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Paper short abstract:

This presentation examines from a sociological perspective the narratives of Japanese female professional translators/interpreters, throwing into relief their bodily, gendered, and emotional experiences in professional life emerged from an ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Tokyo.

Paper long abstract:

The conceptualization of the 'sociological turn in Interpreting Studies' through Bourdieu's practice theory (Inghilleri 2003, 2005; Snell-Hornby 2006; Wolf 2007, 2010) recently led to a view of language professions such as translation and interpreting as a social practice. In Japan, language professions have slowly witnessed a 'shift in gender' as women crowded out men and made of linguistic expertise 'a female thing' (Kelsky 2006). This pioneer research project ethnographically explores, from a sociological perspective, the profession of language interpreting in Japan as a women's social practice, considering the body and mind of the interpreter at work as professional expertise, carrier of both practical knowledge and emotional activities (Schatzki 1996; Reckwitz 2002), while investigating the embedded gender issues of women's occupation and segregation in the Japanese labour market. Notwithstanding the socio-cultural prominence of interpreters in Japan as high-level, bilingual female professionals serving in diplomatic and business settings, their body/mind is still depicted as a 'kurogo' (Torikai 2009), invisible, subordinate presences whose translational, female voice supports other more visible, often male, social actors.

This presentation aims to examine the embodied narratives of female professional interpreters in contemporary Japan as emerged in my ethnographic fieldwork, conducted in Tokyo in 2015-2016. It fills a gap in knowledge of female occupation in the Japanese labour market by looking at conference interpreting, which is regarded as the most prestigious among linguistic-translation professions. Employing the qualitative empirical research methodologies of interviews with Japanese interpreters and participant observation of selected interpreting sessions in Japan's interpreting market, the presentation examines the gendered expertise of Japanese conference interpreters and their socio-professional identity by using the informants' own narratives, throwing into relief the social patterns and oddities of what entails being a working bilingual woman, a freelancer, and a wife/mother in contemporary Japanese professional world. Furthermore, it will look at the dynamics between female interpreters' occupational segregation and private, family life, considering the related symbolic shift in the value of the professionals' status at the economic and social level.