Daniel McCalla is a Japanese to English video game translator and (occasional) editor. During his four years as a freelancer, he worked on titles such as Phantasy Star Online 2, Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis, Dragon Quest XI S,
Gavin Greene is a freelance localization director, translator, and interpreter specializing in video games. In his ten years in the industry, he’s translated more games than he can count (he’s better at writing than math), many of them for
– Discussions with people in the Japanese media localization industry – Jasmine Bernhardt Can you tell us about yourself? Hiya! I’m Jasmine Bernhardt, an American Japanese to English translator living in the UK. I mostly translate light novels, video
Morgan Watchorn is a manga translator for Seven Seas Entertainment. Titles she’s worked on include Who Wants to Marry a Billionaire?, Desire Pandora, and Call to Adventure! Defeating Dungeons with a Skill Board. She chose to talk about the English
Wesley Bishop is a localization director at video game developer and publisher Capcom. Wes grew up in Indiana in the USA. After earning his degree, he went on to work at the Japan-American Society of Indiana, an NPO dedicated to
Nathaniel Hiroshi Thrasher, also known as Rook, is a light novel and manga translator who’s worked on titles such as Torture Princess, The Eminence in Shadow, Spy Classroom, and High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even In Another World. Rook
What makes a good translation depends entirely on the type of text and medium. Technical translations should be fairly direct with wording, formatting, and style appropriate to the type of technical document. Marketing translations often involve complete transcreation, the wording
Andrew Echeverria is a Japanese-to-English media translator with a focus in games. He’s been in the industry for half a decade, in which time he has had the opportunity to work on manga, tourism, tech, and games such as
Liz Bushouse is a Japanese to English video game translator and has worked on titles such as Phantasy Star Online 2, STORY OF SEASONS: Friends of Mineral Town, and Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin. She has a masters degree in
Katrina Leonoudakis is a professional translator and localization specialist. In addition to working full-time at SEGA as a project coordinator, she subtitles anime for Funimation and Sentai Filmworks, as well as translates manga for Seven Seas. She has credits on
– Discussions with people in the Japanese media localization industry – Yuji Moriya Can you tell us about yourself? Hi, I’m Yuji, and I’ve been in the Loc industry for about four years. I love music, play guitar, and
Anne Lee is a freelance Japanese to English translator and editor, with credits including Hitorijime My Hero volumes 1-3 and video games such as Giraffe and Annika, and Tokyo Afterschool Summoners. She also writes and podcasts about Japanese pop
Daniel Morales is a writer, translator and former association professional based in Chicago. He writes the website HowtoJapanese.com and is a regular contributor to the Japan Times Bilingual page. Daniel chose to chat about Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End
Happy International Translation Day! Just like any career, a career in translation can be rewarding and exhausting. You have your highs and your lows. Your days when you feel like you’ve created the best piece ever, and the days when
– Discussions with people in the Japanese media localization industry – Brittany Avery Meet Brittany Avery! First of all, thank you for letting me be a part of this! My name is Brittany, and my ten-year anniversary in the
There are so many articles out there on time management and productivity, even a great number for freelance translators! And although this article will highly likely overlap with those, it’s a combination of my studies and experience from when I
– Discussions with people in the Japanese media localization industry – Andrew Echeverria Can you tell us about yourself? I’d love to! I’m Andrew, a Japanese-to-English game translator and editor originally from Portland, Oregon in the US. I’ve been
Machine translation has always been notorious for just being bad. It’s great if you’re playing around or lost in a country and need help, but when applied to professional translations the results are, more often than not, shockingly terrible. When
– Discussions with people in the Japanese media localization industry – Caleb Cook Can you tell us about yourself? I’m Caleb, and I’ve been a freelance manga translator since 2014. This means that I sit at home from nine
時をかける少女 (Toki wo Kakeru Shojo) is an iconic story in Japan. It was adapted into an NHK drama, a few live-action movies, a drama CD, and most iconically, an anime movie. Most Westerners will know it from this anime movie
– Discussions with people in the Japanese media localization industry – Gavin Greene Can you tell us about yourself? Hi! My name’s Gavin, and I’m a freelance Japanese to English translator and interpreter. I’ve been living and working
The World of Literary Translation Why Should We Read More Translated Literature? A discussion on why translated literature is important and how we benefit from reading more of it. There’s a lot you can gain through translated literature! “Reading translated
Articles related to video games and localization from the past……from however long ago I did this last. Enjoy! Game Localization in General The manifold challenges of localising Disco Elysium This is such an incredibly interesting article! If you don’t
I’ve been studying Japanese for a very long time. Roughly 14 years (I honestly lost count.) My decision to follow a career in linguistics and work in localization means it’s a never-ending journey of learning. But I also have a
– Discussions with people in the Japanese media localization industry – Katrina Leonoudakis Can you tell us about yourself? Hi! I’m Katrina, professional weeb and overenthusiastic nerd. Right now, I wear a lot of hats, depending on the time
I’ve been meaning to read and review this book for a while and I finally got around to it! The scrolls of Five Rings was written by the sword master and samurai Miyamoto Musashi around 1643. They are the records
– Discussions with people in the Japanese media localization industry – Sara Linsley Can you tell us about yourself? I’m a manga letterer and software developer. I tweet a lot about lettering and the localization process, and I
The world of video game development is astronomical. Video game localization is just a small part of a much larger process, but it’s often a lot larger and more complicated than you might think. One way you can learn more
– Discussions with people in the Japanese media localization industry – Maisy Hatchard Hey, Maisy! Please tell us about yourself. Afternoon! Well, Tokyo is my current home, south-east England is my heart’s home, I did a bunch of
Every year I post a list of upcoming Japanese to English translation competitions. A lot of these competitions are really great for aspiring and experienced translators to practice their skills. But it’s often hard to know what the judges are