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Given that there's already a Stack Exchange that uses Japanese, if someone created a stack exchange proposal that used Japanese, would it be able to go into beta, without the dreaded "This launch is on hold" message?

Just to clarify, I'm not talking about the Stack Exchange which is about the Japanese language, which is predominantly conducted in English, but a Stack Exchange that had content in Japanese, about some specific topic.

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  • Unclear. Do you mean on stackexchange or on stackoverflow? They are different things.
    – peterh
    Jan 17, 2015 at 22:40
  • @PeterHorvath You can't host a Stack Exchange site "on stackoverflow". That doesn't even mean anything.
    – Andrew Grimm
    Jan 17, 2015 at 22:53
  • Sorry, but your post is completely incomprehensible. Do you think on another japanese SO site, for example on a japanese askubuntu?
    – peterh
    Jan 18, 2015 at 7:05
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    @PeterHorvath The English askubuntu site isn't a Stack Overflow site. It's a Stack Exchange site.
    – Andrew Grimm
    Jan 18, 2015 at 7:14
  • You are right. So, do you think on another japanese SE site?
    – peterh
    Jan 18, 2015 at 7:16
  • @PeterHorvath Yes, another SE site.
    – Andrew Grimm
    Jan 18, 2015 at 7:59
  • There is soon a polish askubuntu in orange stage here, and it seems growing fast. Imho the main problem that the SE mysteriously won't start nonenglish sites, maybe because they fear to lose the control.
    – peterh
    Jan 18, 2015 at 8:02
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    @PeterHorvath that's what this question is asking about. My hypothesis, which I want to confirm, is that since there's a Japanese version of Stack Overflow, they aren't going to delay proposals which have Japanese as their language.
    – Andrew Grimm
    Jan 18, 2015 at 8:05
  • Ok, so it is very good idea! I suggest to edit your question, first: make clear, what do you want to test. Second: theoretically any nonenglish site will go into beta, so the answer will be a clear (but meaningless) yes. Make clear, that you are talking about this unofficial hold!
    – peterh
    Jan 18, 2015 at 11:52

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For the moment, it seems like the answer to this is (unfortunately, in my opinion) no. The team has made it clear recently that they're now only interested in supporting localized versions of Stack Overflow in other languages. This answer by Tim Post says the following:

We will not be able to support sites other than Stack Overflow in other languages for the foreseeable future. This is a people issue mostly, as in we don't have enough of them, but there are technical challenges as well.

While some of the "technical challenges" for localizing Japanese have clearly been solved, apparently the remaining technical and personnel issues are enough that they will not be considering adding more sites for the foreseeable future. This has been confirmed in several comments elsewhere, such as this one by Robert Cartaino on the possibility of the proposed Portuguese Language site having a Portuguese interface:

This will be an English Language interface. We have no plans to support switching UIs between languages nor are we currently supporting non-English sites besides Stack Overflow(s)

Most likely, such a proposal would be closed as "not currently feasible", which says:

This proposal requires technical or personnel resources that Stack Exchange currently lacks in order to proceed. If these circumstances change, we will open a new discussion to announce that.

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