News

IJET-31 (June 24-25, 2023) in Tokyo

The International Japanese-English Translation Conference (IJET) is one of the largest international conferences dedicated to Japanese language specialists. This summer, join us in Tokyo on June 24 and 25, as we shine a light on the translation industry with IJET-31 “On Stage or Backstage—翻訳通訳の可視性”.

For more than thirty years, IJET, the flagship event of the Japan Association of Translators (JAT), has provided a unique opportunity for people in the translation industry to come together, to share, learn and communicate. And coming... more

Swet Columns

Event Report: SWET Talk Shop via Zoom—Chatting about ChatGPT, April 23, 2023

In addition to this summary report of the Talk Shop about ChatGPT, the edited video recording is also available on SWET’s YouTube channel, here.

Note: This event report was produced with the help of two tools from OpenAI, a prominent player in the field of artificial intelligence. Its Whisper program was used to transcribe the Zoom session, and GPT-4 was used to summarize the transcript (special thanks to Tom Gally for adeptly managing these tasks). The GPT-4 summary was... more

Articles

Accessing the Professionals’ Toolboxes

On February 26, 2022, translator and editor Rebekah Harmon joined veteran translator and editor Lynne E. Riggs to talk about ways the professional know-how of editors and J-to-E translators can be accessed and better shared. Lynne E. Riggs is co-founder of the Center for Intercultural Communication (1990) and spent 12 years as managing editor of Monumenta Nipponica. A recent SWET member, Rebekah Harmon formerly worked for institutions under METI and MEXT and now works freelance. The... more

SWET Spotlight

Entering into the World I Created: Interview with Karen Hill Anton, author of “A Thousand Graces”

Karen Hill Anton is well known for her columns in the Japan Times, which she described in an article for SWET’s series on English-language newspaper columnists. Her memoir, The View From Breast Pocket Mountain, beloved by a wide readership, has earned three literary awards. She spoke to SWET about her memoir at length for a SWET Talk Shop in August 2021, available on YouTube, and again in October 2022 about the craft of memoir writing. Now... more

A Community for Japan-Related Writing Professionals

Based in Tokyo, Japan, SWET comprises people engaged not only in the three professions of writing, editing, and translating, but also in teaching, research, rewriting, design and production, copywriting, and other areas related to the written word in Japan.