Paper short abstract:

The paper looks at a group of mostly untrained translators and interpreters working for local Government bodies in Japan. Following a textual analysis of ethical codes for diplomats and translators, data from focus groups and interviews is used to show the incompatibilities between the two roles.

Paper long abstract:

The field of Japanese studies owes a great deal to the work of translators and interpreters in enabling opportunities for intellectual exchange between Japan and the rest of the world. The current paper argues that questions of ethics permeate translation and interpreting, spotlighting the perspective of those coming from outside of Japan to work in highly formalised local government contexts and the specific challenges faced by them as agents of these Governments.

The paper focuses on the context of Co-ordinators for International Relations (CIRs), non-Japanese citizens hired through interviews in their native countries and employed in local government offices across Japan. Tasked with the "internationalisation" of the communities in which they reside, they are commonly engaged in activities such as translation and interpreting, but also diplomacy, teaching English and the running of cultural events. Given the nature of CIR work, they provide an interesting case study for investigating the intersection of translation, interpreting and other practices.

The paper firstly leverages a textual analysis of existing codes of ethics for translators and interpreters, as well as those for diplomats, to document the differences between these practices and the mutual compatibilities and incompatibilities between them. Subsequently, through the carrying out of focus groups on the ground in Japan with current CIRs, their conceptualisation of their own status as interpreters and translators was examined as well as that of their capacity as pseudo-diplomats and agents of local Japanese Government bodies.

From the results of these focus groups, interviews were devised containing scenarios that seek to challenge the competing loyalties generated by simultaneously engaging in either of translation or interpreting and diplomacy at the same time to confirm the hypothesis generated by the examination of the codes that the practices are incompatible.

Through the illumination of the ethical conflicts between the practices of translation, interpreting and diplomacy, the paper seeks to add to the larger conversations around the role of ethics in translation and interpreting generally and also their roles in the area of intercultural communications.