抄録
Over the last two decades, Japan’s justice system has seen a tremendous change because of the increase of non-Japanese speaking suspects, defendants, witnesses and victims, especially in the criminal procedure. The number of cases that required interpreters and translators so increased in the early part of the last two decades that literally anybody who spoke a foreign language and Japanese were appointed by the Police Headquarters, the Bar Association, the Public Prosecutors’ Offices, the Courts, and the Prisons. While there have been substantial improvements in the recruiting, training and listing of the interpreters by these institutions of justice, they remained uncoordinated with each other, and thus the mechanism and standards have not been standardized at all. There is no system in Japan for certifying interpreters or translators in this field, or for monitoring the quality and ethics of these people. This paper intends to describe and critically analyze this situation not only from a practitioner’s point of view but also from the perspective of international comparison.
