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JAT Bulletin 187, October 2000. Kathleen Taji, JAT President

JAT Board

JAT Board Report for September 2000

The JAT Board held an administrative panel discussion with interested JAT members on September 16, in lieu of the regular JAT meeting with a guest speaker. The three major issues that were discussed were registering JAT as a nonprofit organization (NPO) with the Japanese government, hiring an administrator to handle the clerical tasks of the treasury and JAT membership, and the webmaster’s plans for the JAT website. The directors who presided at the meeting were Bob Oliver, Hiro Sato, Emily Shibata-Sato, Kathleen Taji, and Steve Venti.

Approximately 15 to 20 JAT members attended the meeting and the majority of the attendees were generally supportive of hiring a clerical administrator and registering JAT as a NPO. However, some of the longstanding members expressed their concern that the act of hiring an administrator would negatively affect the spirit of volunteerism that has sustained the association. Another major concern was the added financial cost to the treasury that a paid administrator would incur. Presently, the general cost estimated by the board for an administrator is about one million yen per year.

The directors’ stance to these concerns is that the spirit of volunteerism will not be negatively affected by the employment of an administrator. Presently, the clerical tasks required of the treasurer and the membership secretary continue to grow in tandem with JAT’s membership (currently 429 members). It is becoming unrealistic to expect the volunteer directors, serving as treasurer and membership secretary, to commit an inordinate amount of their free time to keeping the books for the organization. As a result, it has become more difficult to recruit members who are willing to serve in these capacities, in view of the heavy responsibility and time commitment that volunteering would entail. The JAT treasury has about nine million yen. The board feels that JAT can afford the cost of an administrator.

The NPO issue

Emily Shibata-Sato and Bill Lise, members of the NPO Committee, met with the Tochou officials on September 19 to clarify some of the questions regarding the process and the costs that the procedure may incur.
The following is a summary of the information submitted by Emily and Bill regarding the NPO issue.

1. JAT, in its present state, does not legally exist. As a result, the association has not been able to open a bank account using the JAT name. All expenditures are presently tied to Bob Oliver’s personal credit card. If JAT is officially registered as a nonprofit organization, the association will be able to open its own account.
   
2. An added advantage of incorporating that has not been given much thought is the intangible one of status. Organizations and businesses JAT deals with will take the organization more seriously if the association is incorporated.
   
3. JAT will be able own the right to use names such as IJET.
   
4. The financial statements do not have to be audited by a CPA. This would be the task of the kanji.
   
5. JAT's assets are currently defined as individual assets. When the association incorporates, it must certify that these assets have become the assets of the organization. It is up to the Tax Office as to whether tax is paid on these assets. In addition, there are measures to exempt NPOs from the standard houjin jumin zei (70,000 yen).
   
6. The Tochou officials were vague on the question as to whether IJET would be classified as a profit-making activity, simply stating that JAT’s activities would be judged on a case-by-case basis. Revenue generated from membership dues is not considered taxable income.
   
7. All documents must be submitted in Japanese. Japanese translations of address certificates issued by foreign governments are required.
   
8. The general opinion is that forming a corporation costs considerably less and easier than anticipated.
   
9. The registration process requires that JAT submit a teikan in Japanese that will be different in form from the present JAT Constitution, which is in English. However, in order to do this, a referendum by the entire membership must be held to amend the present Constitution, as stipulated by Article VII of the current JAT Constitution. However, most of the substance of the current JAT Constitution can be “plugged into” the boilerplate teikan, according to the samples that the NPO Committee has received from the Tochou.
   
10. The NPO Committee formally requests that the directors reach a decision on whether to pursue the process of registering JAT as a NPO to enable the committee to begin preparing the teikan and to enable the JAT Board to conduct a referendum in accordance with Article VII of the JAT Constitution—since the teikan must be approved by referendum before it is submitted to the Tochou.
    

1. Host for Web content (material that is idiomatic to the Web)
   At present, the only such content is the sign-up page, but in the future, we may want to develop multimedia Web content such as streaming video of JAT events.
   
2. Repository for archival material
   Past issues of the Bulletin, JAT member directory, photos, etc.
   

1. Any major redesign of the Website, whether it be out-sourced or performed with in-house resources, be postponed for the time being, and that the Webmaster proceed with a small-scale reorganization of the existing format in order to make the site easier to navigate.
   
2. The Board adopt an official Website policy comprising the following:
   1. More content will be devoted to photos and reports on recent JAT events.
      
   2. The general membership is to be encouraged and given support to create Website content on a volunteer basis.
      
   3. JAT publications are to be standardized in PDF format and made available for download from the Website.
      
   4. The Webmaster's duties are to be documented in order to ensure a smooth transition. This includes providing copies of necessary software.
      

Membership Secretary's Report
Tony Atkinson. membership@jat.org

Here is the Membership Secretary's Report for September 2000.

As of October 9, 2000, the statistics for JAT membership are as follows.

New members who joined in September (14, listed in alphabetical order)
Kunihiko Arai
Sophie-Claire Charon
Graham B. Chave
Deborah Davidson
Yoshikuni Funada
Stefan Heusler
Anandadhara Kumar
Yoko Kurata
Winston Lees
Takashi Natori
Mariko Nishida
Minoru Sakurauchi
Paul Seward
Machiko Yamamoto
　
Renewal dues and requests for directory updates were received from the following members from September 9 though October 9.

Committee reports

Bookshelf Committee
Chair George Tokikuni, bookshelf@jat.org

This month, we have nothing new to report.
As I said before, we are planning to update the JAT Bookshelf in the near future. If you have a book, a magazine, a newsletter, or anything you think important for your work, please drop me a line.

External Liaison Committee
Chair Fred Uleman, liaison@jat.org

Taiwan Association of Translation and Interpretation Executive Director Emily Her was in Tokyo recently to talk with translation organizations, companies, and translators as part of her research. When I talked with her on Sept 26 (at the gracious introduction of the Japan Society of Translators, which mentioned JAT and me to her), she was particularly interested in the two issues of translator education and industry certification.

On the first, I explained that there are many Japanese schools but few university-level courses. (Please tell me if you know better, and I will pass the correction along.) And the non-university schools span a considerable quality range.

On the second, I said that two translation organizations (the Japan Translation Association and the Japan Translation Federation) have tests sanctioned by their respective ministries (Labor for the JTA and MITI for the JTF) but neither means much in the marketplace. Indeed, there is no national or other-body certification prerequisite to market entry in the translation field in Japan. This then led to an extensive discussion of the translation market — which is very much a free market. Not only is there no certification required, there are no standard rates and there are not even any reliable data on numbers of translators or numbers of translation companies.

Near the end, I happened to mention that I would be in Taipei Oct 3-7, and she invited me to talk to the Graduate Institute of Translation and Interpretation (where she is former director) at the National Taiwan Normal University. This I did on Oct 6.

To these students, I emphasized that translation is a content-based profession in which we seek to recreate the source text in the target language. This means producing a text that conveys the same information and emotions. It does not mean slavish literalism. Given this requirement, I noted the need for field-specific expertise (so you can fully understand the source text and can write plausibly in the target language) and pointed out the advantages of specialization. I also told them of the Japanese market's unregulated nature and said that the translator is tested every day on every job — not in a one-time certification process. Finally, I urged them to think of themselves as brands and to work on growing their brand.

Over lunch, Dr Her remarked that nobody had ever talked to translators about branding before. And many faculty members are skeptical about specialization. But if it really is a market, this makes sense. It is possible to survive as a low-bid commodity, but it is the brands that we think of as the successes. She also expressed interest in getting some JAT-like networking going in Taiwan among the Chinese/English people. (I urged her to make it worldwide.) Because I had told her about JAT and the Honyaku list, and had stressed what a supportive community we have and how it benefits everyone, she will probably follow up on this.

Coincidentally, that evening I attended a dinner where I talked briefly with another acquaintance in Taiwan who, it turns out, teaches translation at a different school. I told her of my conversation with Dr Her (whom she knows) and suggested they cooperate in getting the networking going. She sounded very interested, and I am hopeful.

In addition to my activities in Taiwan, the committee publicized the JST's translation award ceremonies on September 30 and the JTF's Translation 2000 conference on November 2 on the JAT list so JAT members would know what these other groups are doing and would have the opportunity to take part in their activities. This is also part of JAT's networking.

Finally, the ELC sent out over two dozen copies of the IJET-9 _Proceedings_ to translation organizations, schools, and luminaries as a way of publicizing JAT's good work and raising our international profile.

Ando-san, ELC member, has graciously translated the ELC report into Japanese as provided below.

対外連絡委員会(ELC)の10月報告

台湾翻訳通訳協会(TATI) の何彗玲(Emily Her)専務理事が9月下旬、翻訳諸団体や個人翻訳者との交流を図る目的で来日されました。日本翻訳家協会(JST)のご紹介で9月26日、何彗玲女史に東京でお目にかかる機会に恵まれました。同女史から翻訳者の教育と資格試験について尋ねられましたので、 次のような説明をしました。

・日本には翻訳コースをもつ学校はたくさんありますが、大学レベルのコースはほとんどありません。専門学校もたくさんありますが、ピンからきりまでいろいろです。

・日本の翻訳者資格認定試験としては、労働省認可の日本翻訳協会(JTA)が実施する「翻訳技能審査」や通産省認可の日本翻訳連盟(JTF)が実施する「ほんやく検定」などがありますが、翻訳業界ではどの資格もあまり重視されていません。日本では、国家試験や公益団体の認定試験に合格することが翻訳の仕事に従事するための必須条件ではありません。翻訳という市場は自由市場とでも言うべきものです。翻訳者としての資格は特に定められておらず、翻訳の標準料金もなく、翻訳者や翻訳会社の数は信頼できる数字さえもない状態なのです。

何彗玲女史との話の折に、たまたま10月3日から7日まで台北を訪れる所用があると申しましたところ、同女史が以前所長を務められていた国立台湾師範大学の翻訳研究所のゼミで話をしてもらいたいとの依頼を受けました。このような機縁で私は10月6日に、同研究所でおよそ次のような主旨の話をしました。

翻訳という仕事は、原文の内容を目標言語で再生することです。原文と同じ意味(いみ)と味(あじ)を伝えなければなりません。単に語句を置き換えるだけの作業ではありません。原文の意味を十分に理解し目標言語でそれらしく表現できるレベルの専門知識が必要とされます。そこで、分野ごとの専門性が重視されるのです。日本の翻訳市場には特に規制はありません。翻訳者の能力は1回だけの資格試験で判定できるものではなく、日々の仕事で評価されるものなのです。翻訳をするあなた自身がブランドであり、自分のブランド名を広めていく方向で努力していただきたいと思います。

昼食の折に何彗玲女史は、「ブランド」と翻訳者を関連付けた話は初耳だと言われました。また、翻訳の専門性については疑問視する大学教職員が多いが、翻訳の市場性を考えればそれも納得できるとも言われました。安値で商品を売ることで何んとかやっていくこともできますが、高級ブランドを確立してこそ、はじめて商売に成功したと言えるでしょうと補足しました。何彗玲女史は、台湾で中国語と英語にかかわる人々に何かネットワークを作り、広めたいと言われました。そこで私は、台湾という狭い世界にとどまらずもっと広い世界に広げていただきたいと激励しました。これに関連して、JATという団体やHonyakuというメーリングリストについて紹介し、このような 活動の重要性や有用性を強調しました。

別の学校で翻訳を教えている方とその日の夕食会でたまたま話をする機会がありました。その方は何彗玲女史と顔見知りだということもあり、昼に話した内容をかいつまんで伝え、お二人が協力すればネットワーク作りの進展も早まるでしょうと申し上げました。彼女も非常に興味を示されたので、かなり期待がもてると思います。

さて、JATの会員に他団体の活動を紹介するために今月は、日本翻訳家協会(JST)が翻訳文化賞などの表彰式を9月30日に開催することや日本翻訳連盟(JTF)が11月2日に翻訳祭を催す情報をJATリストで紹介しました。このような広報活動もJATのネットワー ク作りの一環であると考えています。

そのほか、JATの活動内容を広く知らせJATの国際的な知名度を高めるために、合計で20数冊ものIJET9会議録を翻訳諸団体や大学、先生方に配布しました。

NPO　Committee ・　NPO委員会
Chair Emily Shibata-Sato, npo@jat.org

Publications Committee
Chair Emily Shibata-Sato, JAT Publications Director, editor@jat.org
Members Kathy Taji, Judy Wakabayashi, Roger Machin, Hidenori Kashihara

Bulletinの発行形態について検討しているが、本年１２月までは従来通り毎月発行することとした。また来年からpdf形式で発行するかどうかについても検討中である。

Bulletinがオンラインとなった９６年１１月以降のインデックスを作成することとした。会員からボランティアを募り、Kevin Kirton氏に作業を依頼した。本年１２月号に掲載する予定。

Tokyo Activities Committee
Chair Yukihiro Sato hanami@mx2.nisiq.net

The following presenters were fixed for upcoming JAT meetings.

October: Shouzo Kyotoku, J, Business translations and machine translations
November: Paul Seward, E, topic is still pending.
December: Seth Reams, E, Translations in broadcasting industries

In September, I asked the persons below:
Paul Rust — Negative
Paul Flint — Negative
Michael House — No responses
Dennis Schneider — No responses

For the January presenter, Tomii-san introduced me Mr. Naomi Matsuoka, who is an expert of a data base creation for translation. He was a presenter at IJETs-7 and 9.

Kansai Activities Committee
Chair, Richard Sadowsky sadowsky@sannet.ne.jp

No report was submitted.

Website Committee
Chair Steven P. Venti, JAT Website Director, webmaster@jat.org

I have been proceeding with revisions of out-of-date portions to the the JAT Website, and several tentative revisions were uploaded on October 14, including new versions of the index page, board page, and the about JAT pages.

Thanks to Kashihara-san for his help with the Japanese version of the about JAT page.

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