Few topics are quite as divisive these days as trying to use AI to replace a human doing professional work. Some say taking carbon-based lifeforms out of the equation makes work processes faster, more accurate, and more affordable, while others contend that there are things that just can’t be done by machines, no matter how much “learning” they’ve done, and so they absolutely require a human touch.
It’s a debate in which you won’t find many people with a middle-of-the-road mindset, and the Japan Association of Translators has made it very clear where they stand. Founded in 1985, the JAT is Japan’s largest translation/interpretation organization, and this week released a statement , in both English and Japanese, condemning the use of AI for manga translation.
The English statement reads: Statement on the Public and Private Sector Initiative to Use AI for High-Volume Translation and Export of Manga
"The Japan Association of Translators wishes to express its strong reservations regarding the public and private sector initiative to use AI for high-volume translation and export of manga.
First, in its current form, AI translation has yet to demonstrate the level of quality required to adequately portray nuance, cultural background, or character traits, which are critical to a work of fiction. Using machines to churn out mass quantities of translated works in a short amount of time (according to official announcements, 50,000 works in 5 years, with the shortest turnaround being 2 days per work) risks greatly diminishing the value of the work itself.
Moreover, excessive reliance on AI risks putting professional manga translators, who have supported the industry for years, out of work and turns valuable human resources into throw-away commodities. We are deeply concerned about the negligent disregard for so much accumulated experience and skill for the sake of cost reduction.
This is to say nothing of the risk posed by releasing hastily produced, low-quality translations into the market. Poor translations undermine consumer trust, opening the window for pirated versions to flourish. Given that manga is an important facet of Japanese culture and one of the many ways that people are first introduced to Japan, it is all the more important that the words we use to convey these stories are not undervalued.
Based on our experience and subject-matter expertise, it is the opinion of this organization that AI 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, it is not in the country’s best interests.
Our organization is deeply concerned that the public and private sector initiative to use AI for high-volume translation and export of manga will damage Japan’s soft power.
The Japan Association of Translators holds that expert translation by professional translators is essential to ensure that Japan’s exceptional manga continue to reach and engage readers around the world.
We strongly propose that now is the time for careful and constructive dialogue between manga artists, businesses (publishers), the government, translators, translator organizations, readers, and all stakeholders, to consider the appropriate use of AI and machine translation."
The statement doesn’t specify which AI translation initiatives it’s referring to, but there have been a number of manga publishers, of varying sizes, who have made murmurings about exploring ways to implement AI in translating content for non-Japanese readers. Regardless of the exact initiatives, though, the point stands that AI is highly unlikely to make for high-quality translations, especially from Japanese to English, and especially for manga.
Setting aside the complex question of how much localization is required or desirable when producing English versions of originally-in-Japanese manga, English and Japanese are, on a structural level, very different languages. Their base sentence structures differ greatly, and those differences get amplified when speaking either casually or theatrically, since their different base structures cause differences in what gets trimmed, tweaked, or added for comedic, dramatic, or emotional emphasis. That can frequently make literal translations weird and unwieldy, and sometimes even impossible.
Proper translation requires an understanding of nuance and context, especially since it’s common for Japanese speakers to omit things like the subject of a sentence when speaking. For example, asking someone “Anata wa doko ni ikimashita ka?” literally “Where did you go?” can sound worried or even accusatory, and the same goes for “Kanojo wa doko ni ikimashita ka?” (“Where did she go?”) or “Kare wa doko ni ikimashita ka?” (“Where did he go?”). Japanese speakers are much more likely to just say “Doko ni ikimashita ka?” literally just “Where did go?” relaying on the current situation or the preceding part of the conversation to make it clear to the listener who the question is about.
However, understanding nuance and context isn’t AI’s strong suit, so it’s going to struggle with phrases like “Doko ni ikimashita ka?” which could potentially be translated any number of ways. Other possible stumbling blocks: Japanese has over a dozen ways to say “I,” more than 10 ways to say “father,” and at least three ways to say “love.” All of those convey different feelings and personalities, which need to be accounted for in a proper translation in ways beyond just translating the individual word.
All of these issues are going to be even bigger problems for AI when dealing with manga, as it’s a storytelling medium with a significant visual component. Much of the context that’s critical to the Japanese-to-English translation process is going to come from the artwork, something AI translation doesn’t reference and incorporate.
Ultimately the decision by publishers as to whether or not to use AI translations is likely to come down to consumer response, so if you’re on the side of the Japan Association of Translators in this debate, the best thing to do is to vote with your wallet and support manga translated by human professionals.
Source: PR Times
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26 Comments
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Mark
It's not about replacing human translators because AI is better, the matter is that it's cheaper so even if the translation is not as accurate as the human one in most cases the one from AI is (sadly) just enough.
John
AI is an amazing technology and it’s great to see it being used in many fields. Some jobs may disappear but new type of more jobs will be created with the technology
smithinjapan
I would have respected them a little if they had just been against its use in translation outside of individual words, because "smart tech" (there is no such thing as AI) translation is garbage, especially when translating from Japanese to English, and in particular with conversation or formal statements. In the former, the subject is usually dropped because it is inferred, and in both the former AND latter there is use of the grammar "〜してもらう・くださる・くれる" that we don't really have set grammar for.
I still get Google and other app translations from people, and fortunately after decades here I know what they want to say as well as that they were using translation software, because no one new to the country or without experience in the language and culture would understand that "The receiving of English?" is a translation of "英語を教えてもらう？" That's just one example.
Anyway, again, if they were against it being used in translation in general, I'd respect them. But, of course, it's to protect some "super special Japanese culture", in this case, manga. Everything else, like perhaps even English comics? doesn't matter.
Daninthepan
We are all going to have to learn to adapt.
The fact is translators aren't totally redundant yet but their jobs have to change from spending hours translating Japanese to getting AI to do the grunt work so they can do the final checking/rewriting.
Fact is jobs will be lost but those who are willing to adapt and swallow some pride, will survive. They certainly won't live on sour grapes alone.
nandakandamanda
Half of their argument above sounds as if JAT are shooting themselves in the foot. That you might lose your job is not really going to gain much sympathy. Couldn't they get someone (or even AI), to make out a better, more persuasive case.
I notice the NHK newscasters recently reading the news for 5 minutes and then handing over to AI voices. Do I detect a note of sadness in their eyes? Hidden, but yes, I think so.
kohakuebisu
The article doesn't tell us, it doesn't sound like the writer has done any research at all, but I assume the above JAT statement indicates that there is a public sector initiative about AI translating manga.
Does anyone know what this is? Has some LDP granddad or policy wonk decided to spend public money on a bound-to-fail "We can export more manga! Let's get AI to translate them!" project?
I suspect I would get a better answer to this question from AI itself than from the author of what is a very long but not informative article.
v_kurtzel
Nihongo jozu !
Geeter Mckluskie
"Japan Inc were shock with development of latest tech."
Not a single person in Japan is shocked about what has been in the news constantly for over a decade. That is AI replacing jobs. What's shocking is the constant clamouring for an increase in population. Like the retirement pyramid scheme isn't enough strain on the public coffers.
Geeter Mckluskie
"Many English teachers going back to US in the near future.."
Many ALT's. Those with a teaching license from a Japanese university will still be in demand as school is not merely a place for learning academic subjects but a place where the community's children assemble and become socialized. School is not going anywhere any time soon. Teachers are still needed...ALT's not so much
Geeter Mckluskie
"it seems somewhat odd, that it's now requires all employees to speak fluent Japanese without the use of machine translation."
I'm from Canada where you not only have to speak English, but have to be at a minimum high school level literate to get any job that isn't a low paying labour job. I think that holds true for most countries. Why should Japan be any different?
Geeter Mckluskie
All this clamoring about "the decline in population" when all forecasts point to 50% of current jobs being made obsolete within the next two decades. It seems a reduction in population is prudent at this point in Japan's history.
collegepark30349
I mainly do boring academic translations, so I have no dog in this fight. However, I don't see how AI translation of manga can work. A lot of the dialog in manga is dependent on the illustrations and vice-versa. Sometimes the words support the illustrations, sometimes they contradict, sometime the illustrations are used for emphasis, sarcasm, humor... Has AI gotten to the point where it can "read" the illustrations and see their relationship with the words? Or, is it just translating the words. If it is the latter, that is no good for anyone. Imagine taking a "Calvin and Hobbes" dialog and translating it without the pictures and then putting it into the strip. There is a 50-50 chance you'd be completely off the mark.
"Japanese has more than 10 ways to say “father,”
Good thing English doesn't, right Dad, Pop, Papa, Pa, Daddy, Old Man, Pops, Pappy, ...
TokyoLiving
Translators and language teachers jobs at risk..
That's the price of technology..
Many English teachers going back to US in the near future..
TokyoLiving
The whole world, cut your anti-Japan drama..
kohakuebisu
In the case of anime, there have been foreign fans translating them for free for years. This is called "fansubbing". The quality will vary, but can be very high, because it's generally done by people obsessed with Japan. I'm sure this will have happened with manga too. I know that the game Minecraft spread virally as alpha level software that was translated, error checked, and had features devised by users. All the original documentation and wiki were written by fans, not Notch/Mojang.
If AI were truly intelligent, presumably it could produce better manga than humans, and then translate them itself as necessary.
grund
Translation is an rough field of work right now. AI translation can probably not translate works of fiction quite yet, but other areas of translation (which is like 90% of translation work) is quickly being replaced with AI.
Moonraker
Sh1mon M4sada
Think I think we creator of new Jedi language to trick Altman, Micro and soft and their AI slave. Forums pervasive and pervasing of mix Jedi, Jenglish, et Francais.
D'accord?
BigP
The inevitable cost of progress. Sorry!
bass4funk
Such is life
dagon
The automation wave has come for graphic designers, illustrators, translators, coders.
It is inevitable in a sense but the real story is that the most automatable jobs in the C-suite are remaining untouched.
Since they hold the company shares.
When an AI CEO easily makes more profitable and socially responsible decisions than the majority of execs is when the reality will really hit.
sakurasuki
Japan Inc were shock with development of latest tech.