The Association of Translators Japanese has a new stance regarding the changes that are coming to the industry and it seems that jobs for manga translators could begin to decline after the recent entry of AI into translation work. It is supposed to be a battle against piracy, however, the translators have another opinion.
Shogakukan Publishing, JIC Venture Growth Investments, and Other Companies in CoalitionThey have invested 2.92 billion yen (around $19 million) in Orange, which is a company that will use AI to translate around 50,000 manga into English over a period of five years.
The manga industry alleges that this is in order to reduce the piracy of titles – and the translations immediately appear clandestinely. Nevertheless, Translators consider that this is not that simple and that rather the fact of rushing translations and of poor quality will make the consumer move away from the numbers:
”Poor translations undermine consumer confidence, opening the window for pirated versions to flourish. Since manga is an important facet of Japanese culture and one of the many ways people experience Japan for the first time, it is even more important that the words we use to convey these stories are not 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 job” “faster.”
“Besides, Overreliance on AI risks putting professional manga translators out of work, who have supported the industry for years, and convert valuable human resources into disposable products. “We are deeply concerned by the negligent disregard for so much accumulated experience and skill in the interests 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 is not paid the same as a translation, which is a true fact. Let’s see what will happen in the future. What do you think? Which faction do you support?
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What’s happening with AI in the manga industry?
The manga translators are decisively opposed to the interference of AI in the industry and have released a specific statement, below the postulate:
“First of all, in its current form, AI translation has yet to demonstrate the level of quality necessary to adequately represent nuances, cultural background or character traits, which are fundamental to a work of fiction. The use of machines to produce massive quantities of translated works in a short period of time (according to official announcements, 50,000 works in five years, with a shorter delivery time of two days per work) risks considerably decreasing the value of the work itself.”
However, Orange is already hired, we will have to see the type of actions that the translators can carry out from this moment on to at least protect themselves. However, it seems that there are problems for workers – in general – in the manga industry, remember the recent complaint of the exploitation of Studio MAPPA animators.
Faced with a gloomy outlook, let’s see what happens with everything that involves manga and anime.
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