The Japan Association of Translators has released a statement regarding the use of AI for the “high-volume translation and export of manga.” In it, the organization expressed its concern about the technology’s impact on manga quality and how “excessive reliance” on it might turn human translators “from valuable human resources into throw-away commodities.”
JAT’s statement pointed out that the quality of AI translation is still lacking, “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.” And although AI speeds up the translation process, the organization warned that 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.”
It added, “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.”
On AI’s impact on professional manga translators who “have supported the industry for years,” JAT said that it was “deeply concerned about the negligent disregard for so much accumulated experience and skill for the sake of cost reduction.”
JAT’s statement comes in the wake of increasing AI initiatives in the manga industry. Limiting these to AI translations, there have been:
• A simultaneous English release of The Ancient Magus’ Bride using AI translations, which was announced a few weeks after the announcement of the manga’s return from hiatus last December. A follow-up statement said that the translations would be edited and proofread by professional translators.
• On April 1, 2024 JST, publisher TO Books announced the launch of the CORONA EX for English website, which features a mix of professionally translated and Google-translated manga titles.
• In an early May 2024 press release announcing their Pre-Series A Financing results*, the “manga localization technology” startup Orange Inc. stated that the raised funds “will be used to develop a localization product based on deep learning models and to launch their digital manga store in the summer of 2024.”
Orange Inc. also said that it had been “developing a manga-dedicated localization system since it was founded” to counter the lack of English-translated titles, which it attributed to “the difficult and lengthy translation process and the limited number of translators.” It claimed that its proprietary system can translate “up to 500 manga volumes per month… 5x more than the current production capacity of the whole localization market.”
*Shogakukan is one of the funders.
Although various parties are embracing AI, JAT said that the technology is “extremely unsuitable for translating high-context, story-centric writing,” and that it was “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.”
JAT concluded the statement by writing, “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.”
Source: Press release