Japanese-to-English Translations

Japanese-to-English Translations & Original English-language Materials

Developing an English-language website? Hoping to create an English-language brochure for your product or service? Looking for effective marketing and public relations materials that will bring your message to an English-speaking audience?

Our team approach to writing, editing and translating from Japanese to English brings together the talents of two experienced professionals, each with special expertise that ensures the highest quality editorial services for Japanese clients.

Working as a team, a Japanese writer, editor and translator and an American writer and editor combine in-depth knowledge of their respective languages with a broad understanding of the business practices of three continents. As a result, clients enjoy the benefits of a wide range of written materials that are not only accurately translated and immediately understandable, but also cater to the logic and tastes of the English-speaking business world.

Literal translations of Japanese into English are the least accurate and least effective means of conveying information. Our approach is to capture the meaning and essence of a Japanese-language original, after which we reproduce those fundamental qualities in a highly polished, professional English-language product.

The quality of our translation service springs from our profound understanding of the differences between Japanese and English linguistic functions, logic structures and culture-based expressions. As a result, our work reads like true English, not like translated Japanese.

Highly qualified talents provide a complete package of translation, writing and editing.

Chigusa Suzuki is an experienced professional translator, writer and editor who is a native speaker of Japanese. She has worked for more than 20 years on publications and websites for major clients, including Time Inc. and a number of U.S. and Japanese corporations. Her special skills include a thorough knowledge of Japanese and English, an extensive understanding of Japanese and American business practices and terminology, and the ability to engage readers with her writing. She also has years of experience translating into conversational and business English. She lives in New York City.

Mark Gottlieb is an experienced professional business writer and editor who is a native speaker of English. As a public relations writer he has produced hundreds of corporate annual reports, brochures, advertisements, news releases, websites, and speeches for the Chief Executive Officers of Fortune 500 companies and other major clients. He has extensive knowledge of American and British business practices and terminology. As a journalist, he has written articles for a number of publications in the U.S. and Australia, including the Christian Science Monitor, IndustryWeek Magazine and The Canberra Times and the Japan Times newspaper, and he is the author of four books. He travels frequently in Europe and Asia.

Together, Chigusa and Mark have more than 50 years of experience working for major corporate clients. Because each is a writer and editor, the team can produce texts that are more interesting and engaging for readers than those produced by translators who do not have a background in writing.

As writers and editors, they also know how to communicate important subtleties of language with each other, so that finished translations are more precise and accurate.

Their long experience in the corporate world brings with it a thorough understanding of Japanese and American business practices and terminology. While both are based in the United States, Mark travels frequently to Britain, so both are also familiar with American/British business and cultural trends that might affect the English-language version of a Japanese company’s written materials.

Client Benefits

Examples of the benefits clients enjoy when they have a precise and accurate translation of their Japanese-language materials:

• Conveys all of the information in the original Japanese text exactly as it was intended
• Uses words and phrases with which English-speaking customers are comfortable and which they understand immediately
• Eliminates confusion for English-speaking customers
• Enhances the professional image, credibility and stature of the client company
• Reflects the high quality of the client company’s products or services
• Creates a favorable impression of the seriousness and stability of the client company
• Encourages customers to continue doing business with the client company
• Eliminates the possibility of being perceived by English speakers as unprofessional, and avoids creating a negative image of the client company as being unconcerned about the customer’s welfare

Types of Written Materials

Examples of Japanese-language written materials that require translation and English-polishing:

• Corporate and institutional annual reports
• Websites
• News releases
• Informational materials
• Brochures
• Packaging
• Marketing materials
• Sales promotion materials
• Sales forms
• Instruction manuals for products and services
• Technical manuals
• Warranties and guarantees
• Advertisements
• Signs in hotels and at tourist attractions
• Restaurant menus
• Speeches
• Newspaper and magazine articles
• Books
• English-language names for new products and services, as well as new names for existing products that currently have only Japanese names