News
Valuable New Resources for Wordsmiths! Buried Treasure at the JTA Signage Project Website
Signage, websites, and other information in English about tourist sites around Japan is being prepared by professionals in a project sponsored by the Japan Tourism Agency. While this is welcome news for tourists, the exciting point for wordsmiths is that the style guide and other resources are now available online.
“Promoting Multilingual Support for Sightseeing Destinations around Japan” began in 2018 and is about to enter its third year in FY2020. On April 24, the FY2019 results of the project were quietly posted on the... more
Swet Columns
Word Wise: Number Puzzles
By Richard Medhurst
This column often looks at cases where the same concept is expressed differently in Japanese and English. This is a particular issue when it comes to terms related to numbers. For starters, the numerical system in Japan of counting by ten thousands (万, 億, 兆) can trip up the unwary. One pitfall is not noticing a missing column, such as misreading 1兆234億 as 1.234 trillion rather than the correct 1.0234 trillion. Where possible, it is best... more
Articles
EVENT REPORT: Press Trips and Language Tips for Travel Media
By Rob Goss
On March 20, 2019, twelve people, including five first-timers, attended the latest SWET Travel Writing Meetup in Tokyo at Book House Cafe, Jinbocho, for a presentation by photographer Phil Ono about the handling of style issues in place-name signage used around the country and a presentation by travel writer Rob Goss about press trips for travel writers and issues with translating and editing travel- and tourism-related Japanese into English. (Note: A report of Phil Ono’s part of the... more
SWET Spotlight
Howard Hibbett: Scholar, Translator, Editor
By Joel Cohn
Howard Hibbett's name was not familiar to the general public, but among Anglophone scholars and students of Japanese literature it was very much one to be reckoned with. His contributions touched us in a variety of ways; many of them extended our understanding of Japanese culture in new directions, and virtually all of his work—be it as a scholar, a translator, a critic, or an editor—was of the highest standard.
Probably he was... more
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