As pandemic hits conferences, Aichi firm launches remote interpretation services
As the business environment continues to be affected by the spread of COVID-19, an industrial painting firm based in Anjo, Aichi Prefecture, has begun offering Japanese-English simultaneous interpretation services remotely using teleconference systems. With more companies canceling international conferences and seminars due to the pandemic, ...
Health ministry struggles to provide COVID-19 updates in foreign languages
The health ministry is struggling to keep non-Japanese updated on the rapidly escalating situation in a timely manner, hampered by a dearth of staff proficient in foreign languages.
Why English translation needs the native touch
Japan is a country that prides itself on focusing on the smallest details, so why do incorrect English translations plague signage across the country?
Brexit translates to 'challenge' for European Union interpreters
English as a common language has in recent years scaled the heights of the European Union's 24-floor Tower of Babel, but will Brexit loosen its grip? London's political influence in Brussels may be slipping, but the language of Shakespeare is still in constant use. It was ...
Translation by the numbers: Facebook AI puts words into multidimensional spaces
Designers of machine translation tools still mostly rely on dictionaries to make a foreign language understandable. But now there is a new way: numbers. Facebook researchers say rendering words into figures and exploiting mathematical similarities between languages is a promising avenue — even if a ...
One interpreter making a world of difference for Georgian rugby team in Japan
Interpreters have been provided for almost every team competing at the 2019 Rugby World Cup, but in a country with a very limited number of Georgian speakers, a 28-year-old man is supporting the squad all by himself. Hayate Sotome, who is assisting the Georgian players ...
Pioneering Japanese interpreting team opened nation's eyes to disabled athletes at '64 Paralympics
Foreign residents and wheelchairs — much less Paralympic athletes — were a rare sight in Japan in 1964. Preparations to host the Summer Olympics and the second-ever Paralympics were well underway. Stadiums, highways and hotels were being built at breakneck speeds, cutting-edge photographic and timing ...
For Japan's medical interpretation industry, tourism boom presents growing challenge
During one of her medical-interpreting lessons in July, teacher Yoshiko Ishizaka, 77, brought up the case of a former student who was dealing with schizophrenia. The principal of Tokyo-based International Medical Interpreter Academy used the example to engage her class in a discussion on the ...
Understanding the challenging world of the literary translator
English translations of Japanese books have found an enthusiastic audience around the world, and while the author is undoubtedly the star of the show, the translator's role should not be underestimated.
Tourists to Japan are fueling a boom in personal translation devices
Takehiko Fujita wouldn't be able to do his job selling eye drops and pain relievers without his pocket translator. Instead of an app, language dictionary or call-in translation service, the clerk at a Japanese drugstore uses Pocketalk, a ¥25,000 device made by Sourcenext Corp. that ...
Little AI things for life adjustments
A portable breathalyzer that offers drinking advice, an app that will sort out all your photos, and a hearing aid that can translate 27 languages — all with a little help of AI.
Archive to tell story of Beate Sirota Gordon's pivotal role in fight for gender equality in Japan
Documents related to Beate Sirota Gordon, the American translator who played a major role in the formulation of the Japanese Constitution's gender equality protections, are being archived in a project exploring the development of women's rights. The initiative, which aims to demonstrate the role women ...
