Despite "Pachinko" taking place in Korea and Japan, the original text of the book is written in English. The series, however, is told in three different languages — Korean, Japanese, and English — to add authenticity to the story and its characters. For viewers who are unfamiliar with the main languages spoken in the series, there are colour-coded subtitles (yellow for Korean and blue for Japanese) to help differentiate between both languages.
Showrunner Soo Hugh spoke to Forbes about the significance of language change. "I can't imagine why you would want to do a show like this all in English," Hugh said. "You lose so much of the nuance of what it means to code switch between two cultures, the two worlds. You can't get any of it. Even within the languages there's subtle nuances."