This paper discusses issues regarding the position and their contribution of Dutch-Japanese
interpreters based in Nagasaki during the Edo period. The position interpreters held under
the feudal system was different from the position of modern interpreters: Interpreters were, in
essence, town officials, reporting to the Nagasaki magistrate’s office. Their inquisitive minds
and intellectual curiosity played a role in the rise of Western learning in Japan. However,
there are many criticisms of the interpreters in the existing literature indicating that the
contributions they made are relatively small. Because ethics, professional missions among
interpreters at the time were different from today, it is not appropriate to judge their words
and deeds based on today’s values. That said, what happens when individuals serving as
interpreters were made into tools of national politics? Studying the practices of interpreters
at the time is meaningful in terms of reconsidering the practices of today’s interpreters.
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