Having been a founding member and an active member of Japan Association of Translators for years, observation of JAT events and activities over the past several years leads me to believe that little is being offered to the broad base of (now partly former) JAT members who have provided translations for the large-demand, mainstream fields over the four decades of JAT’s history.
The focus of JAT activities has shifted away from that type of translation and away from the professionals involved.
In particular, activities that could benefit and be of interest to native English-speaking JA-EN translators in mainstream fields are rare, and almost everything is done online. Events seem rather contrived and look like they are held for the purpose of saying that JAT holds events. It appears that much of what JAT is doing is just going through the motions, and not even the best motions.
What’s worse, there is very little documentation of activities, and the videos of events placed on the JAT website, which has been in a state of serious disarray for years, don’t make such events anything more than ephemeral street performances, but with a video to remind you that you were there.
Huge amounts of legacy documentation of past activities and writings from members, including Proceedings of IJET Conferences before just about everything moved online, have largely been lost or deleted, and I don’t for a moment believe those writings will be found or be restored.
Translators are writers, but very few JAT presenters, including IJET Conference presenters, seem to have the time or inclination to write for JAT. It shouldn’t be difficult to figure out the reason for that.
This is in sharp contrast to JAT in its formative years and in the approximately first two decades of its four-decade life to date.
JAT appears to have entered a new phase of its life, and the signs point to the end phase.
It is sad to watch this happen, but it is arguably just a reflection of where the business of freelance translation is—near the end of the game and time for most players to think about heading for the exit. I think that JAT should come to grips with where it sits in its life cycle.
Beyond generalities, however, there has for quite some time been little indication on the part of JAT and its leadership (most of whom are pretty much silent in places that translators actually hang out and interact) of direction and vision, or of any concrete recognition of what, if anything, JAT should or can do at this stage. 終活 comes to mind.