diff --git a/.github/workflows/test.yml b/.github/workflows/test.yml
index dd4e3e9da59e..8d20dd7588ee 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/test.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/test.yml
@@ -229,4 +229,8 @@ jobs:
         env:
           DIFF_FILE: get_diff_files.txt
           CHANGELOG_CACHE_FILE_PATH: tests/fixtures/changelog-feed.json
+          # By default, when `process.env.NODE_ENV === 'test'` it forces the
+          # tests run only in English. The exception is the
+          # `tests/translations/` suite which needs all languages to be set up.
+          ENABLED_LANGUAGES: ${{ matrix.test-group == 'translations' && 'all' || '' }}
         run: npm test -- tests/${{ matrix.test-group }}/
diff --git a/lib/languages.js b/lib/languages.js
index 43855ab8a478..77e0cc6956c1 100644
--- a/lib/languages.js
+++ b/lib/languages.js
@@ -113,10 +113,17 @@ const languages = {
 }
 
 if (process.env.ENABLED_LANGUAGES) {
+  if (process.env.ENABLED_LANGUAGES.toLowerCase() !== 'all') {
+    Object.keys(languages).forEach((code) => {
+      if (!process.env.ENABLED_LANGUAGES.includes(code)) delete languages[code]
+    })
+    console.log(`ENABLED_LANGUAGES: ${process.env.ENABLED_LANGUAGES}`)
+  }
+} else if (process.env.NODE_ENV === 'test') {
+  // Unless explicitly set, when running tests default to just English
   Object.keys(languages).forEach((code) => {
-    if (!process.env.ENABLED_LANGUAGES.includes(code)) delete languages[code]
+    if (code !== 'en') delete languages[code]
   })
-  console.log(`ENABLED_LANGUAGES: ${process.env.ENABLED_LANGUAGES}`)
 }
 
 export const languageKeys = Object.keys(languages)
diff --git a/tests/content/api-search.js b/tests/content/api-search.js
index eaf848ae8694..d667d59ac0f0 100644
--- a/tests/content/api-search.js
+++ b/tests/content/api-search.js
@@ -71,46 +71,6 @@ describeIfElasticsearchURL('search v1 middleware', () => {
     expect(res.headers['surrogate-key']).toBe('api-search:en')
   })
 
-  test('basic search in Japanese', async () => {
-    const sp = new URLSearchParams()
-    // To see why this will work,
-    // see tests/content/fixtures/search-indexes/github-docs-dotcom-en-records.json
-    // which clearly has a record with the title "Foo"
-    sp.set('query', 'foo')
-    sp.set('language', 'ja')
-    const res = await get('/api/search/v1?' + sp)
-    expect(res.statusCode).toBe(200)
-    const results = JSON.parse(res.text)
-
-    expect(results.meta).toBeTruthy()
-    expect(results.meta.found.value).toBeGreaterThanOrEqual(1)
-    expect(results.meta.found.relation).toBeTruthy()
-    expect(results.meta.page).toBe(1)
-    expect(results.meta.size).toBeGreaterThanOrEqual(1)
-    expect(results.meta.took.query_msec).toBeGreaterThanOrEqual(0)
-    expect(results.meta.took.total_msec).toBeGreaterThanOrEqual(0)
-
-    // Might be empty but at least an array
-    expect(results.hits).toBeTruthy()
-    // The word 'foo' appears in more than 1 document in the fixtures.
-    expect(results.hits.length).toBeGreaterThanOrEqual(1)
-    // ...but only one has the word "foo" in its title so we can
-    // be certain it comes first.
-    const hit = results.hits[0]
-    // This specifically checks what we expect of version v1
-    expect(hit.url).toBe('/ja/foo')
-    expect(hit.title).toBe('フー')
-    expect(hit.breadcrumbs).toBe('fooing')
-
-    // Check that it can be cached at the CDN
-    expect(res.headers['set-cookie']).toBeUndefined()
-    expect(res.headers['cache-control']).toContain('public')
-    expect(res.headers['cache-control']).toMatch(/max-age=[1-9]/)
-    expect(res.headers['surrogate-control']).toContain('public')
-    expect(res.headers['surrogate-control']).toMatch(/max-age=[1-9]/)
-    expect(res.headers['surrogate-key']).toBe('api-search:ja')
-  })
-
   test('debug search', async () => {
     const sp = new URLSearchParams()
     sp.set('query', 'foo')
diff --git a/tests/rendering/homepage.js b/tests/rendering/homepage.js
index b303360811b9..5c4c822fb4c0 100644
--- a/tests/rendering/homepage.js
+++ b/tests/rendering/homepage.js
@@ -11,21 +11,9 @@ describe('rendering the home page(s)', () => {
     expect(products.length).toBe(1)
   })
 
-  test('homepage in non-default language has product links', async () => {
-    const $ = await getDOM('/ja')
-    const products = $('[data-testid=product]')
-    expect(products.length).toBe(1)
-  })
-
   test('homepage in non-default product', async () => {
     const $ = await getDOM('/en/enterprise-cloud@latest')
     const products = $('[data-testid=product]')
     expect(products.length).toBe(1)
   })
-
-  test('homepage in non-default product in non-default language', async () => {
-    const $ = await getDOM('/ja/enterprise-cloud@latest')
-    const products = $('[data-testid=product]')
-    expect(products.length).toBe(1)
-  })
 })
diff --git a/tests/rendering/release-notes.js b/tests/rendering/release-notes.js
index 492194acf937..eb90fe0f8e48 100644
--- a/tests/rendering/release-notes.js
+++ b/tests/rendering/release-notes.js
@@ -2,9 +2,16 @@ import { describe, jest } from '@jest/globals'
 
 import enterpriseServerReleases from '../../lib/enterprise-server-releases.js'
 import { get } from '../helpers/e2etest.js'
-import languages from '../../lib/languages.js'
 import Page from '../../lib/page.js'
 
+// The English content page's `versions:` frontmatter is the source
+// of (convenient) truth about which versions of this page is available.
+const page = await Page.init({
+  basePath: 'content',
+  relativePath: 'admin/release-notes.md',
+  languageCode: 'en',
+})
+
 describe('server', () => {
   jest.setTimeout(60 * 1000)
 
@@ -21,35 +28,9 @@ describe('server', () => {
     expect(res.statusCode).toBe(200)
   })
 
-  test('every version that has release-notes', async () => {
-    // The English content page's `versions:` frontmatter is the source
-    // of (convenient) truth about which versions of this page is available.
-    const page = await Page.init({
-      basePath: 'content',
-      relativePath: 'admin/release-notes.md',
-      languageCode: 'en',
-    })
-    const testLanguages = []
-    for (const [langCode, langObj] of Object.entries(languages)) {
-      if (!langObj.wip) {
-        testLanguages.push(langCode)
-      }
-    }
-
-    const statusCodes = await Promise.all(
-      page.applicableVersions.map(async (version) => {
-        return await Promise.all(
-          testLanguages.map(async (language) => {
-            const url = `/${language}/${version}/admin/release-notes`
-            const res = await get(url)
-            return [url, res.statusCode]
-          })
-        )
-      })
-    )
-    for (const [url, status] of statusCodes.flat()) {
-      expect(status, url).toBe(200)
-    }
-    expect.assertions(page.applicableVersions.length * testLanguages.length)
+  test.each(page.applicableVersions)('version %s that has release-notes', async (version) => {
+    const url = `/en/${version}/admin/release-notes`
+    const res = await get(url)
+    expect(res.statusCode).toBe(200)
   })
 })
diff --git a/tests/translations/frame.js b/tests/translations/frame.js
index 7fb3932ffea9..462c37608c67 100644
--- a/tests/translations/frame.js
+++ b/tests/translations/frame.js
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import { languageKeys } from '../../lib/languages.js'
 import { blockIndex } from '../../middleware/block-robots.js'
-import { getDOMCached as getDOM } from '../helpers/e2etest.js'
+import { get, getDOMCached as getDOM } from '../helpers/e2etest.js'
+import Page from '../../lib/page.js'
 
 const langs = languageKeys.filter((lang) => lang !== 'en')
 
@@ -56,3 +57,60 @@ describe('frame', () => {
     )
   })
 })
+
+describe('homepage', () => {
+  test.each(langs)('homepage in non-default product in non-default language', async (lang) => {
+    const $ = await getDOM(`/${lang}/enterprise-cloud@latest`)
+    const products = $('[data-testid=product]')
+    expect(products.length).toBe(1)
+  })
+
+  test.each(langs)('homepage in non-default language has product links', async (lang) => {
+    const $ = await getDOM(`/${lang}`)
+    const products = $('[data-testid=product]')
+    expect(products.length).toBe(1)
+  })
+})
+
+const page = await Page.init({
+  basePath: 'content',
+  relativePath: 'admin/release-notes.md',
+  languageCode: 'en',
+})
+
+describe('release notes', () => {
+  // Return an array of tuples for each language and each first version
+  // per plan. E.g. ...
+  //   [
+  //      ['ja', 'enterprise-server@3.8'],
+  //      ['pt', 'enterprise-server@3.8'],
+  //      ...
+  //      ['ja', 'github-ae@latest'],
+  //      ['pt', 'github-ae@latest'],
+  //      ...
+  //
+  // This is useful because if we test every single individual version of
+  // every plan the test just takes way too long.
+  const getReleaseNotesVersionCombinations = (langs) => {
+    const combinations = []
+    const prefixes = []
+    for (const version of page.applicableVersions) {
+      const prefix = version.split('@')[0]
+      if (prefixes.includes(prefix)) {
+        continue
+      }
+      prefixes.push(prefix)
+      combinations.push(...langs.map((lang) => [lang, version]))
+    }
+    return combinations
+  }
+
+  test.each(getReleaseNotesVersionCombinations(langs))(
+    'latest release notes',
+    async (lang, version) => {
+      const url = `/${lang}/${version}/admin/release-notes`
+      const res = await get(url)
+      expect(res.statusCode).toBe(200)
+    }
+  )
+})
diff --git a/tests/unit/get-data.js b/tests/unit/get-data.js
index afe8b8651844..76c3932c614d 100644
--- a/tests/unit/get-data.js
+++ b/tests/unit/get-data.js
@@ -10,7 +10,8 @@ import { DataDirectory } from '../helpers/data-directory.js'
 describe('get-data', () => {
   let dd
   const enDirBefore = languages.en.dir
-  const jaDirBefore = languages.ja.dir
+  // Only `en` is available in jest tests, so pretend we also have Japanese
+  languages.ja = Object.assign({}, languages.en, {})
 
   beforeAll(() => {
     dd = new DataDirectory({
@@ -65,7 +66,6 @@ describe('get-data', () => {
   afterAll(() => {
     dd.destroy()
     languages.en.dir = enDirBefore
-    languages.ja.dir = jaDirBefore
   })
 
   test('getDataByLanguage variables English', () => {
@@ -217,7 +217,8 @@ front: >'matter
 describe('get-data on corrupt translations', () => {
   let dd
   const enDirBefore = languages.en.dir
-  const jaDirBefore = languages.ja.dir
+  // Only `en` is available in jest tests, so pretend we also have Japanese
+  languages.ja = Object.assign({}, languages.en, {})
 
   beforeAll(() => {
     dd = new DataDirectory({
@@ -263,7 +264,6 @@ describe('get-data on corrupt translations', () => {
   afterAll(() => {
     dd.destroy()
     languages.en.dir = enDirBefore
-    languages.ja.dir = jaDirBefore
   })
 
   test('getDataByLanguage on a corrupt .yml file', () => {