Hi! I’ve checked previous posts on this subreddit for questions regarding translation opportunities in Japan, but felt like they didn’t quite answer my particular questions, so I hope you don’t mind me making this post. My situation is a little specific, but I’ll try to keep this concise.
I’m currently doing a Master’s degree in translation, specialising in Japanese>English. (If you check my post history, you’ll see that I actually had a job offer and plans to move to Japan in 2020, but was thwarted by border closures, so I eventually decided to pursue further education for a while instead.) I’m due to finish in September this year, and am considering my options post-graduation. I’m wondering what opportunities are like for JP>EN translators in Japan, particularly for in-house positions. I guess my main concerns are that
1. I’m not sure how big the market really is for JP>EN translation in Japan, as opposed to EN>JP, which I don’t specialise in and can’t really compete with native Japanese speakers.
2. As I’m obviously still very new to the field, I haven’t really been able to build up a specialisation in a specific subject matter in translation. My degree trains me to deal with different domains (scientific, financial, technical, literary etc.), but I don’t have that kind of professional experience yet.
A little more background about me: I did my undergrad degree in Japanese, I’ve studied and interned in Japan before, and I do have some paid translation experience, but only in translating quite entry-level tourism related texts. I did some translation as an intern as well, though this was also pretty informal and not part of my “job” description at the time.
Also, I actually still have the job offer from the company that I was meant to start working for in 2020, but it’s a non-translation job (I’d still be doing a bit of translating here and there, but the position itself is more general office work). As I’ve decided I really want to go into translation, I no longer think that job is the best fit for me. However, it’s with a large and very respectable company, so not a bad opportunity at all. Would it be a sensible option to still go with this company, work there for a while, and then look for translation opportunities in Japan once I’m physically there? Or would spending time outside of the translation industry be a bad idea? I’m quite worried about falling behind in terms of translation technology and CAT tools etc., which I’m also being trained in.
If anyone has any advice or insight into this, I’d be very grateful to hear it. Realistically, what are the opportunities for this kind of translation (or localisation) work in Japan for someone with my background? What might be the most sensible course of action in terms of finding such opportunities? Apologies for the lengthy post and thanks for reading.
4 comments
1. It is very saturated. Very. JP>EN translators are a dime a dozen. It is the most common route to break out of the ALT/JET grind. You’re gonna have to hustle hard in order to even break into the industry, let alone actually get an in-house position. And the fact you don’t want to do EN>JP will make things harder too.
2. So… *get that professional experience*. Can you do that from your country?
> Would it be a sensible option to still go with this company, work there for a while, and then look for translation opportunities in Japan once I’m physically there?
This is what all those ALT people will be doing. Some as qualified as you. But they’ll have a lot more free time than you to find clients and whatnot. You could try and pick up some gigs while you’re working your job (which is what ALT people will do), but you’d need permission from your job and from immigration to do so. It would be the *safer* route since you’d still have your job and would be making connections etc.
> Or would spending time outside of the translation industry be a bad idea?
It’s usually is a bad idea spending time outside your desired field of work. The longer you are outside, the harder it is to go back in. But you’re not actually *in* that field of work since you have no professional experience. So it would be a tad harder since you’d be trying to break into that field.
> Realistically, what are the opportunities for this kind of translation (or localisation) work in Japan for someone with my background?
Hit or miss. In-house jobs will be harder to get since you have no experience, and tons of experience people are already lining up for those jobs. You’d have to hustle a lot getting side gigs doing translation work to build a reputation.
> What might be the most sensible course of action in terms of finding such opportunities?
Get experience. Yeah, chicken and the egg problem, but getting experience is your only solution. You could be doing this kind of work *now* from where you are at. Finding jobs online and doing them and whatnot. You’d get your money, you wouldn’t need to move, and you’d begin building relationships and actual experience that would help in getting an in-house position later on.
Other than that, yeah you could go for your job here in Japan and get permission to work on translating on the side. But it’ll be an uphill battle.
Hi, I’m the former director of the in-house language department for a Big4 accounting firm and currently freelance for all of them. You may have seen some of my long posts in your searches. If you haven’t, I suggest you start there where I address some of your points. Then, if you would like to ask a bit more pinpoint questions, feel free to. If you do read my posts you will see that grounding your education/career path in translation rather than going from a specialized field to translation is definitely a trap I try to tell people to avoid. As you went for the classically trained approach, it’s a bit late for you at this point, but now it’s up to you to really stand out from other candidates.
I will make one point in regard to the other poster’s post here which ties into the above. JP>EN translators may be “a dime a dozen,” but as someone who has interviewed 100s of candidates, GOOD JP>EN TRANSLATORS ARE NOT A DIME A DOZEN. Now, whether the market has demand for good JP>EN translators is another long conversation to be had elsewhere, but it is incredibly easy to stand out amongst the pack in this industry. Frankly, the competition is just not that good, and people who can differentiate themselves will be exponentially rewarded. As an example, I have hired many candidates who have similar years of experience in the industry, but for one I may have given a 4 million salary while the other one I gave an 8 million salary. That’s how little “time” matters and how much “skill” matters. Similarly, I have interviewed/worked with many people with a classically trained background such as yours, and it is by no means a guarantee of their translation skill. Some of the worst translators/interpreters I’ve worked with were degree this, school that, qualification here, experience there. While some of the best I have worked with were self-taught.
In short – there are jobs and you will find one. Whether it will be a good industry, good pay, good team, good environment, good experience is a set of completely different matters that you may not have much say in when starting out, but that you will definitely be able to manipulate once you’ve been around for a bit.
Your options are a lot better if you specialize in something in-demand, like medical or technical translation.
I’d take the job. It puts you in a better position to jump to a translation job by giving you a valid visa (most important), actual work experience and direct working exposure to a Japanese work environment. Ideally translation is best when paired with another major or specialty, but since your major IS translation, augmenting that with real world experience would be beneficial. As for falling behind on translation tools, it’s not difficult at all to catch up on and also very unlikely that your target company is always using the most cutting-edge software anyways.