Japanese Translation Services

If you have Japanese clients, customers, or employees, you will need Japanese translation services in order to reach them in their own language. With over 127 million people living in Japan, and an additional 5 million Japanese speakers outside of the country, Japanese is the 9th most widely spoken language in the world. Although many Japanese have some facility with English, websites, software, and documentation should all be translated into Japanese for best results in this market.

Japanese translation is just one part of a larger process known as Japanese globalization. Japanese globalization is the process of adapting your products (software, documentation, and websites) functionally, linguistically and culturally for Japanese speakers worldwide.

Japanese Website Translation
IDC studies have shown that customers are 4 times as likely to buy if website content is presented in their language. Japanese translation services for websites range from simple (such as a straight HTML-based Japanese website) to complex (such as a dynamic database-driven Japanese web application). Your website translation company should have the capability to translate text from such source files such as: HTML/XML, applets, database exports, CGI scripts, Java scripts, graphic files, PHP files and or FLASH.

Japanese Software Translation
Japanese software translation services, more appropriately called "localization" services, are needed to create an authentic Japanese software user experience. Online help, menu commands, and installation instructions should be fully translated into Japanese. Your software translation company should have the ability to deal with programming, scripting, and mark-up languages such as Java, VB and .NET, XML, C/C++, and C#.

Japanese Documentation
Japanese Document Translation refers to the translation of printed materials such as user guides, medical inserts, financial information, and more. This process may include Japanese desktop publishing, which involves maintaining the formatting specifications of the source documents.

Japanese Translators

Whether you require Japanese translation of software, documents, or online material, you need a Japanese translator with the requisite education, accreditation, professional development, and technical skills for the job. Every project makes different demands on a translator, from technical terminology to tight deadlines. For this reason, it is critical to understand what qualifications are required for Japanese translators, and their relative importance.

Education

Educational requirements vary, but most professional Japanese translators have at least a Bachelor's degree and many have earned their Master's degrees. Japanese translators who specialize in a field such as pharmaceuticals or law usually possess additional educational or professional experience in that field.

Accreditation

Different countries have different accreditation programs. Currently, Japan has no government-administered accreditation program for translators. In the United States, the American Translators Association offers one accreditation program. It is important to remember although a Japanese translator may not have formal accreditation, he may still have the experience and education to be a highly skilled, professional translator.

Professional Development

Perhaps even more so than during their education, successful Japanese translators need to develop specialized translation skills in the course of their careers. The more professional experience a Japanese translator has, the more he or she is likely to have mastered abilities such as staying abreast of developments and terminology in a field of specialty (such as telecommunications), conducting research, building stronger Japanese written skills, and maintaining efficiency and accuracy under deadline pressure. Exposure to a wide variety of clients and project types also increases Japanese translators' skill sets.

Technical skills

Beyond pure linguistic talents, modern translators need to have proficiency with translation memory (TM) tools such as Trados, Déjà Vu, or Catalyst. Such tools assist translators in managing terminology and repurposing repeated text for added consistency and efficiency. In addition to TM tools, it is helpful if Japanese translators have a working knowledge of desktop publishing applications.

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For information on The Japanese language and translation, please see our information on Japanese Translation services.