Guarantee the success of your Japanese translation project by taking a few more minutes to truly prepare with this free checklist of quality tips (peace of mind; priceless!).

Keywords: professional, English, Japanese, quality, accurate, translation, translations

Resist the temptation to do the translation yourself
You may be bilingual; but, writing and speaking is NOT the same thing. Don’t be tempted to produce work that will be immediately recognizable as foreign -- If not perceived as amusing (which won’t do anything for your brand), it’ll be considered insulting. Engage the service of a professional Translation Company Tokyo. Read more

Guess who did the translation here?

Use Professional Translation

Avoid the language department at the local university
Teaching and studying a language is not the same as translating. It’s not even close! I see this all the time -- Unfortunately most realize this all too late. Consider this: would you agree to a student programmer from the local university IT department programming your corporate website? Why then would you agree to a student handling the English to Japanese translation of your website? Read more

Use Professional Translators

Plan your translation project in advance
Sounds obvious enough, right? But in a culture where everything is "get this done like yesterday already", very little serious planning actually gets done. Sure, you’ll find a translation company to take on your project but I guarantee you this: You’ll pay more (some professional services charge double for rush jobs!), and you will always be concerned about the Japanese translation quality. Plan it! Read more

3 words: Plan, Plan, Plan

Does it absolutely need to be translated?
Work with your team and identify redundancies in your material that doesn’t apply to your Japanese target audience. Translate ONLY relevant material, or create a condensed version of the original and have that translated by the translation service company. Read more

Identify Redundancies

In translation, a picture really is worth a thousand words!
Japanese technical manuals, while short on superfluous text, are loaded with animations that are super easy to follow. Maps, pictograms and diagrams are more effective with a Japanese target audience. Judicious use of them can not only save you a ton of money in Japanese translation service costs but will also provide you powerful and effective materials in Japanese that achieve their intended purpose Read more

SUGGESTION: You may want to consider this method for your local manuals, too.

Effective Message

Finalize your content BEFORE starting to engage a professional translation company
Rushing a translation project with a "draft-in-progress" will almost certainly be more time consuming, and definitely will cost more. Further, the more versions you have floating around, the more translation errors will creep in the final version. Read more

Submit Your Final Draft ONLY

Keep the professional translators up to speed
Yes, tell the Japanese translators what the text is for so that they can produce a translation that has maximum impact on your target audience. The more information that the translators have about the purpose of the text, the more effectively they can translate your material. Read more

Provide Translation Purpose

Encourage questions from your translators
Professional Japanese translators literally analyze text from every conceivable angle; sentences are de-constructed and re-constructed countless times. If something in the original text does not sound right, they will seek clarification -- An opportunity to improve on the original. Encourage it! Read more

Encourage Questions

Prepare a glossary for the translation company
A glossary is a list of terms with the meaning of each term and/or the equivalent preferred term. This is very important as the mini culture of organizations tend to assign unique meanings to words and phrases, that although have subtle differences to the generic term, are important. In addition, simple words with a straightforward meaning often have several equivalent terms in the target Japanese language with the correct equivalent term usage being very much contextual. Read more

Provide a Translation Glossary

About the Author
Ivan Vandermerwe is the CEO of SAECULII YK, owners of the Translation Company Tokyo Visit SAECULII for the latest professional case studies, articles and news on Japanese Translation Service

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