THE WORLD LANGUAGE FROM THE LAND OF THE RISING SUN: JAPANESE TECHNICAL TRANSLATION

The Japanese language

Good afternoon, or as they say in Japan – Konnichiwa (今日は). Japanese is the mother tongue of over 125 million people. The Japanese language is also spoken by many Japanese living in the USA and Brazil.

Japanese (日本語, Nihongo) has a very complex character system consisting of three different scripts– the Japanese syllabaries Hiragana (ひらがな) and Katakana (カタカナ), as well as Kanji (漢字), which means “Chinese characters”. In addition, Rōmaji (Latin letters) are also used in the Japanese language. Hiragana forms the basis of the Japanese script and, like Katakana, consists of about 50 characters. It is firstly learned by the Japanese and used in children`s and youth books. Katakana on the other hand is mainly used for foreign names as well as foreign and loan words.

There are countless dialects in the Japanese language, some of which developed in settlements in remote mountainous regions of the country. Generally, a distinction is made between two groups of dialects – East Japanese and West Japanese dialects. The Japanese high-level language is derived from the Edo dialect, which is spoken in Tokyo.

Translations into Japanese

Japan is the third largest economy in the world (behind the USA and the People’s Republic of China). Probably Japan’s most famous export goods are mangas (漫画), which translates as “comics”. They are an important part of the Japanese culture and literature and are very popular worldwide. The stylistic elements typical in mangas can also be found in anime, Japanese animated films. Anime are also becoming more and more popular here in Germany. Among the most famous are, for example, “Princess Mononoke”, “Spirited Away” or “Castle in the Sky”.

Culinary speaking, Japan has no reason to hide either, because not only sushi and sashimi are on everyone’s lips. The Japanese specialities can now be enjoyed in popular sushi restaurants in countless cities and are a favourite dish of many people outside Japan.

Electronic devices from Japanese manufacturers such as Sony or Panasonic have become indispensable in German households, as have game consoles from Japanese manufacturers such as Nintendo or Sega. One of Sega’s most famous video game characters is Sonic the Hedgehog, who first appeared as the main character in a video game in 1991. That Sonic is more than just a video game character and is still very popular 30 years later is shown by the US movie of the same name, which was released in February 2020.

Consumer electronics in particular is a very fast-moving sector. As soon as a new game console, stereo system, flat-screen TV or home entertainment system is launched on the market, the successor model is already being developed. This results in a high demand of high-quality translations. This is where we come in as a translation agency and act as your partner for grade A translations.

COMLOGOS works with over 350 qualified native speakers and offers you top quality for your documents and texts. Our Japanese translations are industry- and field-specific. Our experts ensure that you can move competently on an international level and are able to become successfully established in Japanese-speaking countries.

Combinations that we offer:

• Japanese – German
• German – Japanese
• English – Japanese
• Japanese – English

COMLOGOS delivers excellent Japanese translations including foreign language typesetting

Your flyers, brochures, catalogues, operating and assembly instructions need to appear exactly the same in Japanese as in the source language? Our professional graphic artists and translators will take care of the necessary layout adjustments so that differences in length in the individual languages do not cause you any headaches.

The Japanese target texts are often somewhat shorter than the source texts in German, but due to the size of the Japanese characters they often need more space. Layouts have to be adapted accordingly and need special attention from a graphic artist.

The layout of the target file is adapted by our graphic artists in consultation with our Japanese translators so that the original layout is retained. The adapted layout is then checked by our translators before the final file is delivered to you by the agreed delivery date.

COMLOGOS – your professional translation service

We operate throughout Germany as well as internationally and work locally in Fellbach near Stuttgart. Whether you work in a city in Baden-Württemberg or another federal state, or in a city such as Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, Kitakyūshū, Sapporo or Berlin, Hamburg, Leipzig, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart or Munich, we offer you the best translation services with modern digital possibilities – as if we were at your premises.