Japanese translator

Japanese uses three scripts at once: Kanji (Han characters), Hiragana (a phonetic syllabary for native words and grammar) and Katakana (a phonetic syllabary for loanwords and technical terms). We deliver in the mix the document type requires: technical texts lean on Katakana, while legal and official documents lean on Kanji with Hiragana. The Bunkachō (Agency for Cultural Affairs) maintains the Jōyō kanji list of 2,136 characters, and we confirm the script choice in the quote.

Our Japanese translators tune the honorific level to the hierarchy between sender and recipient: sonkeigo for the person addressed, kenjōgo for one's own party, teineigo for a neutral-formal register. For contracts, quotes and correspondence we apply the conventions your Japanese business partner expects, so that the text reads as appropriate rather than clumsy or overly familiar.

The UK has no sworn-translator institute, so there is no "sworn translator" as a legal office here. For official acceptance we provide certified translation: a signed and dated statement of accuracy from the translator or the agency, with our contact details. Where a body asks for more, this can be escalated to notarisation by a solicitor or notary public, or to an apostille or legalisation through the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). We confirm in the quote which level your receiving authority requires for your Japanese documents.

No. Japanese and Chinese are not linguistically related. Japanese adopted characters (Kanji) from Chinese, but uses them within its own grammar alongside two separate phonetic scripts (Hiragana and Katakana). We treat Japanese and Chinese as separate languages with separate specialist translators, and we never carry characters across one for one.

Common document types include M&A and due diligence documentation, contracts, technical specifications for automotive and robotics, PMDA pharmaceutical dossiers, annual reports, patent documentation and personal documents such as certificates and diplomas. UK-specific cases we handle often are Home Office and UKVI immigration documents, university admissions assessed by UK ENIC, HMCTS court documents and Companies House extracts. We confirm the approach, script choice and any certification per document in the quote.

On working days you receive a quote within 1 hour. The lead time for the translation itself depends on document type, volume, language pair and any required certification, and is confirmed in the quote. For tight deadlines we confirm a workable rush schedule up front rather than promising a fixed turnaround.

We combine native specialist translators with a structured QA layer: a terminology list, a style guide and a second review where the legal field, risk profile or volume requires it. CAT tools (Trados, memoQ, Phrase TMS) keep terminology and script choice consistent across volume and repeated content, and a translation memory keeps follow-up work aligned and lowers the cost over time.

A Japanese translation agency takes the coordination off your hands. We select the specialist who fits your document and sector, choose the right scripts and the right keigo register, arrange certification, notarisation or legalisation where an authority requires it, and have the work checked by a second reviewer. You keep one point of contact for script, terminology, scheduling and delivery, all under a single quote. A skilled freelance translator does excellent work too; the difference an agency adds is bringing those moving parts together so you are not managing them separately.