While Japanese creators have been doing Kickstarter-funded games for years now, they have always done this via some kind of external party that handled the business end of things, as well as the PR and handling of their crowdfunding campaign. To further confuse things, Kickstarter has never totally supported Japanese creators, until now.

The company has announced they’re officially supporting Japanese creators now, meaning indie game developers, designers, and so on within Japan can launch their own projects and link them to Japanese bank accounts and identification. The company also made Japanese versions of the Kickstarter website and mobile apps.

A bunch of Japanese-made projects are already up on Kickstarter:

• Ukiyo-e Heroes: Boss Fights
  Merging an ancient Japanese art form with contemporary culture, the creators of Ukiyo-e Heroes produce traditional Japanese woodblock prints depicting video game characters. They’ve returned to Kickstarter with a new series of artworks “full of energy and conflict.”

• eOneBook
  Toggle between Japanese and English text as you read this innovative ebook collecting all eighteen volumes of the 1980s manga series Fist of the North Star.

• Maruhi Cup and Saucer
  Designed to make everyday life “just a little more special,” this cup and saucer combo contains a secret compartment where you can hide a note, a toy, or a treat.

• Space Editor
  Players participate in the creation of the universe in this tabletop game inspired by the tale of the Hindu god Brahma.

Here’s the full update:

As of today, we are officially open to creators in Japan.

Artists, authors, filmmakers, musicians, designers, and creators of all types can now launch projects and find support from Kickstarter’s global community of backers.

Japanese culture embodies a spirit of creativity and a tradition of innovation — characteristics that run deep within Kickstarter, too. Since our launch eight years ago, more than 300 creators in Japan have worked with collaborators in other countries to run Kickstarter projects, including a documentary about sake production, an action platformer from a legendary video game designer, and a toy robot that connects family members through voice messages. In the same time frame, nearly 100,000 backers from Japan have supported Kickstarter projects from all of our creative categories and from all over the world. Today we’re honored to build on this strong foundation by officially welcoming all creators from to Japan to join our community.

In addition to making it easy for creators in Japan to launch projects using their Japanese bank account and identification, we’ve made the Kickstarter site and mobile apps available in Japanese. We’re also providing customer support and project review in Japanese. Kickstarter is dedicated to supporting the needs of Japanese creators, and we will continue listening and improving the experience for the local community in Japan.

We can’t wait to see what Japanese creators bring to life on Kickstarter.