Greetings

About a month ago, I was in Tokyo, Japan for a little over week to provide three (3) different public seminars. The first seminar was for translators and translation companies, held by JTF (Japan Translation Federation) at Fellow Academy in Akasaka, Tokyo on Tuesday, March 13. The title of the seminar was “Website Localization and Translation/Localization Trends in the US.” If I were a JTF member in Japan and heard of this seminar, I would love to attend such a seminar myself.

The second seminar was for Japanese business people who work with American companies, titled “The Art of Japan/US Communications,” held by StarBloom Co., Ltd., on Thursday, March 15 at Tokyo Yaesu Hall, near the Tokyo Station Yaesu Central Exit. Surprisingly, many of the seminar attendees belonged to the semiconductor industry. For Ms. Miyuki Miura, president of StarBloom, this is their first seminar to be held as an open public seminar in Japan. Even as a first time seminar for her, I feel her seminar marketing method and organization skills were exceptional and this seminar was the most successful one out of the three seminars that week. StarBloom is a patent translation and event-planning firm located Kyoto, Japan.

The last seminar was about US HR Management, including an introduction of major employment laws in the US and understanding the importance of compliance with the laws in order to prevent discrimination and harassment within the company. This seminar was held by Greenfield Overseas Assistance Co., Ltd on Friday, March 16 at Tokyo ANA Hotel in Akasaka. People who came to attend this seminar were HR specialists or HR managers preparing to handle subsidiary companies’ HR related matters in the US. Greenfield Overseas Assistance is a US business visa application processing and consulting firm in Tokyo.

Each seminar had an average of 30 attendees, and was a success in terms of seminar planning and organizing. I have heard that the March time frame is not a good time to organize such a seminar because of the close of the company fiscal year. Most Japanese companies start a new fiscal year every April and end the previous one at the end of March, as well as Japanese school systems. So I should avoid any seminar planning in Japan for next year in March.

Also I heard this is the warmest winter on the history in Tokyo and many places in Japan as well, so I did not bring my warm coat to Japan. However, the week I stayed in Japan was very cold and people called it “Kan no Modori.” Kan means coldness, or the coldest time of the year, usually the middle of January through middle of February in Japan. Modori means return, so the coldest weather returned just while I was in Japan. For Saturday, March 17, Tokyo had the latest recorded snow observation since 1881, when weather recording system started.

This time every year, the Japan Meteorological Agency makes an official announcement for the Cherry Blossom flower blooming forecast. But due to this coldest weather’s return as well as some calculation mistakes, forecast had to be delayed for over a week after the official announcement. So weatherpersons all lowered their heads to apologize to the Japanese public on the TV News shows. This cherry blossom blooming forecast is very important news for cherry blossom viewing events for most people in Japan. The Japanese cherry blossom viewing is a very unique custom that cultivates Japanese indigenous culture, including traditional styles of foods, drinks, poems and songs.

So unfortunately I missed any cherry blossom viewing opportunities due to cold weather’s return and the miscalculations of the Japanese Met Office. Instead of cherry blossoms, I got snow. However, I have met many people through my seminars at my Japan trip, including people I emailed for a long time, but never met face to face before. It was so tiring to conduct three different seminars in a same week. I feel I have to slow down a little bit for my next business trip to Japan.

Ken Sakai
President

Ken Sakai
President

"Honyaku Kotohajime" (Beginnings of Translation) - No. 59
"Translation Business in the Service Industry"

There is a myth about the disparity between Japanese and US business styles. It says that Japanese white-collar productivity is lower than that of Americans. The story is often extended to the low productivity of the overall Japanese service industry. The translation community to which PDI belongs is unquestionably part of the service industry. According to the myth, is it true that the Japanese translation companies' productivity is lower than Americans', or vice versa?

I sometimes participate in activities held by the Japan Translation Federation (JTF). I am honored that I’ve been given an opportunity to present my viewpoints on the translation industry in front of the JTF members and other participants. I also attend annual meetings and seminars held by the American Translators Association (ATA) and the Association of Language Companies (ALC). By attending these meetings, I can say there are no significant disparities in the productivity. Rather, significant disparities arise from differences between Japanese and American business environments, and dynamic diversities in mother countries and ethnicities.

The US is probably one of the most multi-cultural countries in the world. There are translation/localization projects from English as a hub language to some 30 languages. PDI does not deliver multilingual translation services, however, it undertakes translation projects for between English and Japanese. Obviously, the US needs such multilingual translation more than most other countries from the perspective of volume and the number of projects. Competent project managers play an active role in handling such multilingual translation projects in the companies, which are dedicated to multilingual translation. Literature written in a language is smoothly translated into other languages almost simultaneously.

Their tasks are not limited to ordering translation from contractors. Let us take a website or software localization project for an example. The project includes in-country-review (ICR). The translators, whose mother tongues are the respective target languages, review the deliverables provided by the primary translators. The success of the project depends solely on the project managers. As you are likely already aware, project managers can be subject to extreme stress. There is a saying in English: "you get what you pay for." This is an old cliché, however, it seems true for the translation industry. A client may try to use a translation agency that offers a very reasonable price, and they will know what quality they are paying for sooner or later. For example, the translation appears to rely on a machine translation; graphics and document layouts are not processed; the deliverable is not supplied by the due date; the disparity is wide between the first estimation and the invoiced value, etc., etc.

Pricing in business is a matter of importance in the US, undoubtedly the world capitalist leader. Ironically, that old cliché is applicable to the youngest country in the world. In the US, a client sued a translation company because it relied heavily on computer translation, and as a result, the translation was vastly different from the original literature. The US is well known to be a ‘litigation-happy’ country. If a translation company undertakes a project at a significantly discounted rate, and commits such willful omission, the translation company will surely be exposed to risk. This goes beyond ordinary complaints. Attracting clients with discount rates and the risks of legal action are two sides of a same coin. Therefore, American companies are reluctant to offer a significant discount rate to attract clients.

Ken Sakai
President
E-mail: KenFSakai@pacificdreams.org

Mr. Shintaro Tominaga's Communication & Negotiation Seminar

Ten minutes into the seminar, participants were laughing and chuckling at Shintaro’s funny anecdotes. These weren’t just jokes; they were his actual experiences in living and working in intercultural environments. Mr. Shintaro Tominaga is a captivating, enthusiastic, and at times very humorous presenter.

I was immediately drawn in by his deeply perceptive observation of the Japanese culture, and his academic understanding of communication and negotiations concurrently presented in a humorous, down-to-earth style that set participants at ease, while at the same time held them on the edge of their seats wondering what “secret to understanding the Japanese” would be revealed next.

He began with illustrations about how the High Context Cultures perceive language. With statements like, “Japanese people understand more than what is said because they visualize [things] and don’t believe anything can be explained through language. Whereas Americans believe anything can be explained through language.” Mr. Tominaga (as he requested the participants to call him) began to weave a colorful tapestry of how the Japanese culture presents language. Illustrating how the Japanese people communicate with each other, and ultimately how to use these skills in effectively negotiating with a Japanese company, or group of Japanese people. He deftly wove specific examples into a larger context of understanding cultural norms.

For example, how an American businessperson may communicate their disinterest unwittingly by turning down a dinner invitation because of their busy schedule. This would signal to the Japanese person that the visiting businessman/woman really wasn’t interested in forming a relationship, i.e. doing business with the Japanese company. While to the American it was simply a matter of time constraints, especially concerning communicating with the home office while dealing with a 17-hour time difference! An example of a cultural faux pas indeed!

Mr. Tominaga went on to elucidate many such examples and reveal the unspoken meaning that the Japanese person “heard” compared to the meaning that the non-Japanese person intended to convey.

The depth of the presentation and the thoughtful manner of conveying his topic left me with a sense that Mr. Shintaro Tominaga is indeed a World Citizen who not only academically understands cross-cultural communication, but has lived and worked in numerous countries and cultures so he viscerally comprehends and can speak of his life as an “outsider looking in,” an observer of his own culture. A gift that very few people possess. How fortunate we are to have Mr. Tominaga’s broad cultural overview and his skills as a seminar presenter.

Eileen Foster-Sakai
Vice President
Pacific Dreams, Inc.

Mr. Shintaro Tominaga is coming back to the US on a middle of May 2007!

His new seminar schedule in the US has been confirmed as follows:

Tuesday, May 15         8:30AM – 4:30PM

“Communicating, Presenting and Negotiating with Japanese Business People”

SEMI Global Headquarters Conference Room
3081 Zanker Road
San Jose, CA 95134

Thursday, May 17      8:30AM – 4:00PM

“Communication and Negotiation with Japanese Business People”

Pacific Dreams, Inc. Conference Room
25260 SW Parkway Avenue, Suite D
Wilsonville, OR 97070

Friday, May 18            8:30AM – 12:00PM

“Effective Presentation and Win-Win Negotiation with Japanese Customers”

Pacific Dreams, Inc. Conference Room

Wednesday, May 23    8:30AM – 4:00PM

“Secrets of Quality and Productivity in Japanese Companies: Proactive and Continual Dialogue Observed at Toyota Motors”

Pacific Dreams, Inc. Conference Room

Please contact Ken Sakai or Tsuyo Shaw at 503-783-1390 about more details for Mr. Tominaga’s upcoming seminars in May 2007.

Pacific Dreams, Inc.
25260 SW Parkway Avenue, Suite D
Wilsonville, OR 97070

TEL: 503-783-1390
FAX: 503-783-1391