What’s the average salary for English > Japanese translators?

11 comments

1. ¥280,000 a month, right?

2. I mean, you say translator but from your description the job seems more like online customer support and that seems like a fair / maybe above average salary for that position.

3. I think it may vary application to application but one example I heard of someone translating scientific/medical journals and providing publication assistance gets like between 4.3 to 4.8M per year. I don’t know if that is significantly higher.

4. Well, what I think you would really need to compare is a bilingual in your position. A translator is a wholly different job.

   With regard to bilinguals, that’s also difficult to compare because it depends on your industry and frankly company size and whether it is a Japanese or foreign company.

   For example, I used to hire bilinguals at a foreign company. They were full-time permanent, doing financial research. They were always Japanese natives because they could handle the subject matter and had to write research reports in Japanese as well. Typically, they were recent college grads – maybe 3 years of work experience before I hired them. Salary: 4M JPY + 10% AIP. Customer support – which is maybe closer to your role- was paid about the same but depended on experience. Could be slightly higher.

   My wife works for a mega automaker. Those guys hire in-house Japanese native/English-capable translators. I believe they pay them around 4M to 6M but it never goes higher than that. If they are hired as a general staff (not a translator) but have bilingual skills, a lot of times they won’t comp them for being bilingual specifically, sadly. They’ll just get paid freshman wages (3M-ish?) and move up the ranks like everyone else.

   Hope that helps.

5. From what you described, wouldn’t call it translation. Sounds like a customer support role. The wage that you’re getting paid sounds fair, even if you have to answer Japanese customers too.

6. If your responsibilities are increasing, your salary should as well.

7. You’re not akkkshullyy a translator though. You’re customer service with some translation stuff tacked on.

   (I can say that because I akkkshully am a full-time translator).

   I personally wouldn’t take that salary as is, let alone the pay rise you’re talking about, but that’s because I’m already on way (way, way, way) more.

   Let’s be honest, 280,000 per month (excluding the bonuses) is not that far off what people get for doing ALT/eikaiwa work, and those people are generally not expected to know any Japanese at all. In that sense, you could say the salary is a bit shit if you’re working in a bilingual role but if that’s the going rate then your only option is to leave because they probably won’t pay you more.

8. Can you refer me to your position when you leave?

9. I get paid less than 200,000 and no bonuses for doing a similar job in 3 languages… I wanna cry reading all your salaries.

   But I agree with others here. This is not a translator job or adding translation to your job. This is offering customer service in one more language that you speak. If your company is fair they should still give you a raise for this, though.

10. I suggest instead of throwing in the translator topic to check how much money your boss is saving by having you translate directly – assuming you use an off-site translator and he can stop paying him if you do it.
    Then throw in that your customer satisfaction will also go up because response will be quicker.

    Ask for a raise that’s ~80% of the savings. Given the additional benefit of reduced reply time and internal management overhead of not sending things around, that’d be a realistic demand imo.

11. I think translators in my company are getting paid more than 4,000,000 if I recall correctly. Then again, it depends on your experience.