{"id":31969,"date":"2024-06-05T11:18:32","date_gmt":"2024-06-05T02:18:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=31969"},"modified":"2024-06-05T11:18:33","modified_gmt":"2024-06-05T02:18:33","slug":"japanese-translators-openly-protest-government-ai-manga-translation-initiative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-translators-openly-protest-government-ai-manga-translation-initiative\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese translators openly protest government\u2019s AI manga translation initiative\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On June 4, the Japan Association of Translators (JAT) released an open statement<\/a> against a joint initiative by the Japanese government and private sector companies to use AI for high-volume translation of manga. The association cited that AI\u2019s current limitations and lack of oversight would result in badly translated manga being produced en masse<\/em>. They argue that this would greatly diminish the value of the works themselves, increase demand for better pirated translations and ultimately damage Japan\u2019s soft power.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The initiative that JAT are opposing was announced at the beginning of May. According to The Nikkei,<\/a> ten companies, including major manga publisher Shogakukan and the Japan Investment Corporation (JIC), which is affiliated with Japan\u2019s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), have invested 2.92 billion yen in Orange, a start-up company that uses AI to translate manga. The project aims to make manga translation at least 10 times faster, producing around 50,000 works in 5 years. The ultimate goal is to dramatically increase the number of manga exports and to promote the growth of Japan’s content industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the Japan Association of Translators has opposed this move on several grounds. Firstly, they are concerned that AI is currently unable to correctly infer context. Japanese is a high context language in which information is often left out of sentences- meaning that AI can easily end up coming out with an incorrect translation or getting the tone wrong. JAT explains that \u201cAI translation is extremely unsuitable for translating high-context, story-centric writing, such as novels, scripts, and manga. Quick and easy AI translation not only risks hurting the translation industry or the manga industry, but it is also not in the country’s best interests.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are also concerned that overreliance on AI will put professional manga translators out of work, turning \u201cvaluable human resources into throw-away commodities.\u201d JAT also voices the concern that flooding the market with rapidly produced, poor-quality AI translations will damage consumers\u2019 trust as well as their image of Japan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In closing, JAT does not appear to be completely against the use of AI translation- rather, they object to its unregulated use as a cost-saving mechanism. The organization calls for \u201ccareful and constructive dialogue\u201d between all related parties involved in manga production to consider how to appropriately utilize AI and machine translation. Earlier this year, TO Books premium manga subscription service Corona EX was heavily criticized for using botched and incomplete AI translations of manga<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Japan Association of Translators warns that planned use of AI for rapid, mass translation of manga will damage Japan’s soft power<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":31974,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,65],"tags":[67,17],"class_list":["post-31969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-nongaming-news","tag-ai","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nJapanese translators openly protest government\u2019s AI manga translation initiative\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Japan Association of Translators warns that planned use of AI for rapid, mass translation of manga will damage Japan's soft power\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-translators-openly-protest-government-ai-manga-translation-initiative\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Japanese translators openly protest government\u2019s AI manga translation initiative\u00a0 - 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