Legacy Content for Japanese-to-English Translators

Although the introduction of AI by the translation-brokering agency clients of most freelancers is bringing freelance translation by humans to a quick end, I have preserved here some writings that might be of interest to the small subset of translators who will survive and for those who are to leave, at least for historical interest.

Why is this page only legacy content?

I recently revived some old writings and presentations, the latter having been lost or deleted from the website of the Japan Association of Translators. In addition, I had mapped out a schedule for new writings directed at translators, mostly regarding the nuts and bolts problems of everyday Japanese-to English translation. I have since rethought that plan and have come to the conclusion that it would be neither appropriate nor proper.

I will not be writing anything further for translators, neither about the nuts and bolts of everyday translation, nor about survival strategies.

At this point in the evolution of translation as a freelancing career, imparting such learning to freelance translators is like purporting to teach someone with only one leg how to dance better. Some translators have even chopped their own leg off by their conscious decisions early on in their careers. Others are prevented from adopting survival strategies for reasons currently beyond their control. In either case, very few will survive. Content addressed to Japanese-to-English translators at this point is misleading and arguably irresponsible. Very few translators will survive, and the ones who survive don't need advice from me.

The overwhelming majority of translators might very well learn to translate with high quality and greater professionalism, but they will not survive, simply because very few meet the new requirements for survival.

Many don't even realize what is required, and others, perhaps realizing what's needed but knowing that they cannot do the necessary, have fallen into a sad pattern of diversion, denial, and delusion. Translation organizations are doing little to correct this situation and are effectively promoting it by themselves looking away.

The translation Titanic is on its way down, while people who still haven't abandoned ship are chanting "the iceberg won't sink us!"

I refuse to join those who try to rearrange the deck chairs, and will produce no more writings directed at translators; doing so is rather reckless and, arguably, would passively support the baseless hopes of survival that are harbored by freelancers who are in serious denial and embrace delusions of survival.

What's Here?

Although the introduction of AI by the clients of most freelancers is bringing freelance translation by humans to a quick end, I have preserved here some writings that might be of interest to the small subset of surviving translator and those who are to leave, at least for historical interest. In addition, some of what is presented here as legacy content might be of use to former translators who have been enlisted to post-edit AI, a task which is clearly not translation and pays very poorly, but one that increasing numbers of former translators are now engaged in.

Articles

These are just the articles that have been on this website in the last few years. There are many more that exist, and many of those will be restored, time permitting. These include articles of potential interest to both translation consumers and translation professionals.

Confessions of a Professional Japanese-to-English Translator (Last updated October 2, 2025): Many aspects of the development of professional translators and their work lives are unknown to, generally unknowable by, and potentially surprising to fellow translators, and even more so to clients. Here are some for one particular translator.
Translating Japanese Names (Last updated August 26, 2025): One troublesome characteristic of the Japanese language is the uncertainty of how Japanese personal names are pronounced. Many names can be pronounced in numerous ways, the pronunciation options sometimes being totally different. The problems involved are more more troublesome than Green or Greene.
One Japanese-to-English Translator's Path into the World of Translation (Last updated May 26, 2025: Just one of myriad ways people enter the field of translation.
Constructions in the Form [there + preposition] in US Patents (Last updated March 21, 2026: This construction looks strange but can come in handy.

Presentations

IJET Conference Presentations

Japan Association of Translators stopped publishing the IJET Proceedings after its conferences years ago. Those publications provided useful and detailed documentation of the presentations, but are a thing of the past and are very unlikely to reappear. Some recent presentations are videorecorded, but the video quality is spotty, and the readability of presentation screens is poor.

Another distressing development is that previous issues of the Proceedings have disappeared from the JAT website. They might be just lost, but I strongly suspect that, contrary to expectations and predictions of restoration, they were not scanned and uploaded. It is unlikely that they will reappear, considering the things happening recently, both in the profession as a whole and JAT as an organization.

Being a horder, however, I had copies of most of my own presentations and also a full scan of the Proceedings for IJET-1, held back in 1990. The latter does not include a presentation by me, but the others are all my presentations, but without the other content produced for each IJET, since, as noted above, they appear to be lost forever. I and others expected the Proceedings to be scanned and made available, but that evidently has not been done and will likely never be done at this point in the evolution of JAT and the translation world.

IJET-30 (Cairns, AU June 29-30, 2019, organized by Japan Association of Translators): Lise, Getting from Tier Two to Tier One in Japanese-to-English Translation
IJET-27 (Sendai, Japan June 18-19, 2016, organized by Japan Association of Translators): Lise, Deposition and Other Interpreting for US Civil Litigation
IJET-19 (Okinawa, Japan April 12-13, 2008, organized by Japan Association of Translators): Lise, Japanese Patent Translation
IJET-16 (Chicago, US June 4-5, 2005, organized by Japan Association of Translators): Lise, Japanese/English Deposition Interpreting (Presented on Lise's behalf by Manako Ihaya)
IJET-9 (Yokohama, Japan May 23-24, 1998, organized by Japan Association of Translators): Lise panel discussion comments Taking More Money for Your Translations
IJET-8 (Sheffield, UK June 19-21, 1997, organized by Japan Association of Translators): Lise, Symbols, Abbreviations and Layout Issues in J-E Translation
IJET-7 (Yokohama, Japan May 18-19, 1996, organized by Japan Association of Translators): Lise, Japanese-English Translation of Patent Documents for Filing in the US
IJET-5 (Urayasu, Japan May 24-29, 1994, organized by Japan Association of Translators): Lise, An Investigation of Terminology and Syntax in Japanese and US Patents and the Implications for the Patent Translator
IJET-1 (Hakone, Japan May 26-27, 1990, organized by Japan Association of Translators): This does not include a Lise presentation, but was scanned in its entirety and uploaded, as it marks the beginning of a proud tradition of conferences and cannot be found on the website of Japan Association of Translators.

Publications

Morita Ed, ATA Japanese Translation Handbook (1997, last edit October 14, 2022): Chapter 5: Japanese-to-English Translation of Patent Documents for Filing in the US. Both the original version and an edited version are available, the latter reflected some changes made in availability of information.
Numerous Articles in the now long-defunct JAT Bulletin: Japan Association of Translators published the JAT Bulletin for over a decade, but all of the writings in that long-gone publication have been lost or deleted from the JAT website. There is no expectation that they will ever be found and restored.

Disclaimer Regarding Content Intended for Japanese-to-English Translators

Executive Summary

Freelance translating for agencies has almost ended for most people.
What's left is mostly very low-paid post-editing, which is not translation.
Remaining survival paths include in-house work at a non-translation company (difficult for most freelancers) and acquisition of direct clients not already using AI (impossible for most freelancers).
Given this, I will write no more about the art of translation, and I will not be giving advice to translators on how to survive. Those capable of surviving don't need advice, and the ones who will not survive are in situations and mindsets that preclude survival. Providing advice to them is a futile exercise.

Is learning a foreign language worth the effort?

The short answer is no, if you're goal is to become a translator. While there is potential value in learning a foreign language such as Japanese, becoming a translator is a non-starter at this point. The function of translation is quickly and successfully being taken from human professionals by entities using AI to replace them.

How likely is translator survival?

Given this situation, although a small number of human professionals will survive for some time, just being an excellent translator is insufficient to survive, and very few freelancers bring to the task of survival what is required, which is the ability to acquire clients that are not yet using AI to replace humans.

This situation has been brought about by the longstanding two-tier structure of freelance translation, in which translators don't have access to and most are not capable of selling to the client demographic they need to survive for at least a while, which is made up of entities not in the translation business themselves.

Misunderstandings, Wishful Thinking, and Delusions

"AI is just a tool."

Arguably, yes, but the sometimes-heard notion from "AI toolists" that translators can survive by using AI themselves as a tool is not informed by the reality that, even if they use AI themselves, translators will still need to acquire non-AI using clients, meaning they will need to network, sell and have a presence in real life (not just online), in ways they have enjoyed not having to do by selling services to the agencies that are quickly replacing them. Such activity is not possible for more than a small portion of the current universe of freelancers.

"We'll survive by performing the new tasks."

This enters the realm of delusion. The idea that translators can survive by taking on the task of post-editing AI-generated translations is seriously flawed. Such work offers only a fraction of the overall earning potential that was possible for professional translators before the appearance of AI.

"The clients will come back when AI results in horrible outcomes."

Here, we are clearing talking about a delusion, amplified by wishful thinking. The comforting predications of schadenfreude-inducing disasters such as brand destruction, injuries, deaths, and litigation caused by AI translation errors are not supported by evidence. All we hear are hopeful predictions and an occasional unverified and unverifiable anecdote.

DisclaimerLegacy Content for Japanese-to-English Translators