Interviews With Localizers
– Discussions with people in the Japanese media localization industry –
What Do You Mean “Localizers”?
In this context localizers refers to: translators, editors, writers, project managers, letterers, community managers… Pretty much anyone who works in the translation industry.
I didn’t want this series to just focus on translators, because there are SO many important people who help bring Japanese media to the west.
And yes, this series will focus on those in the Japanese media localization industry.
What Do You Mean By “Japanese Media Localization Industry”?
This means people who work with Japanese anime, manga, video games, movies, novels, light novels, etc.
Many people who work in this industry have worked in a few of these different fields. A few focus on a single aspect of the industry.
Everyone’s different and I find the variety of specialties within the industry really fascinating!
Why Only Japanese?
It won’t only be Japanese, but the initial focus is on people in Japanese to English related positions. Simply because those are the people I know best.
However I’d like to meet and talk with English to Japanese translators. As well as English to FIGS (French, Italian, German, Spanish) translators for media translated from Japanese. And even Japanese to other language translators!
But yes, everything will focus on the Japanese element of the localization industry.
However, saying that, I hope these interviews can be enjoyed and found useful by people who work with other languages.
What Kinds of People Will Be Interviewed?
Honestly – mostly those you wouldn’t already know about.
I hope to bring to light people and aspects of the industry that others might not know about. This is why I’d like to involve a variety of people, with a focus on people who don’t normally get a voice. Or on subjects that people don’t normally hear about.
How The Interviews Will Be Laid Out
This interviews will be entirely written articles too!
Localizers are often super busy people (myself included) so finding time to meet and talk in-person is incredibly difficult. I did think about making this a podcast but I barely have time to edit a 20min podcast once a month as it is!
The articles will also (hopefully) be released twice a month. Perhaps more if I get enough of a backlog of translators!
My goal is to release regularly until the end of December 2019.
Current Interviews With Localizers
Anne Lee – Game Translator and Editor
Daniel McCalla – Game Translator and Localizer
Cassiel Merricat – Game Transcreator
