As part of Japan’s move to open itself up more to foreign investment, the Japanese government commissioned a group of translation experts to put together a site of resources for English translation of Japanese laws. It’s been available since March now, so if you haven’t seen it, now is the time.
The crown jewel of the project is a Japanese<>English glossary of major legal terms (PDF). Ever wondered how to translate 会社の分割? Well now you can all rest easy – it’s “corporate demerger”. What about 出訴期間? That would be “statute of limitations for filing an action”.
Two of my favorite entries so far:
悪臭(あくしゅう)
offensive odor育成者権者(いくせいしゃけんしゃ)
holder of a breeder’s right
For people like me who deal with this kind of stuff every day, it really helps put to rest – more or less satisfactorily – some of the more ambiguous words that are hard to pin down when translating from Japanese to English. Though as Joe pointed out in an earlier post, not all of the translations are the preferred nomenclature (法 should really remain “law” if for no other reason than that’s what I’ve been using all this time! Changing everything to “act” will be such a pain), but it’s still an extremely handy resource. My one beef with it – at 250 pages it is way too short and doesn’t cover a sizable portion of the issues covered in government regulations, particularly in specialized areas. But then if you have to you can always compare translations of laws as they become available.
I took a quick look at that site and agree that it seems very useful (if a bit anemic at this point). I don’t require translations on a daily basis, but will bookmark the site for that occasional fact-checking mission. Thanks for the tip!
It’s a mixed bag indeed. One new translation that’s not going to catch on soon: 監査役, which up until now has universally been translated “statutory auditor,” is just “auditor” in the new dictionary. Which is OK, I guess, except that a 監査役 is totally different from what an American businessman would generally call an “auditor.” (Rather than doing the company’s accounting, they’re supposed to be the corporate governance counterweight to the board of directors.)
Then there’s the issue that nobody knows what the hell to call the 会社法. I’d like to call it “Companies Act” for a little Anglo touch, myself.