I have a big interest in learning Japanese with regarding to Movies/Books/Music/Media ect. However I am wondering where it could take me career wise. I live in Wisconsin so I do not see much Japanese here and also my work experience is strictly U.S. Law as I am employed as a paralegal and have a paralegal associates degree.
Is there a way I could merge the two somehow or would I need a new career entirely? I am not sure for example if Sony’s legal team is based in the U.S. or Japan.
3 comments
There is a legal translator career field in Tokyo.
It doesn’t sound like you’re heading back to school, but if you are:
A pure Japanese degree is not worthless per se, but it extremely limiting unless you can use it in conjunction with another subject/skill or you have expertise in something niche. For example, a medical researcher who’s studying a particular technique that’s used in Japan, or maybe a lawyer who specializes in international copyright law, or you happen to be THE preeminent scholar of Heian era chamber pot manufacturing in northeastern Shikoku (or whatever).
Looking at your situation, you’d likely need to move to wherever there’s a Japanese company in the US or Japan and have a VERY good understanding of Japanese and American laws and legalese in both languages. Depending on your role/position you can probably find your place.
If you’re looking to stay in Wisconsin, probably not far. If you’re willing to move to Chicago though that could open some doors. I have a friend who works as a Japanese-English translator for an autoparts maker in Chicago. The company’s main clients are Japanese car companies. I could see it being within the realm of possible that they’d have an in house legal team and that it could be beneficial to have a bilingual paralegal who could reference both the English and Japanese versions of the purchasing contracts. So not impossible, but a bit of a long shot. You’re need to understand legal Japanese and Japanese law as well and even then it’d likely be a small part of your role