All Content Removed (July 12, 2025)The end of Japanese-to-English
freelance translation is here.No amount of denial and delusion can stop it, and I have stopped feeding the delusions and misplaced hopes of freelancers and would-be freelancers.
IMPORTANT
- Students learning Japanese should discard plans to freelance translate as a career. Such planning is not informed by reality, is reckless, and will simply inhibit decisions to opt for more promising career choices, some of which might benefit from language knowledge.
- Freelancers already translating for agencies need to cast off the aspirational delusions (e.g., "AI will not replace us!") and denial of what is happening and has already happened to freelance translation. It has ended, for all intents and purposes, for almost all freelancers.
Most freelance translators are reliant on translation-brokering agencies as sources of translation work. Such agencies that sell most of the JA-to-EN translation that is purchased are quickly migrating to using AI for translation, thereby obviating the need to purchase translation services from freelancers. Post-editing of AI output is offered by agencies at ridiculously low rates, because they realize that many freelancers are trapped. It is best to pull yourself out of the trap. I will no longer discuss how to do that, because it is futile for most freelancers.
Given this reality, and particularly the reality that almost no agency-dependent freelancers will be able to replace their agency clients with direct clients who are not (yet) using AI, I will no longer engage in any activity that would lead freelancers to believe freelance translation will continue as a promising career. That means:
- removal of legacy content that I had written for freelancers, and
- abandonment of all plans to write further such content.
Presentations
IJET Conference Presentations
These are presentations I made at IJET (International Japanese/English Translation) Conferences held by Japan Association of Translators, which have alternated between Japan and overseas venues.
Because they cannot be found on the JAT website, having been lost or deleted, I had preserved these presentations on this website. That included the now-deleted or long-lost scanned copy of the Proceedings from the first IJET Conference, held in Hakone in 1990, also not available on the JAT website, was formerly linked to below. With freelance translating at its end as a realistic livelihood, this content is of historical value only, hence its deletion. If you would like to see it, you might consider asking JAT, but I wouldn't hold out any hope that it will be available.
- IJET-30 (Cairns, AU June 29-30, 2019, organized by Japan Association of Translators)
- Lise, Getting from Tier Two to Tier One in Japanese-to-English Translation
The content of this presentation, long lost or misplaced on the Japan Association of Translators, is closest to hitting the mark about the reasons freelance translating is dead, but the advice I gave in this presentation cannot be adopted by more than a tiny number of translators. Others will meet their end shortly, if they haven't already left translation. - IJET-19 (Okinawa, Japan April 12-13, 2008, organized by Japan Association of Translators)
- Lise, Japanese Patent Translation
Even patent firms, which also profit from their translation business activities, are moving to AI. Nothing here of value to people who were hoping to make a living translating patent documents. - IJET-16 (Chicago, US June 4-5, 1997, organized by Japan Association of Translators)
- Lise, Japanese/English Deposition Interpreting (Presented on Lise's behalf by Manako Ihaya)
- IJET-9 (Yokohama, Japan May 23-24, 1998, organized by Japan Association of Translators)
- Lise (panel discussion comments) Taking More Money for Your Translations
Relevant at the time, but not irrelevant and usable by only a very small number of freelancers. - IJET-8 (Sheffield, UK June 19-21, 1997, organized by Japan Association of Translators)
- Lise, Symbols, Abbreviations and Layout Issues in J-E Translation>
Discussion of things they don't teach you when you are learning Japanese in university. Irrelevant now, because the target translator reader demographic is experiencing the quick demise of freelance translation as a career. - IJET-7 (Yokohama, Japan May 18-19, 1996, organized by Japan Association of Translators)
- Lise, Japanese-English Translation of Patent Documents for Filing in the US
Irrelevant for reasons noted above. - IJET-5 (Urayasu, Japan May 24-29, 1994, organized by Japan Association of Translators)
- Lise, An Investigation of Terminology and Syntax in Japanese and US Patents and the Implications for the Patent Translator
As noted above, this translation sector is quickly disappearing. - IJET-1 Proceedings (The First IJET Conference, held in Hakone (JP), May 26-27, 1991, organized by Japan Association of Translators)
- Read
I retained a copy of this Proceedings, JAT apparently does not. Not a problem; freelance translating is coming to an end, and this document is of historical interest only.
Other Presentations
- JET Programme Career Presentation (Tokyo, 2004; updated June 28, 2025 to bring it up to date with the new normal in the world of translation)
- Lise, Introduction to Translation and Interpreting Careers
The advice I would give these people now is very different: Don't bother, because it's ending.
Translation Notes
This content (along with other notes that had already been prepared) is gone and will not reappear.
- Note N001:
- Confusion of the Whole with its Parts in Japanese (June 28, 2025)