This article sheds light on some theoretical and analytical implications of defining interpreting as interaction – i.e., a specific form for human communication involving translation. Approaching interpreter-mediated encounters as interaction implies considering interlocutors’ (primary participants and interpreters) situated sense making and the complex nature of spontaneous spoken interpreter-mediated interaction. Exploring interpreting not just as a type of translation of source-language utterances into renditions but also as a specific kind of communicative situation opens up new research avenues such as exploring and explaining the interdependence between interpreters’ and monolingual participants’ verbal and non-verbal communicative behaviours. Moreover, this article highlights some practical implications of approaching interpreting as interaction in the education of interpreters and those they assist and in the professionalization process of public service interpreting.

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The term hon’an ( 翻案 ) has been used to refer to a type of rendering of foreign literature and classics that is not a ‘faithful translation’ but a remaking of the ST based on borrowing its outline but changing the details. Translations of Chinese novels in the Edo period and Western literature in the early Meiji period have been described using the term hon’an. However, in those times, the word hon’an was understood differently from how the term is used today. In mid-Meiji, the concept of hon’an was formed under the influence of contemporary changes in translation norms and the theory of the ‘modern novel’. Based on an examination of the discourses on literary renderings in the Meiji period, this paper explores when and how the term hon’an was conceptualised—and, specifically, what it meant.

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Two studies investigated whether non-standard subtitling strategies that focus on vocabulary and grammar improve similarity of inter-lingual audience understanding of film characters. Participants (Study 1: N = 69, 28 Japanese, 41 English-speakers; Study 2: N = 88, 23 Japanese, 65 English) watched a segment of a Japanese film. In both studies, Group 1 (Japanese-speakers) watched without subtitles; Group 2 (English-speakers) watched with commercially available Standard Subtitles; and Group 3 (English-speakers) viewed Non-standard Subtitles that manipulated vocabulary, grammar, and subtitle length, to better preserve character voice. All participants rated the central character on 12 descriptors. Results showed that Group 3’s perceptions were closer to those in the Japanese group for several descriptors, suggesting that audience perceptions of film characters can be manipulated through targeted changes to vocabulary and grammar. Results provided preliminary evidence that non-standard strategies improve within-language consistency of character perceptions.

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Globalization continues to drive up the demand for translation as an enabler of communication between peoples as well as between governments and citizens. Part of the response to such change is the rising profile of translation policy studies in academia. This paper first draws on the literature to trace the history of translation policy studies from the early years to the present. It then posits that the concept of translation policy—unlike that of language policy— has yet to be established in Japan, in both academia and public policy. This contention is supported by a review of the Japanese literature on topics related to translation policy coupled with an investigation into Japanese government publications. The paper concludes by summarizing the necessary steps to fill the research lacunae and suggesting some benefits of introducing this concept to Japan.

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In the field of Translation and Interpreting Studies （TIS）, press conferences are increasingly being utilized as targets of analysis （Liao & Pan 2018; Zheng & Ren, 2018; Gu, 2019）. In Japan, a Japanese-English parallel corpus called the Japan National Press Club Interpreting Corpus （JNPC Corpus） has been compiled through a four-year government-funded project （Matsushita, Yamada, & Ishizuka, 2020）and is actively being used by TIS scholars in Japan. The project has now entered a second phase（2020-2023）in which two subcorpora （Japanese-Chinese and Japanese-Spanish） are being created in order to promote research of language pairs not involving English. This has allowed for a unique comparison of interpreter performance across multiple languages, an approach often taken with European languages but seldom with Asian languages. This paper showcases the results from a preliminary study conducted to explore the potential utility of the aforementioned corpora.

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Since Someya et al.（2005）submitted their report on the situation of interpreting education at Japanese universities and graduate schools, no follow-up research has been conducted. As 17 years have passed since then, however, a new study seems more than timely. This has led us to launch the Research Project on Interpreting Education at Universities and Graduate Schools and finally conduct a follow-up survey on the 2005 report. Apart from providing an update on the data published in that report, we also aim to identify areas of interpreting education that require further research. We hope this paper will enlighten us on the current situation in the field and lead to future research beneficial to its development. To this end, the paper details the results of the 2022 survey and compares them with the findings from 2005, adding a discussion of new questions asked and examined in 2022.

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On August 20, 2022, the 10th Asian Interpreting Symposium was held on Zoom. This year's symposium topic was first-to-second language direction interpreting from the perspectives of the interpreting market and education. The term “B language” in the title refers to an interpreter's second language as per the AIIC. Interpreting as an academic subject is unusual in the sense that research can directly be applied not only to work in the market, but to education as well. Therefore, the exchange of opinions was not limited to theoretical issues, but was highly practical. Also, as most of the presenters were active conference interpreters and teachers, presentations were given in fluent, natural English. This notable feature of this conference was linked with the observation of one of the realities of the Asian interpreting market, which is that there is a considerable amount of interpreting in the English direction.

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