As did their writing- Kanji, Hirigana, and Katakata.

I heard from someone who knows Japanese that there are something like seven different dialects depending on where in Japan you are.

Oh! I thought it was three. I guess that might explain the mistranslations. I can only assume that the cards that are created and produced are not all in one location.

could be worse- Chinese has something close to 20 dialects still spoken... scary, ain't it?

sheesh, makes you wonder how they can communicate with one another, i cant imagine having to remember 20 different ways to say Hello let alone full convos

That's the problem solved by one of the ancient Chinese emperors(I forget which at the moment)- a unified writing system, so even if the dialects differ THAT badly, the writing is the same.

Ni Hao is Hello in most Chinese dialects.