The Japanese Translators Association has a new stance on the changes coming to the industry, and it appears that jobs for manga translators may begin to decline following the recent introduction of AI into translation work. Supposedly, this is a battle against piracy, but translators have a different opinion.

Shogakukan Publishing House, JIC Venture Growth Investments and other companies in coalitionShogakukan has invested 2.92 billion yen (about US$1.4 billion) in Orange, a company that will use AI to translate about 50,000 manga into English over a five-year period.

The manga industry claims this is to reduce piracy of titles—and translations immediately appear clandestinely. However, translators believe it's not that simple and that rushed, low-quality translations will drive consumers away from the numbers:

“Translation errors undermine consumer confidence, opening the way for pirated versions to emerge. Considering that manga is an important facet of Japanese culture and one of the many ways people are introduced to Japan for the first time, it's even more important that the words we use to convey these stories aren't undervalued.

On the other hand, the Manga Translators Association also takes into consideration the fact that employees who have dedicated their lives to the profession would be discarded simply because there is something that makes “their work” “faster”.

“Furthermore, over-reliance on AI risks putting professional manga translators out of work.that have supported the sector for years, and turns valuable human resources into disposable commodities. We are deeply concerned about the careless disregard for so much accumulated experience and skill in the name of cost reduction.”

The manga industry defends itself by saying that there will be a human review of the numbers, so there is no need to mention ingratitude and unemployment. However, manga translators believe that editing isn't paid the same as translation, which is true. Let's see what happens in the future. What do you think? Which faction do you support?

What's happening with AI in the manga industry?

Manga translators are firmly opposed to AI interference in the industry and have issued a strong statement:

“First of all, in its current form, AI translation has not yet demonstrated the level of quality needed to adequately represent the nuancescultural or character traits, which are fundamental to a work of fiction. Using machines to produce large quantities of translated works in a short period of time (according to official announcements, 50,000 works in five years, with a faster turnaround time of two days per work) risks considerably diminishing the value of the work itself.

However, Orange has already been hired, we'll have to see what kind of actions the translators can take from now on, at least to protect themselves. However, it seems that there are problems for workers – in general – in the manga industry, remember the recent report of exploitation of animators at Studio MAPPA.

In a dark scenario, let's take a look at what's happening with everything involving manga and anime.