Japanese and Italian
Website Translation Service

Introduction to our Japanese and Italian website translation service

Many company executives still believe that an English-only website is sufficient to present their company to all international markets. This approach is both mistaken and naive, for it assumes a level of English ability that many potential customers do not possess.

Another, perhaps worse, mistake is that of companies who for budget reasons decide to offer the possibility to translate online their multilingual website by means of machine translation. (This practice is very common especially among public institutions, local organizations, even tourism agencies and many Japanese companies.)

Apart from the obvious issue of corporate image of which every company should be aware of, the choice to use machine translation—that is, not a professional translator—sometimes can be tolerated if the characteristics of the languages involved allow it (for example between common-root languages such as Italian, English, French and Spanish), provided that the exact understanding of their website is not an absolute priority, and in any case special attention is paid to the very serious mistakes that automatic translation profusely proposes. With Japanese, it's even more complicated.

Mario CERUTTI
Japanese/English to Italian translator

Taeko KANI
Italian/English to Japanese translator

The dangers of machine translation

Actually, when languages that are fundamentally different from each other are involved, such as Italian/English and Japanese, things become even more critical because the translated output is even more vague, if not impossible to understand.

Just try testing machine translation of a website between Italian and Japanese that features even relatively long and articulate texts about a specialist and uncommon subject: you will immediately realize the potentially high risks that this choice involves. Some sites deal with very specialized topics, which only a human translator with experience in technical translation can deal with satisfactory results.

Depending on the target language, for example, graphics or blocks of text may need to be repositioned—an operation that is not as simple as copy-pasting them into a new location like in a word processor. Moreover, sites that contain functional scripts written in Javascript, PHP, or some other scripting language make the translation process even more complicated.

Our website translation into/from Japanese or Italian is done by working directly with the existing HTML pages that clients email to us along with any supplemental files we might need (CSS, Javascript, PHP, etc.). The translated files we email back can then be incorporated into the original website by the company's webmaster, who will be also responsible for updating internal links.

Google itself recommends that you do not use Google Translator to translate text for professional use.

The translation of a website is more complex than a normal translation, because sometimes it requires familiarity with html code where it is necessary to intervene on an existing structure and modify it according to the needs imposed by the target language.

Samuel Johnson

English writer, poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer

A translator is to be like his author; it is not his business to excel him.

Depending on the target language, for example, graphics or blocks of text may need to be repositioned—an operation that is not as simple as copy-pasting them into a new location like in a word processor. Moreover, sites that contain functional scripts written in Javascript, PHP, or some other scripting language make the translation process even more complicated.

Our website translation into/from Japanese or Italian is done by working directly with the existing HTML pages that clients email to us along with any supplemental files we might need (CSS, Javascript, PHP, etc.). The translated files we email back can then be incorporated into the original website by the company's webmaster, who will be also responsible for updating internal links.

If the client would prefer to export the text of his website into simple Word or Excel files and have us translate those into Italian or Japanese, that's fine too—just note that the client himself will be responsible for importing the translated text back into the original HTML, PHP, or ASP files.

The biggest advantage when working directly with HTML, PHP, and ASP files is that it negates the need for a series of risky and laborious copy-paste operations on the translated text, thus alleviating the workload of the web designer and eliminating the possibility of errors or creeping into the HTML source code.

In either case, we will check the final layout of the Japanese or Italian version with the most commonly used browsers when necessary and advise the client of any display issues that a web designer unfamiliar with the Japanese or Italian language may not detect.

Note for owners or webmasters of non-static websites, i. e. created with a CMS system such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc.: in this case we will translate only the text exported to Word, Excel or txt format from such systems. This export and the subsequent re-import operation of translated texts into the website should is your responsibility.

Although not a requirement should the client request that the translation be made after exporting his website to Word or Excel files, to work directly with HTML, php or asp files a set of appropriate software tools is recommendable (please see our software and hardware tools for translators page). Our own website development environment is primarily powered by Sublime Text and Fireworks for small graphical changes, while for the very translation we utilize a CAT software that lets us work directly with HTML or PHP files if the clients decides to go that route. This also prevents to unintentionally modify the html code.Our website translation and post-translation tools are:

Déjàvu X®

CAT tool for website translation

Sublime Text

Web design software for post-translation check

Fireworks®

Imaging tool for websites

Our Japanese/Italian website translation process

This is our translation workflow when working directly on website source files:

1. The client emails us the source files (.html, .php, or .asp format).
2. We translate the files directly in those file formats.
3. We conduct a post-translation check using Dreamweaver. This phase allows us to apply any necessary changes to the markup structure so that it adapts to the target language.
4. We check the resulting web pages with popular Internet browsers such as Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera, and Safari.

The client's webmaster will be responsible for storing and maintaining the files on the server and for updating any internal links.