Japanese applications on English Windows 10 and vice-versa

I would like to know if I can install and run Japanese applications on an English-based version of Windows 10. This was not possible on any version up to and including Windows 8. The best one would hope for was to change the default language of menus, etc.
For example, in Win 8, if I have installed the English version, I cannot install the Japanese version of InDesign, which has many features not available in the English version of the program. When I tried installing the English InDesign on a Japanese Windows 7, it didn't take either.
The people at Dell Japan wrote today that all I have to do in their pre-installed Japanese version of Win 10 is go to the "language and region settings", but surely this cannot be right. I have hunted through the Windows page but came up empty-handed.
Can anyone show me where to find a definitive answer to this question? Thanks (in advance.)

Have you tried to load the Japanese Language Pack (Control Panel -> Languages, Add Language), set your time/date settings to Japanese and your region to Japan? I think this last one, your region, is what makes the version install or not. If you have done all these and changed the default display language to Japanese, you should be able to install the Japanese version without any issue. To make sure you have to e-mail Adobe. Here in Greece, we can install the English version and then install the Greek Language Pack if we want Greek interface. I'm not aware though of any program requiring a specific Windows language to install. My problems usually arise from legacy (non-Unicode) programs that try to display Greek and display garbage because the language for non-Unicode programs (in Regional Settings) is set to English US rather than Greek. Once we change it to Greek and restart all legacy programs display correctly in Greek. The only advantage using a Greek Windows version is that all settings are automatically set to Greek, so a novice user has nothing to worry about. But in earlier Windows there were some compatibility bugs in the Greek version that were not in the English version. I remember some Greek programs did not display correctly in the Greek version (probably due to incorrect font settings) and displayed fine in the English version after we had changed the language for non-Unicode programs to Greek! So some of us more advanced users often avoided the Greek version and used English instead. Also all new Windows versions came first in English and the Greek version was out one or two months later, we just couldn't wait, so we used the English version. Windows 8 and 10 are the exceptions.

Almost NO program written for Japanese works in English Windows. Greek, Cyrrilic, and other Eastern European languages all fall in the same small Unicode range, so there is no problem. Japanese and Chinese require a much larger range of characters and can be written vertically or even right to left, so the base programming is different.
My question is whether Windows 10 addressed this issue. I guess not, but it would be good to hear from someone at Microsoft what the situation is and if they ever intend to address it and catch up with MAC.

Well, if I'm not wrong, installing the Japanese Language Pack should also enable the greater Unicode range and complex writing, right-to-left, top-to-down, so there should not be a problem. And I think the Arial Unicode MS font installed with almost every Office version (can be downloaded separately for free) has the full Unicode range. So if it is a matter of fonts, just install the necessary fonts, although they should install automatically when adding a CJK language (Chinese, Japanese or Korean). This was the case back in Windows XP, so why not in Vista, 7, 8 and 10 that are newer and should have better support? In any case, I would try to add Japanese in your current setup and install the software and see how it works. If there is any problem, you can uninstall them and seek for another solution, but they could work, give it a try. Don't forget that you can install any local version of Windows with the same key. At least this is the case for Greek, it must be for others. That is if you buy the Greek version but you decide you want English, you can clean install with an English version DVD-ROM and use the same key (for the same version Home or Pro, of course). The opposite is also true, that is using the English key to install the Greek version. So in worst case you could install the Japanese version in another partition or other disk and dual boot. You would then gradually install all your software in the Japanese version, without hurry, since you can use your computer with the English version. When complete you just delete the English partition and use only the Japanese. But I don't think it will be necessary. Just convert English to Japanese and try your software to see hot it works.

No go. I have the Japanese language pack installed on English Win 10 for daily use, but when I tried to install Japanese MS Office, InDesign, and one other program, they were all refused.
Then I went and tried to install the English versions of MS Office and InDesign on Japanese Win 10, and they didn't work either.
All I really want to know is what the principles at work are. Printer drivers, simple multimedia programs, etc. designed for the Japanese platform and with only Japanese menus have worked well on English Windows since Window 7. But I can't figure out what the underlying rules are...

Then the installer checks the language version and blocks installation. There is no compatibility issue involved, they simply do that because they don't want software designed for Japan to be used outside Japan and vice versa. I remember some arcade games, now playable with MAME emulator that had a different ROM set for US version, Japanese version and World or Europe version. The game was essentially the same, only the display language changed and this could some times be adjusted from the DIP switches, so there was no specific reason for that other than the manufacturer didn't want the same version working in all countries. Probably they made one version earlier from the others and didn't want it to be used outside the intended territory.

So unless you can bypass the language check somehow, you need Japanese Windows as far as I understood. You could probably find the ISO and download it. Provided you activate it using a genuine serial, technically this is not illegal, but I guess Microsoft has a different opinion... Not sure for other languages, but a Greek serial can be used for all versions, 32-bit or 64-bit Greek or English. The same goes for an English serial. Your case could be different though...

Hi NIRC, any luck in solving the problem of running Japanese version of software on English version of Windows 10 (with the Japanese language pack installed)?

Gave up. Don't work.

If I want to run Japanese version of software, is it better to buy the Surface Pro in Japan?

Judging from the problem the original poster had, yes. But there should be a workaround... Why don't you download the Japanese version of Windows from Microsoft Tech Bench and clean-install it? Your genuine English (or any language serial) should be usable without any issue. Just make sure you download the same edition (Windows 10 for full Multilanguage unrestricted Home or Pro, Single Language for a SL serial etc).