Since British social anthropologist Evans-Pritchard emphasized the significance of translation in 1950, the concept of ‘translation of cultures’ has emerged as a key metaphor underlying the scholarly work of anthropology, which aims to understand “other cultures”. However, from the 1970s to the 1980s, fundamental criticisms challenged anthropology’s core concepts such as society, culture, and nation; the relationship between colonialism and anthropology; and association between researchers and local inhabitants. Consequently, the concept of ‘translation of cultures’ also faced severe criticism and entered a period of retreat. Taking such criticism seriously, Japanese social anthropologist Kazuo Ohtsuka (1949–2009), whose work focused on the Middle East and Islam, attempted to reflect on the possibility of ‘translation of cultures’. The purpose of this article is to review Ohtsuka’s works to evaluate his theoretical contribution and scope of analyses on subjects such as (1) the probability of translating local terms into analytical expressions, (2) translating the cultural meanings of religious concepts and cultural items within socio-historical contexts, and (3) the circulation and consumption of translated universal and local concepts and their effects.

This paper examines the bande dessinée (BD) adaptations of Haruki Murakami’s works as a unique form of textual transformation. The transformation begins with the original Japanese source texts, followed by their French translations which serve as the basis for the BD. This adaptation is then re-imported into Japan and distributed into Anglophone publishing contexts. The complex process reveals a multifaceted transformation, highlighting the intricate nature of textual transfer. The study first offers a brief overview of key concepts related to textual transformation, such as translation, rewriting, adaptation and transfer. It then explores the BD as both a text and a product according to the methodology proposed by adaptation and transmedia studies (Eder 2015), and examines reader reviews as a form of secondary or post-publication communication regarding the BD. This study aims to challenge the traditional concept of ‘translation’ in order to gain a broader understanding of cross-cultural textual transfer.

In the United States, ensuring government communication with the public, including people with Limited English Proficiency (LEP), has been considered essential to a democracy that respects the rights of individuals. According to Executive Order 13166, Improving Access to Services for Persons with LEP, this requirement must be reflected in all federal departments’ language access plans. This article first examines these language access plans to determine their provision of appropriate language services, including translation and interpretation services, which in turn constitute their translation policies. Then, it explores the characteristics of these language access plans to assess whether they have been included in similar Japanese government agency documents. It was found that these Japanese documents do not as yet provide meaningful language access to foreign residents or prioritize their rights. Suggestions are provided to improve this situation in Japan.

Based on interpreter-mediated court session observations and interviews with Boston court interpreters which took place in March 2024, this paper examines the factors that enabled the establishment of court interpreter certification systems in the U.S., and conversely explores hints which may explain why a similar system has not yet been realized in Japan. Using as frameworks Mason’s (2015) “three types of power relations” in interpreter-mediated discourse: power relations between languages, interpreter’s power advantage, and institutional power disparity, as well as sociological theories on professionalization employed in interpreting studies (Grbič, 2015), this paper explores how power-related obstacles were overcome in the U.S. context, which led to the emergence of the four key factors of professionalization, i.e., legal protection, a professional association, a code of ethics, and professional skill training, while the same has not yet been realized in Japan.

This paper constitutes our research project, which examines a wide range of translational discourses from the Meiji period (1868–1912) and theorizes a socio-cultural role of translation in modern Japan. We analyze the translational discourses in all 11 issues of the journal Hon’yaku Jihō published between October 1900 and March 1901, in which articles were written in a bilingual format—English and Japanese. We focus on “peritext” (Genette 1987/2001), such as translators’ notes and editors’ remarks, to reveal their intentions, strategies, and thoughts about translation. Adopting a context-oriented approach (Saldanha and O’Brien 2013) and juxtaposing the translational discourses in the context of English language publications in the mid to late Meiji period, we show that the function, purpose, and impact of translation are closely related to the socio-cultural imperatives of promoting English learning and sharing Japanese information with foreigners in English.

This paper proposes a framework for a translation practicum that incorporates metalanguages. In this framework, metalanguages serve a dual role. First, they are an essential part of the learning content, as being able to explain translation has become an integral aspect of translator competence, and the use of metalanguages can facilitate these explanations. Second, they can be used as scaffolding to promote reflective learning, enabling learners to develop their competences. Specifically, with reference to translation curriculum development theory, the framework's aims, learners, learning content, learning activities, assessment activities, etc., are defined deductively. Additionally, a perspective on how to evaluate the framework is provided.

While there have been many studies on women’s language in English to Japanese translation, none of them have covered comics so far. This paper seeks to close this gap by analyzing X-Men’s Dark Phoenix saga, an American comic book story that has been translated three times into Japanese since the 1990s. It will do so through a mixture of quantitative and qualitative analysis of the female characters’ language usage. While gendered language is present in all three versions, there are slight differences in the usage ratios with an overall reduction in sentence-ending particles for the newer versions.

The recent surge in AI translation technologies has heightened the need to elucidate the roles of human translators in society, which must necessarily differ from those of AI. Paloposki (2010) introduced to Translation Studies the concept of translators’ “paratextual agency” (their agency to add translators’ notes and other paratexts), but the functions of such agency remain understudied and methods for analyzing such functions have been underdeveloped. Furthermore, existing research on the paratexts of translated non-fiction literature is quite limited in scope. This article provides an overview of studies on agency and paratexts within Translation Studies and proposes a method for qualitative analysis of the functions of translators’ notes, focusing on non-fiction books translated from English to Japanese. By conducting a preliminary analysis of two books using this method, this article discusses the potential for advancing this research.

The present paper investigates changes in the perception of interpreters in Japanese society between two epoch-making international events, the Tokyo Olympic Games of 1964 and those of 2021. The research questions are, first, whether any changes occurred, and second, what those changes are. The investigators looked at newspaper articles and four successive editions of a how-to book for aspiring interpreters. In the newspaper, instances of the term ‘interpreter’ were counted and analyzed. In the book, the cover illustrations and the table of contents of the four versions were compared. Changes were observed and categorized according to the following three aspects: 1) increased awareness of interpreters, 2) perception as a highly specialized profession, and 3) rearrangement of the role of interpreters among other means of interlingual communication. Further research is required to explore the images English learners in a wide range of generations have of interpreters.

In this study, students majoring in foreign languages took part in translating promotional materials from a municipal government’s “Zero Food Loss and Waste” project into English and Chinese. The research explores the advantages of using authentic materials in translation education, such as improving language skills, cultural understanding, and problem-solving abilities. It underscores the significance of translation activities in honing students’ language proficiency and intercultural communication skills. The study showcases the enhancements in students’ ability to convey cultural nuances and adapt content for target audiences. It also discusses the challenges encountered during the process and suggests future research directions, such as the inclusion of diverse materials and the examination of the long-term impact of translation practice.

In March 2024, an issue involving a star Japanese Major League Baseball player and his long-time language interpreter became known to the public and evoked much controversy even among those who had never thought much about language interpreters and thus may hold not a few misconceptions about the profession. As members of the Japan Association of Interpreting and Translation Studies, the panelists aimed to present a more informed analysis of and discussion on this issue, based on long-time professional experience and empirical studies conducted in this field. The panel consisted of five individual presentations centering on the following key words: the role of interpreters and translators, identity, skopos, power relations, and ethics. The discussion identified two major unresolved issues: a) translation strategy expected by the skopos of professional baseball, even at the risk of compromising the core of interpreters’ professional ethics, and b) the extensive and expansive role expected of baseball interpreters.

On September 14, 2024, the conference “The Impact of AI on Conference Interpreting” was held by the International Association of Conference Interpreting (AIIC) in Geneva, Switzerland. The key topics presented at the conference included the AI interpreting tool kit, AI and human collaboration, intellectual property issues, confidentiality and AI language tools, perceptions of AI, and augmented interpreting. The conference featured panel discussions with conference interpreters, interpreting researchers, and AI specialists and users, taking up the issues of the usage of AI tools, intellectual property, and confidentiality.