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In the Japanese Studies program at a university in Belgium, a subtitling project for Japanese short films is conducted annually for first-year master’s students and third-year undergraduate students. In this project, students create English subtitles for a Japanese film approximately 30 minutes long, and the completed work is screened at a Japanese film festival in Germany. The project is carried out over a period of five weeks. Each week, students attend an online session led by a Japanese audiovisual translation company, and in subsequent classes they work in groups on the subtitling task. The company provides basic instruction in subtitling, film analysis, and professional feedback on the students’ translations.

After the completion of the 2025 project, a survey was conducted among the students. All respondents evaluated the activity positively, describing it as enjoyable. The reasons included group collaboration, participation in subtitle production for real-world use, recognition of the usefulness of their own abilities, and the novelty of the learning activity. In terms of difficulty, many students described the project as slightly difficult or not very difficult, suggesting that it presented an appropriate level of challenge.

The survey results also suggested that the subtitling process promoted deep engagement with language. Students repeatedly reflected on the meaning of a line and exchanged opinions with their peers. This process appeared to have led to a deeper understanding of the intended meaning of the utterances. Their lexical choices in translation were also revised repeatedly through discussion and reflection.

The learning outcomes that students perceived from the project were diverse, but they can be categorized into six areas: understanding conversational expressions, vocabulary, and their meanings; selecting appropriate speech styles; recognizing the importance of naturalness; understanding Japanese cultural events, Japanese ways of thinking, and cultural differences; recognizing the importance of context; and learning subtitling methods.

Overall, the project was perceived by students as a new and enjoyable form of language training. It also fostered students’ sense of self-efficacy and awareness of the social significance of contributing to an authentic project. Furthermore, collaboration with others appeared to enhance students’ motivation to learn.