The Shadow Over Innsmouth is a book written by H.P Lovecraft and is one of the first books in the genre of cosmic horror. The book has been translated several times by different translators from English to Japanese. Finding equivalence between two languages is always a challenge when translating, especially in Lovecraft’s case, whose texts are full of archaic expressions and words which are unique to the time and culture in which the book was written. Acknowledging these facts, this study aims to compare translation of religious metaphors used in the book. Lovecraft has a very distinctive view on religion that can be seen by the usage of religious metaphors in his texts. By comparing translations made by three different translators, this study shows different strategies and approaches when translating something as culturally sensitive as religion. By analyzing the metaphors, it becomes clear that there are contextual and intertextual levels that also must be considered when translating Lovecraft’s works. Results of this study show how different strategies and approaches affected the text and what kind of difficulties the translators had.

This study examined the translation of neologisms in the fan and official translations of the first book of the The Irregular at Magic High School light novel series. It aimed to examine whether the choices of translation strategies differed between the two as well as how the word type and choice of translation strategy affected the end result. Additionally, it compared the results to trends in manga fan translation. The study was performed by reading the first four chapters of the original novel and writing down each unique neologism as well as its corresponding translations. Then, each case was categorized by word type and translation strategy. The study found that both translations had similar distributions of translation strategies, though the fan translation contained more omissions and mistranslations. Furthermore, depending on the type of word, different strategies were employed. For example, neologisms of non-Japanese origin were often transferred to English whereas Japanese compound words were often literally translated. In contrast, Japanese abbreviations caused difficulty and required a wide array of strategies to translate. Lastly, the study found some similarities and some dissimilarities to manga translation.

This study examines the censorship guidelines and translation techniques used in the localization of Mother 2 (1994) (English title: EarthBound), a video game developed originally by Nintendo of Japan and released in North America in 1995 by Nintendo of America. Having extracted 50 dialogue lines which are considered to include topics subject to censorship, the study analyses the prevalence of censorship and translation techniques, as well as the consistency of the localization with Nintendo of America's guidelines. The results show that adaptation and modulation were the most favoured translation techniques, used in 36% and 40% of the cases, respectively. Furthermore, censorship appeared to be more prevalent in categories related to graphic violence and religious themes. However, inconsistencies in the localization suggest that the guidelines were not always followed strictly. These findings align with some previous studies on censorship and localization in media and entertainment, although every product has a different distribution of themes, which in turn affects the type of censorship found. The study concludes that further research on censorship and translation techniques in video games, as well as other forms of media, could provide useful insights into the process of localization.

Hakuōki, produced by Idea Factory, is an otome game series set in late Edo periodJapan. It is among the most popular video game series in its genre. The games inthis series have been localized for the English video game market, one that is verydifferent from the source culture. The game play experience is expected to beequivalent in all language versions of the game – however, given that any twolanguages cannot be completely equivalent and have different cultural contexts,translation problems are expected to arise. Acknowledging these problems, thisstudy aimed to determine whether or not, due to choices made in the translationprocess, dialogue was altered. Consequently, the study aimed to find out if aselected character’s personality could be perceived differently between the playersof two language versions of the video game Hakuōki. The study was conducted intwo parts: first, a translation analysis was conducted by the researcher. Secondly,to see if character personality was altered in translation, selected lines were used ina questionnaire survey that was conducted both in English and Japanese. Therespondents were asked to describe their perception of the character based on theexcerpts provided in the questionnaire survey. The results of the surveys werecompared and contrasted with the findings of the translation analysis. The resultsof the study show that dialogue was altered in translation, and that the selectedcharacter’s personality can be perceived differently between the players of twolanguage versions of the video game.

This study assesses the translation accuracy of ChatGPT-4 against two human translators, Donald Keene and Mark Gibeau, focusing on the first 50 sentences of Osamu Dazai's Japanese novel "Ningen Shikkaku" translated into English. In the rapidly advancing field of artificial intelligence, where AI increasingly integrates into fields such as translation traditionally occupied by humans, it examines the effectiveness and reliability of AI incapturing both the literal and figurative meaning of a literary text. A significant gap in the field is the scarcity of comparative studies between AI and human translators, and all the more so in Japanese-English translation. Most existing research on AI translation focuses on European languages or evaluates AI against other machine translation tools. The study employs a translation quality assessment framework based on how erroneous the translations are, where either one or two points are deducted for each error depending on severity to evaluate the accuracy of each translation. The identified error types are grounded on the standardized error marking system utilized by the American Translators Association, and endeavors to provide an objective measure of translation quality. The results of the study show that ChatGPT-4's translation incurred the least number of point deductions, roughly half as many as those of Gibeau and Keene. Gibeau's translation rankedsecond in accuracy, with Keene's trailing closely behind. The results also reveal that Keene's translation errors typically stemmed from altered words and phrases, while Gibeau's translation rather added, intensified, or omitted elements. ChatGPT-4's translation had fewer errors overall, except in relation to literalness. It is discussed that the utility of AI in literary translation varies depending on whether accuracy or aesthetic is most valued. Nevertheless, translators can already at present utilize AI to manage routine tasks and accelerate translation processes, enabling them to concentrate on aspects such as flow, rhythm, and readability.

Japanese video games have existed for decades now; however, the early games often lacked cultural elements and were thus easy to localize in other countries. As video games gained popularity and became more advanced, more of Japanese cultural elements started appearing in the games, which brought rise to translation problems. The localizers had to face the issue of whether to preserve or delete foreign culture elements within the game when these games were released in the West. As game localization of (Japanese) cultural elements is under-researched, this paper focuses solely on cultural terms. It attempts to see whether there is a change of translation techniques and if there is a shift regarding foreignization and domestication from the first game to the latest release within the game series Fatal Frame. The games were played in both their original form (Japanese) and the English localization in order to gather data which consists of cultural terms that appear in-game. Their translation was then analyzed to see if they were deemed to be foreignized or domesticated, followed by a comparison to see if there was a shift in the 22-year gap between the first and latest release. The result indicates that both games used the adaptation and equivalence (paraphrasing) techniques to a similar extent. The latest release preferred using the omission technique compared to the first, while the first game favored equivalence in conjunction with the borrowing technique. However, against expectation, the first game is considered more foreignized compared to the latest release, which goes against the trend seen in other mediums where translations are becoming more foreignized in modern times. This was also the result of a previous study within this area.

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This study investigates the application of the world Englishes (WE) paradigm to English language teaching (ELT) in the higher education context of Japan, as well as the possible application of competing paradigms that also work within a pluricentric view of English: English as an International Language (EIL) and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). The Chukyo University Department of World Englishes (DWE), within the College of World Englishes, serves as the primary site of inquiry. A main focus of the study is to explore the development of a broader concept of World Englishes for educational contexts. A literature review of work in the three fields of WE, EIL, and ELF was conducted, as well as a literature review of leading work in the field of English language curriculum design. The literature reviews establish a baseline of what is currently known in these fields. To provide additional answers to the research questions for this study, three sets of qualitative data were obtained and analyzed: a survey of graduates of the DWE since 2006, a survey of teachers in the DWE, and a series of observations of actual classes within the DWE. A coding scheme was designed for each of the two survey instruments to facilitate their analysis, which was used to report on and analyze the survey data, as well as incorporating actual excerpts from the raw data, to better illustrate and support particular trends or commonalities expressed in the data. The classroom observations were written up in the form of ‘vignettes’ from which further analysis could be made and triangulated with the data from the two surveys. These results were then interpreted to report the findings of the study, and a series of themes were identified that showed potential areas to focus on for curriculum enhancements. These include: the overcoming of shyness in Japanese students, the insufficiency of communicative language teaching (CLT) within a 4-skills curriculum, the applicability of content and language integrated learning (CLIL) in Japanese higher education, the need for more academic and business/professional education, the concept of world mindedness, the overall relevance of the WE/EIL/ELF paradigms, and the concept of ‘Educated English’ (Kachru 2003, Bamgbose 1982), as an objective for the Expanding Circle. The concept of Educated English in particular, has heretofore been underexplored in Expanding Circle WE research. The study concludes that based on the needs of students in the DWE, and more widely in Japan and across other Expanding Circle contexts, a broader concept of WE is necessary to better inform ELT curricular and pedagogical practices. The goal of working towards educated Japanese English as an outcome is more realistic for higher proficiency, highly motivated students, and the study concludes that ELT pedagogy to realize this goal is better suited to creation of an honors track, and general track, in the DWE and other institutions. Ultimately, the thesis contributes new insights into creating a broader concept of WE, drawing on research from competing paradigms, and posits a more suitable model of English pedagogy for Expanding Circle users of English.

This study investigates the application of the world Englishes (WE) paradigm to English language teaching (ELT) in the higher education context of Japan, as well as the possible application of competing paradigms that also work within a pluricentric view of English: English as an International Language (EIL) and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). The Chukyo University Department of World Englishes (DWE), within the College of World Englishes, serves as the primary site of inquiry. A main focus of the study is to explore the development of a broader concept of World Englishes for educational contexts. A literature review of work in the three fields of WE, EIL, and ELF was conducted, as well as a literature review of leading work in the field of English language curriculum design. The literature reviews establish a baseline of what is currently known in these fields. To provide additional answers to the research questions for this study, three sets of qualitative data were obtained and analyzed: a survey of graduates of the DWE since 2006, a survey of teachers in the DWE, and a series of observations of actual classes within the DWE. A coding scheme was designed for each of the two survey instruments to facilitate their analysis, which was used to report on and analyze the survey data, as well as incorporating actual excerpts from the raw data, to better illustrate and support particular trends or commonalities expressed in the data. The classroom observations were written up in the form of ‘vignettes’ from which further analysis could be made and triangulated with the data from the two surveys. These results were then interpreted to report the findings of the study, and a series of themes were identified that showed potential areas to focus on for curriculum enhancements. These include: the overcoming of shyness in Japanese students, the insufficiency of communicative language teaching (CLT) within a 4-skills curriculum, the applicability of content and language integrated learning (CLIL) in Japanese higher education, the need for more academic and business/professional education, the concept of world mindedness, the overall relevance of the WE/EIL/ELF paradigms, and the concept of ‘Educated English’ (Kachru 2003, Bamgbose 1982), as an objective for the Expanding Circle. The concept of Educated English in particular, has heretofore been underexplored in Expanding Circle WE research. The study concludes that based on the needs of students in the DWE, and more widely in Japan and across other Expanding Circle contexts, a broader concept of WE is necessary to better inform ELT curricular and pedagogical practices. The goal of working towards educated Japanese English as an outcome is more realistic for higher proficiency, highly motivated students, and the study concludes that ELT pedagogy to realize this goal is better suited to creation of an honors track, and general track, in the DWE and other institutions. Ultimately, the thesis contributes new insights into creating a broader concept of WE, drawing on research from competing paradigms, and posits a more suitable model of English pedagogy for Expanding Circle users of English.