The Japan Translators Association has taken a bold stance against a large-scale AI manga translation project, claiming that implementing the plan is “not in the best interests of the country.”
Through PR Times, the Japan Association of Translators (JAT) expressed deep concern about a large-scale, public-private initiative to use AI to mass-translate manga and export it abroad. The organization claims that current AI translations cannot fully reflect the nuances of a work or its cultural characteristics or background. Additionally, relying too much on AI will “take away the jobs of people who have been supporting comic translation for years” and lead to “the disposal of human resources in the name of cost reduction.” Ultimately, undermining readers' trust through poor translation can push many people into copyright infringement.
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Using AI to mass translate comics is considered extremely damaging to the industry
JAT firmly asserted that “It is not in the best interest of the country” and expressed deep concern that the initiative to use AI to translate and export manga in bulk would “harm to Japan's soft power”. The association now calls on all parties, including comic artists, businesses (publishers), governments, translators, translation organizations and readers to come to the negotiating table for careful dialogue and constructive.
Professional manga translators were fired and rehired as “Editors”
The public-private sector initiative in question refers to manga startup Orange, which is backed by major manga publisher Shogakukan (Detective Conan, Frieren) and nine others. Orange invested $19 million in the company, promising to translate more than 50,000 manga titles using AI in the next five years. Fan reception to this news was mixed. Some responded warmly, citing a faster release and less bias in translation and localization. Others point to multiple instances of poor AI translation – completely lacking human nuance or sensitivity – and an ecosystem that encourages cost-cutting at the expense of customer experience or ethics. As JAT's comments show, online translators are almost universally opposed to this proposal. Many say they were fired and rehired as “editors” instead of translators even though the workload remained the same due to the high accuracy of AI. Rapid job insecurity due to AI is also seen as an affront to many of the workers who helped propel Japanese media to the world stage.
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AI is at the heart of an industry-wide movement demanding better rights for Japanese creators. NAFCA says about AI and its harmful impact on copyright and the creator's original intentions: “We believe that there should not be a situation where the 'perpetrator' wins and the 'victim' cries insomnia.” The Federation of Freelancers Japan (FLJ) was also established in April 2024, citing concerns about creators' moral rights, copyright concerns in the manga and art industry as well as like the threat of AI. AI disruption surfaced again last month after 42 million keyframes were pulled from the Internet, partly to improve the production of AI-generated animations. This drew widespread condemnation from animators.
Source: JAT via PR Times
