The Japan Association of Translators (JAT) issued a statement on June 4, 2024, opposing the recent investment by the Japanese government and private sector in an initiative that aims to use AI to translate and export manga in large volumes.

This initiative was launched to boost the export of manga overseas within five years using AI translations, with some translations being completed in just two days.

In its statement, JAT highlighted significant concerns regarding the quality and impact of AI-generated translations on the manga industry.

According to the association, AI in its current form lacks the ability to capture the essence of manga. The nuances, cultural references, character traits, and subtle details that are a crucial part of the narrative can be lost in the machine translation process.

They argued that relying on AI to produce massive amounts of translated works (with a goal of 50,000 works in 5 years) would ultimately diminish the value of the work itself.

Furthermore, they also expressed concerns about its potential impact on professional manga translators.

They argued that over-reliance on AI could lead to the loss of jobs for skilled human translators, who have long been essential to the industry's success.

“We are deeply concerned about the reckless disregard for so much accumulated experience and skill in the interests of cost reduction.”, they added.

Furthermore, JAT also highlighted the risks associated with flooding the market with hastily produced, low-quality translations.

According to them, low-quality translations could undermine readers' trust in official versions and encourage the spread of pirated versions.

Given manga's role as a significant cultural export for Japan, they were of the opinion that maintaining high translation standards is crucial to sustaining its global popularity and reputation.

“Based on our experience and expertise in the field, it is this organization’s opinion that AI translation is extremely unsuitable for translating high-context, story-driven texts such as novels, screenplays, and manga. Fast and easy AI translation not only risks harming the translation industry or the manga industry, but it is also not in the best interests of the country.
Our organization is deeply concerned that the public and private sector initiative to use AI for translation and export of large volumes of manga undermines Japan's soft power.“

To address these concerns, JAT called for a collaborative dialogue between all stakeholders, including manga artists, publishers, government, translators, and readers, to determine the appropriate role of AI in the translation process.

Source: Public relations times