Once I passed the highest level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test in 2008, I knew I wanted to use my skills to translate Japanese texts into English. That turned out to be a good hunch, as translation has been my main line of work ever since.

When I translate, my goal is to make the English result read like it was originally written in English. If anything sounds like a translation, I refine it until it doesn’t. That’s the kind of quality that keeps my long-time clients coming back. For me, it’s all about understanding what the client wants to say—and then leveraging my ear to give the English rendering a human touch that makes the words say more at a deeper, more emotionally resonant level. You can’t get that kind of care with today’s translation technologies.

I’ve translated projects large and small in areas ranging from tourism and patents to academic papers, contracts, and TV scripts. Having absorbed and mastered so much linguistic variety across that spectrum, I’m comfortable translating anything. My past work highlights that versatility.