The success of second language (L2) learning and teaching is influenced by various factors, including motivation, learning strategies, language aptitude, and working memory. Among these factors, motivation is widely recognized as one of the most crucial. This article begins with a concise overview of L2 motivation, delving into its mechanisms and the significance of motivational strategies, supported by both theoretical frameworks and empirical data. The article then presents ten specific motivational strategies and ideas derived from established research and specifically tailored to the L2 learning and teaching context. It also explores recent theoretical developments, encompassing concepts such as flow, self-efficacy, and engagement, all of which contribute to a comprehensive understanding of L2 motivation.

In the translation production process, translators select appropriate operations to convey the content of a document written in the source language to readers in the target language. Such operations are called translation strategies. Although a typology of translation strategies for English-to-Japanese translation was introduced in Yamamoto et al. (2021), there is room for improvement in terms of the data construction process, the number of people involved in the construction process, and typology validation. Against this backdrop, we refined the typology based on comparison of annotation results by three people, using actual examples obtained through document-level translations. This paper presents the refined typology of translation strategies and reports on the results of an experiment for evaluating coverage and feasibility of the typology.

This paper examines how local governments (LGs) have been addressing interpreting needs in assisting Ukrainian evacuees in Japan, focusing on the use of speech machine translation (SMT) systems. Survey responses from 115 LGs and interviews with 26 LGs indicate that: (1) 57% of the respondents have used SMT systems; (2) respondents chose the systems mainly because they were free of charge and easy to use; (3) the systems worked inconsistently with administrative terms and long sentences; and (4) some respondents were concerned about security related to their use. These responses reveal a gap between LGs’ experiences with SMT use and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications’ (MIC) guidance promoting SMT. This paper discusses structural factors contributing to this mismatch and suggests the establishment of a mechanism for LGs to communicate with the MIC and other LGs to reach a closer understanding of applications of SMT.

This is a pilot study of a research project to theorize the socio-cultural function of translation in Modern Japan based on a wide range of translational discourses discussed during the Meiji period (1868–1912), when the translation of western books flourished under modernization policies. This paper focuses on the discourse in Taiyō, a popular magazine widely read among educated readers of the middle to upper-middle classes. We analyzed 35 articles containing translational discourses published between 1895 to 1910 and categorized them into three groups by the point at issue in order to clarify contemporary views of translation as expressed in the magazine, with respect to the function that translation served, the purpose of translation, and the impact of translation.

In both the translation industry and translation education, analytic and systematic assessment of translations plays a vital role. However, due to the lack of a framework for describing differences between translations, such assessment has been realized only in an ad-hoc manner. There is prior work on creating a scheme for describing differences between translations, but it has coverage and objectivity issues. Furthermore, that scheme has not been evaluated as a metalanguage of translation. To alleviate these issues and realize more fine-grained analyses, we developed an improved scheme through comparing human translations and post-edited machine translation outputs for diverse types of technical documents and introducing hierarchical linguistic units for analysis. We also conducted experiments to intrinsically evaluate the developed scheme. The results of the experiments show that our scheme meets the criteria of metalanguage of translation from the viewpoints of consistency and coverage.

Despite a growth in translation policy studies, there has been no systematic study of how Japanese statutes and municipal ordinances stipulate hon’yaku (translation) and tsūyaku (interpreting). This paper first reviews these terms’ usage therein and finds that, overall, Japanese statutory provisions fail to encompass rights to language access for foreign residents having language difficulties. It observes that translation and interpreting services are more often prescribed in the guidelines of selected local governments, leading to vast regional differences in the availability of such services. Finally, the paper calls for Japan’s national government to collect statistics on foreigners with limited Japanese proficiency. It also suggests that translation scholars research more deeply how foreign residents’ language rights are guaranteed in other nations, such as the language access progress in the United States achieved by Executive Order 13166.

“Relay translation” is a concept where a text is translated from one language to another and then subsequently into another language—for example, from Danish to German and then from German to English, as seen in the case of Andersen's fairy tales. The intervening language must serve as a bridge to connect with the ultimate reader, necessitating the involvement of at least three languages. Based on this definition, I delve into the translated works of Yoshifumi Hasegawa. The purpose is to examine Hasegawa’s translation endeavors by describing in detail an interview conducted with Hasegawa himself and to determine whether the concept of “relay translation” can be applied to describe these endeavors.

This paper focuses on the current trend of research on machine-aided interpretation. Based on Daniel Gile’s Effort Models, the author designed an experiment on the role of real-time subtitles in Japanese-Chinese simultaneous interpreting. Such subtitles are said to assist interpreters with listening and analysis, which are particularly important for interpreters. The author had students perform an interpreting task and fill out a questionnaire survey. Analysis of the results led to the conclusion that real-time subtitles have a positive effect on the quality of interpreting, especially at the beginning of the interpreting process, as they provide suggestions to the interpreter and are very helpful in understanding the source language. In terms of the experimental items, real-time subtitles are helpful in interpreting technical terms, numbers, and names of people and places, while they may hinder the interpreting process in the case of highly logical speech content. Based on these results, the author predicts that as the accuracy rate of real-time subtitling increases, it will be adopted by more interpreters.

On April 22, 2023, the 11^th Asian Interpreting Symposium (AIS) was held on Zoom. Last year, at the 10^th Asian Interpreting Symposium, it was hoped that the 11th AIS could be held face-to-face, but it was decided otherwise due to the still lingering effects of COVID-19. One key topic was taken from the 10^th AIS, focusing on the use of technology in the classroom. Another issue was managing teacher and student involvement in the school in a way that both would find meaningful. The so-called ‘burnout’ effect and stage fright were discussed both from teacher and student perspectives, and actual classroom management cases were introduced. Since most of the presenters were active practicing interpreters, the perspective from the field and how that could be incorporated into the classroom was also presented.