older residents. Do not ask only whether they understood the words. Ask whether they understood what to do next.

Multilingual rollout should be designed as reconstruction, not translation

A common failure in multilingual resident communication is direct translation from the original Japanese script into English, Chinese, Vietnamese, and other languages. Administrative Japanese often relies on indirect phrasing, and literal translation can make it even less clear. The key is to define units of meaning in Japanese first, then reconstruct them for each language.

I recommend the following workflow:
1. Convert the Japanese script into Plain Japanese
2. Build a terminology list, such as login, identity verification, fee, and reception hours
3. Organize screen captures and script lines with timecodes
4. Create an English base script as an intermediate reference
5. Have native translators reconstruct each language version
6. Check read-aloud duration before recording
7. Test provisional subtitles with resident monitors
8. Proceed to final recording, mixing, and subtitle versioning

A highly effective method is to manage everything in Excel or Google Sheets with columns for: line number, original Japanese, Plain Japanese, English base script, each target language, duration, and screen notes. This alone can reduce revision cost by 30 to 40 percent. For production, Premiere Pro works well for subtitles, iZotope RX for audio cleanup, and Frame.io or Dropbox Replay for review sharing.

What makes narration work is trust and clarity of instruction

The voice in a government video should not sound overly cheerful, but it should not be too rigid either. The ideal tone is the reassurance of being guided politely at a service counter. A stable mid-range voice works well. Sentence endings should not drop too hard; they should leave enough openness for the next action. In instructional sections, lightly emphasizing button names, form fields, dates, and numbers improves comprehension.

For recording direction, it helps to capture three versions: take one for natural delivery, take two for information priority, and take three at a slower pace for older listeners. This gives editors flexibility. As a practical audio target, background music around -24 to -20 LUFS and final narration around -16 LUFS helps maintain clarity across distribution environments. When subtitles are used, matching the spoken narration exactly to the subtitle text is generally the most user-friendly choice for resident guidance.

Effective DX videos are built by turning kindness into standards

Narration for government DX promotion videos is not just about reading text aloud. It is about designing an experience in which residents feel, “I understand this,” and “I can probably do this myself.” Plain Japanese, multilingual reconstruction, appropriate speaking speed, and clear step-by-step instruction—standardizing these four elements dramatically improves the practical value of the video.

If you are unsure during production, return to one final question:
“After watching this video, will residents know exactly what to do next without hesitation?”

If the answer is yes, the narration is doing its job.