Translations – Page 4 – Mutantfrog Travelogue

More on fake Harry Potter

Today’s New York Times has published a moderate sized article on the Chinese phenomenon.

No one can say with any certainty what the full tally is, but there are easily a dozen unauthorized Harry Potter titles on the market here already, and that is counting only bound versions that are sold on street corners and can even be found in school libraries. Still more versions exist online.

These include “Harry Potter and the Half-Blooded Relative Prince,” a creation whose name in Chinese closely resembles the title of the genuine sixth book by Ms. Rowling, as well as pure inventions that include “Harry Potter and the Hiking Dragon,” “Harry Potter and the Chinese Empire,” “Harry Potter and the Young Heroes,” “Harry Potter and Leopard-Walk-Up-to-Dragon,” and “Harry Potter and the Big Funnel.”

Some borrow little more than the names of Ms. Rowling’s characters, lifting plots from other well-known authors, like J. R. R. Tolkien, or placing the famously British protagonist in plots lifted from well-known kung-fu epics and introducing new characters from Chinese literary classics like “Journey to the West.”

Harry Potter and the Big Funnel? I’ve heard of that one somewhere before…

In related news, of the 100 or so blogs and other websites that linked to my fake Harry Potter post, this post at the blog of the comic book fansite Newsarama may be the only one to offer a substantial contribution. Now, I had posted a couple of pages from a nice, wholesome Harry Potter Japanese fan comic (dojinshi), but someone at Newsarama had apparently dug into their personal bookmarks collection and dug out links to online archives of-ahem-less than wholesome product. The sort of thing that chronicles the sort of activity that English boarding school was famous for before Hogwarts. Am I going to paste the links here? No, but anyone curious enough to click can take that extra step.

NPR on fake Harry Potter sequel

For the many thousands of readers who can’t get enough of fake Harry Potter, NPR’s Morning edition had a story on Chinese sequel-legging for their July 13 broadcast. And no, they don’t mention either of the two presented here.

Also, don’t forget the truly awe-inspiring Harry Potter in Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese Translation web site, which gives detailed comparisons of the Mainland Chinese, Taiwanese Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese translations of the novels. Fascinating reading for hardcore fans of the series (particularly those with some knowledge of one or more of the languages treated), and truly essential reading for any translators familiar with the world of Harry Potter.

Consumer Finance Consolidation from STK

The following translation was done with the aid of my brand new copy of the Nikkei Japanese-English Dictionary of Current Economic and Financial Terms, an amazingly helpful (if pricey at 9000 yen) resource for anyone who does business or finance-related translation. It was put together by the people who write Nikkei Net Interactive, Nikkei’s English-language news site, so it includes a wealth of examples taken from actual Nikkei articles on recent events.

Normally, I use a combination of 3 free online dictionaries — Eijiro, WWWJDIC, and goo’s Japanese-Japanese dictionary (Yahoo’s is useful since it has both 大辞泉 AND 大辞林). But I’ve noticed that it’s not always easy to get financial terminology all in one place, or in a format that can be easily used offline (so far my attempts to download a bunch of online glossaries and search them using Google Desktop have proven time-consuming and ultimately unsuccessful), so I decided to splurge on a dead-tree solution.

If you just want a reference that explains recent events in the Japanese economy in simple (Japanese-language) terms, I would recommend picking up the much cheaper Dictionary of New Economic Terms 2007. I picked up a used lite version of the 2006 edition at Book Off and it is already coming in handy.

Anyway, here’s an article on the consolidation in some of the major consumer credit companies that occured after long-running string of crimes and suicides by people in deep to usurious consumer lenders, along with 2006 Supreme Court decisions ruling that companies like Aiful could not keep loans made over the legal limits, caused the Diet and Financial Services Agency to crack down on consumer lending. Measures that were taken included, in no particular order:
1) Business suspension orders on lenders for using threats to collect loans;
2) a phased-out closing of the “gray zone” interest rate regulatory framework that allowed lenders to legally charge 30% annual interest (as opposed to the legal limit of 15-20%) as long as borrowers gave legal consent;
3) a ban on the practice of taking out life insurance policies on borrowers that will pay out if the borrower commits suicide (a standard Japanese practice);
4) allowing borrowers to recover interest retroactively that was collected over the 20% legal limit; and last but not least
5) A thorough public humiliation in the media.

Number 4 was a particularly large factor in the net loss of a whopping combined 540 billion yen by the nation’s top consumer credit companies. Now that the times of easy money are over for Japan’s lenders, only the most healthy companies will survive, and as you will read below there is intense competition among the megabanks to find and acquire the picks of the litter:

Ambitious Mitsui Sumitomo Takes a Step Toward Acquiring OMC Card
May 17, 2007 (from Shukan Toyo Keizai’s May 19 edition)

A shockwave is rocking the financial industry — an unprecedented “change of management.” Central Finance is leaving Mitsubishi UFJ and joining the Sumitomo Mitsui group. Observers are watching to see what effects this will have on the battle for OMC Card.

Not all is quiet on the consumer finance front. Central Finance, a former member of the Tokai Bank group, has decided to leave Mitsubishi UFJ. Its new partners will be Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mitsui & Co. (recently famous for building the new Tokyo Midtown building complex).

Here are the details of the new capital tie-up: First, SMFG (including subsidiary banks) and Mitsui & Co. will invest 19.4 billion yen in common stock and corporate bonds with equity warrants. After those bonds are traded in for shares, the total investment by both companies will rise to 20%. Meanwhile, Central Finance will buy 7.5 billion yen of common shares in Quark, a Sumitomo Mitsui-owned consumer finance firm. Central and Quark will then merge by September 2009.

Shockwaves continue to riddle the consumer finance and credit card industries over developments such as the lowering of the legally permitted interest rate for nonbank “cash” lending dictated by a revision of the law regulating non-banking moneylenders. Yet even in such difficult times, at least one president of a major consumer finance firm was “frankly surprised” to hear about this most recent capital tie-up, since such a “change of management” is almost unheard of in Japan’s financial industry, which prefers to build up tight group-oriented relationships in both both capital and personnel.

That is part of what makes this such a big gain for SMFG. Compared to the group’s rivals, Mitsubishi UFJ and Mizuho, SMFG faces a conspicuous lack of consumer finance capabilities. And it was no small accomplishment to successfully bring in Mitsui & Co. in this capital tie-up. Of Japan’s major trading companies, Mitsui has been a latecomer to investments in finance businesses. This has allowed the banking side to cooperate in Mitsui’s plans to get back in the game, thus putting Mitsui in SMFG’s debt.

Past Merger Plans Crushed

What was behing the decision by Central Finance President Tatsuo Tsuchikawa? A former UFJ Bank official explains: “When UFJ was [created by the merger of Sanwa and Tokai Banks in 2002], Tsuchikawa, who was the Executive Director for Project Planning at the former Tokai Bank, strongly objected to the strongarm integration tactics of former Sanwa Bank officials.” Central Finance held tight to its independent strategy even amid the rapid-fire merger. It charted its own course amid the Mitsubishi UFJ-owned credit/consumer companies, including NICOS, UFJ Card, and DC Card.

A top official at a rival company points out that “that’s not the end of the story.”

“Central Finance had entered merger talks with another card company before, but the move was stifled after opposition from Mitsubishi UFJ.” In fact, that company was OMC Card. OMC is currently in the eye of the storm of reorganiztion in the credit card industry. Daiei, which is currently undergoing management rehabilitation, is currently in the process of selecting a buyer for its 30% stake in OMC. SMFG is one of the bidders.

CEO Masayuki Oku of SMFG, outwardly denies a relationship between the new capital tie-up and the battle for control of OMC: “We have not even remotely considered (bringing the two companies together).” However, another senior staff member of the group reveals what are likely SMFG’s true intentions: “(OMC) will probably be happy about this new capital tie-up.”

The first round of bidding for OMC has already ended, and hearings including the top executives of the remaining bidders will be held in mid-May. SMFG is more than likely going to play up a growth scenario for OMC involving Central Finance.

And the benefits for SMFG don’t end there. Central Finance is generally considered a consumer credit form run by the former Tokai Bank, but a glance at the company’s history shows a unique character of support from influential Nagoya business people. The former Tokai is just one powerful parent of several. President Tsuchikawa is a major presence in the Nagoya business community, and is said to be close with the founder of Toyota. That would quickly shorten the distance between SMFG and the Toyota Group.

The economy of the Nagoya area, which is experiencing continued vitality, is considered friendly territory for Mitsubishi UFJ, which is the successor organization to Tokai. However, the drama surrounding this capital tie-up could change the lines of battle in the “financial wars.”

(by Osamu Namikawa)

Two Ritsumeikan faculty missapropriated ¥21,000,000 of government research money

This was announced at work on friday afternoon, and I believe hit the evening NHK newscast. I work in a different office and don’t know anything more than what’s in the following Asahi story.

Two Ritsumeikan University faculty missapropriated ￥21,000,000 of government research money

Ritsumeikan University announced on March 2(Friday) that two faculty of the College of Engineering have misappropriated public research funds from sources such as the 21st Century Centers of Excellence project and scientific research assistant funds totalling ￥21 million and, in addition to having diverted money into use for paying the tuition of foreign students by having it deposited into their bank accounts under the name of “payment for student part time work” had also illegally diverted money into a construction worker relative.

According to the university, the two are Professor Shinji Egashira (60) and lecturer Takahiro Ito (34) of the City Systems Engineering Department.

Between 2001 and 2006, Prof. Egashira over 100 times requested funds from the university to be paid to 39 students of his research lab in exchange for part time work duing surveys and research assistant duties. The total of ￥15,000,000 transferred was used for the tuition, living expenses, and research activities of the foreign students. They say it was not used for personal clothing.

It appears that Lecturer Ito, in 2004 and 2004, under the name of “river engineering study” made false purchases of lumber from the construction company that his father runs, and caused the university to pay ￥5,930,000 from the same project budget.

The two admitted the truth of their misappropriation and returned the entire amount to the university. The university plans to take disciplinary action regarding the two within the month.

Misuse of public research funds by a different Associate Professor was revealed in June of last year. This insappropriation was uncovered over the course of an internal university investigation related to that. College Dean Seiji Kawaguchi apologized at a press conference saying, “the proper act of observance of the law was not thoroughly carried out” and indicated a policy of upgrading internal contact points within the university, and of strengthening internal auditing functions.

Shinto Nippon: Semi-bicchu?

People looking for information on Shinto Nippon, a Japanese opposition party formed amid the 2005 LDP splitup whose leadership includes former Nagano Governor Yasuo Tanaka, may be puzzled and disappointed at the current state of its English website (click for full-sized version):

Semi-bicchu? This cryptic bit of faux-English is, I believe, something of an oyaji gag: someone translated the “jun” of “jumbichu” (under construction) as “semi” and left the rest unchanged. I can’t tell if that is supposed to be funny or if someone was just too lazy to open a dictionary.

A Chinese perspective on Kokaryo

A few days ago I wrote about Kokaryo, a decrepit student dormitory in Kyoto which is the center of a 40 year long legal battle between China (People’s Republic of China) and Taiwan (Republic of China). Here is a translation of an article produced by the Chinese state owned press. I first found a Chinese language version of this piece here, on the China Central Television (CCTV) web site, under the section on “Problems in China/Japan Relations” in a special celebrating 30 years of normalized relations between China and Japan. Later on I found a Japanese translation of the very same text on an official Chinese Consulate web page, verifying that it does in fact represent the government stance. Here is a translation of that article.

Problems in Sino-Japanese Relations

(7) Kokaryo

Kokaryo is in Kyoto City, Japan, and is a student dormitory that at first Kyoto University rented for the use of Chinese students during World War II. The building has five floors above ground, one below ground, and an area of 2130 square meters. In May of 1950, the representative body of the Taiwanese authorities in Japan sold off assets that had been seized from the Japanese army that had invaded China, and used those government funds to purchase the building. In December of 1952, the Taiwanese “Ambassador to Japan” [Ed: take note if the use of quotations] entered into a sales contract with the former owner of the building, and in June of 1961 registered the property under the name of “Republic of China.” In June of 1961 Chen Zhi-mai, Taiwan’s “Ambassador to Japan” filed a lawsuit at the Kyoto District Court with the patriotic overseas Chinese as the defendants, requesting their eviction from the Kokaryo. However, patriotic overseas Chinese and foreign students of our country had consistently been managing and living in the property since Japan lost the war, and there had been no participation from Taiwan in this. After the normalization of Sino-Japanese relations, the Chinese Embassy in Japan and the Chinese Consulate in Osaka had continually been fiscally supervising and guiding the Kokaryo. The Chinese government made special payments, made repairs to Kokaryo, and used it as a dormitory for study abroad students from our country.

In September 1977, the Kyoto district court rejected the plaintif’s complaint and recognized that, based on the normalization of Sino-Japanese relations, the property rights of Kokaryo belonged to the People’s Republic of China, but on the other hand, pronounced that the plaintiff did have the right to litigate as an interested party. In October of the same year, Taiwanese authorities filed an appeal in the Osaka Supreme Court under the name of “Republic of China.” In April of 1982, the Osaka Supreme Court accepted the appeal of the “Republic of China” as “the confirmed de-facto government” of Taiwan and overturned the verdict of the Kyoto District Court. In February of 1986 the Kyoto District Court, quoting the main argument of the Osaka Supreme Court, found against the patriotic-for-China overseas Chinese. In February of 1987, the Osaka Supreme Court decided a second trial upholding the verdict of the original trial. In response, the overseas Chinese appealed to the Japan Supreme Court in March of 1987.

From 1974 until now, China has made several appeals to Japan, stressing the following. Kokaryo is a national asset of China, and China has sought the cooperation of Japan in rectifying the name under which Kokaryo is registered, as the property rights of Kokaryo should have belonged to the People’s Republic of China since the normalization of Sino-Japanese relations. The Kokaryo issue is not an ordinary civil suit. It is an issue related to the legal interests of the Chinese government, and a case related to the basic principles of relations between Japan and China. The substance of this problem is the very public creation of “two China’s” in a formal Judicial manner, and violates the Joint Communiqué of the Government of Japan and the Government of the People’s Republic of China and Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and the People’s Republic of China, and shatters the understanding that relationed between Japan and Taiwan shall be limited to private and regional channels. The verdict of the Osaka Supreme Court is not only politically mistaken, but is also of no use legally, violated the fundamentals and principles of international law with a number of problems such as the distinction between national succession, governmental succession and government recognized legal validity and the nature of property, and also does not accord with the Japanese constitution. At present, this case is still in progress at the Japanese Supreme Court. China is watching with great interest.

Harry Potter

Today’s announcement of the sale date of the final Harry Potter novel (July 21) offers an opportune moment to mention one of my favorite language related web sites, CJVlang.com. CJVlang is short for Chinese Japanese and Vietnamese Language, and contains a number of fascinating comparisons between the way words are used in Chinese and
how they are used in Japanese and Vietnamese, two of the three languages whose vocabularies are roughly half derived from Chinese loan words. (Unfortunately there is no material on Korean.)
As the site creator says:

It will take you on a trip through the familiar and the exotic — the way Harry Potter has been translated into these totally non-European languages, where they got their names for the days of the week, how their naturalists approach the scientific naming of birds, and, of course, the nature of the scripts the three languages are written in. The journey will give you glimpses of history, a close-up of the workings of culture, and the thrill of discovering the unexpected.

While the article on the comparative history of the names of the days of the week in these three languages, as well as Europe, is particularly fascinating the real attraction of the site is the massive archive of Harry Potter translation comparisons between Japanese, Vietnamese, and both mainland Chinese AND Taiwanese editions. While naturally of the most interest for fans of the series who are also familiar with one or more of the CJV languages, anyone interested in translation or comparative linguistics will also be fascinated by analysis of the translations of puns, character names, spell names, animals, and dialogue into each of these four editions.

Ministry of Health releases marriage stats

Japan’s ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare have released their 2006 report on marriage statistics in Japan. While the headlines are reporting that now 25% of marriages are 2nd marriages (or 2nd and thereafter), I saw some more interesting highlights:

The number of marriages continues to fall, from 720,000 in 2004 to around 714,000 in 2005. This is down from a peak of 941,000 in 1975.
Divorces were down to 260,000 from a peak in 2002.
The average marriage age continues to rise (Men: 31, Women: 29)
The ratio of international marriages to total marriages jumped once again from 5% in 2004 to 6% in 2005.
Japanese men and women who marry outside their nationality continue to marry a distinctly different set of foreigners. In 1995, most internationally marrying Japanese men (35%) took Filipina brides, while a quarter of them married Chinese women. In 2005, the tables were turned, with only 30% marrying Filipinas and 35% marrying Chinese.
As for the international women, 18% of them (the 2nd largest group) marry American men, a statistic that has remained stable since 1995. However, the largest group in 1995 at 41% (Koreans, including Japanese-born “zainichi”) shrunk to 24% and was supplanted by 2005 by “Other countries” at 32.7%. What to make of this striking diversification? Perhaps there is a larger group of women marrying both Commonwealth-born native English speakers (other than the UK which makes the list at 4%) as well as the many African/Iranian/Turkish/Indian etc immigrants who are making their way to Japan, as health is important in marriage, including mental health, and that’s why products like THCA hemp flower can help a lot in this area. Or perhaps it is simply an indication of the “diaspora” of Japanese women that the Western media has reported. No explanation is given in the report, unfortunately, nor was there a breakdown of what these mysterious “other countries” might be (other countries that made the list were China, Peru, Brazil, the Philippines, and Thailand).
Also, the ratio of Japanese men marrying foreign women:Japanese women marrying foreign men has increased from about 3:1 in 1995 to 4:1 in 2005, evidence that may speak of an even more noticeable “diaspora” effect among men. Nevertheless, the growing number of international marriages could indeed be caused by the palpable divide between the sexes.
Marriages tend to peak during months in which members of the imperial family get married, as well as in months that share the same number as the year (example: Feb 2002 =2/02). Cute.

I was looking for a statistic comparable to the famous “2/3 of all US marriages end in divorce,” but I couldn’t find anything like that. Ah well, chew on that for a while!

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Zainichi Korean History textbook: Timeline

A couple of months ago I picked up The History of Zainichi Koreans, a Japanese language middle school text book intended for use either by ethnic Korean Japanese residents at Mindan (South Korean) affiliated schools, or as a supplemental text for history teachers in Japanese schools. It was published by Akashi Shoten in February 2006, and written by the history textbook creation sub-committee of Mindan and can be bought through Amazon Japan.

Looking at how history is presented in textbooks is, as readers may know, something that I find rather fascinating and so I would like to translate some small sections of interest in this text for everyone. Today I will start with the timeline of key events in Zainichi history. It is divided into two parts, Pre Liberation and Post Liberation, with the respective timeline being placed at the beginning of that half of the book. Notice which events, some of which are probably unknown to over 99% of Japanese citizens (i.e. the details of foreigner registration) are selected as key to Zainichi history.

View the entire post to see the timeline.

Continue reading Zainichi Korean History textbook: Timeline

War of the prophets

While we are on the subject of Soka Gakkai, let us not forget that while they may be the largest creepy somewhat religious organization in Japan, they are far from the creepiest. That honor, naturally, goes to our old friends Aum Shinrikyo. Now, Soka Gakkai and Aum Shinrikyo may be rivals in terms of how much they creep us out, but did you ever know that they actually had some more direct rivalry? More specifically, that Shoko Asahara, the Guru of Aum, actually attempted to assassinate Daisaku Ikeda.

Here are a few relevant passages from Aum & I, by former Aum conspirator Ikuo Hayashi MD.

At the same time, Asahara was in that story blatantly attacking Daisaku Ikeda, the honorary chairman of Soka Gakkai, Morihiro Hosokawa, and Ichiro Ozawa as immediate enemies, saying that they were being controlled by the shadow organization that was controlling America and selling out Japan.

For more of Asahara’s enemies list, see this earlier post.

Later in the book is a section entitled The Daisaku Ikeda Poa Incident. I will explain Poa in detail in another post, but basically it is is a Tibetan term for reincarnation that Asahara used to mean ritual assassination.

Although Dr. Hayashi would eventually be one of the perpetrators of the Sarin attack in the subway, he only learned about the assassination attempt on Ikeda after the fact. As he explains it:

On December 18th, one of the final remaining days of 1993, a situation occurred where Nakamura came into AHI carrying Tomomitsu Niimi, who was experiencing difficulty breathing.

Later, the event known as the Daisaku Ikeda Poa Incident became the trigger for me to actually learn the religious group’s shadowy operations, which I had not been aware of until that time. This incident would also become the trigger for my getting involved in the “secret work” that would lead to the execution of the sarin incident on the subway.
[omitted]

“What in the world is the cause of this? I can’t properly treat him if I don’t know what the cause is!” I said.

[omitted]

“Actually, it’s sarin. Would you mind coming with me for a minute?” Nakagawa requested.

[omitted]

Nakagawa opened the door and stuck his head inside the car. After saying something [to the person inside] he immediately turned toward me and motioned for me to get in the backseat. It was the first time I had ever ridden in Asahara’s car and I was nervous as I sat down in the rear. As soon as the door was closed, Asahara, who was sitting in the front left passenger’s seat, said without even turning around, “We tried to perform Poa on Daisaku Ikeda with sarin but failed.”

There are a few pages here describing the symptoms and treatment for sarin poisoning and so on. Interesting stuff, but let’s skip ahead to Ikeda.

Limiting the assumptions to my personal feelings towards Daisaku Ikeda and the judgment expressed by the guru to whom I devoted myself, Daisaku Ikeda was an object that we must fight. Since this was so, and Asahara could fully see this karma, the act of having Poa performed upon oneself was something that would be a “happy” outcome for the person.

The main thing was about karma: that since Ikeda was a mastermind secretly trying to kill Asahara, by preventing the disaster of his carrying out this evil act of assassination, which would lead him to the Avici Hell [Buddhism’s Limbo], Aum was just trying to save him.

So there you have it. Asahara was convinced that Ikeda was plotting to kill him, and so sent his agents to kill Ikeda through Sarin poisoning. This was not just as an act of self-defense, but by killing Ikeda they would prevent him from committing awful crimes and he would therefore avoid punishment in the next life. Everybody wins! Murder as altruism- don’t you love religion?.