I've studied many translations in different fields but nothing exceeds court interpretation when it comes to the amount of errors made.

By whom? From J - E, and E - J?

Interpreting is a tough gig - I wonder if Professor Mizuno could have done better?

Lost in Translation = Ichihashi will get off easy.

Easy to be a critic. Would like more information on what kinds of mistakes, from whom, to whom?

Most probably from J to E. English to Japanese is easier. Japanese to English is a different animal though with all the vague phrases and having to read between the lines, etc..

I am not sure it would affect the outcome of the trial though. The official language in the court should be Japanese anyway.

Original article is in Japan Times and titled "Ichihashi trial bares translation woes". Interesting read.

Assumptions are always misleading

The lack of a subject in Japanese makes it easy to misinterpret. In English, something needs to be done to something else for anything to make any sense. But in Japanese of course it's not always clear who's doing something to what--ironic when that issue is the most critical in a court of law. The vagueness of Japanese is interesting given the general precision of life in Japan (trains coming on time, more or less, and a general sense of anal retentiveness).

Cheers for the article update Kronos. They do give a few examples of errors, which seem to be less in grammar, and more in vocabulary , and mishearing / misunderstanding the speaker.

There's a lot more stuff missing...

I had a call from Mother..... Who's - yours or mine?

I bought book yesterday..... How many?

Thanks @Kronos.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110721f1.html

As someone who has worked as a translator for 18 years, I completely agree that it's hard to translate from Japanese to English.

simultaneous legal translation for criminal trial is a tough and least rewarded job. Everything what we say including "cough" is in a court transcript. If misrepresentation occurs, it will be used for a dismisal or an appeal. The legal translation and a literature translation are highly subjective while science and technical are not. In US, they have to be all certified.