Why Translating Emails from English to Japanese Using Only AI is a Terrible Idea

Japanese business language proves to be a barrier to AI translation — here’s what to do instead.

It’s 2023, and AI isn’t science fiction anymore. A decade ago, technologists claimed that machines were coming for our jobs, but most of us were probably not paying attention.

Today, we learned that the future had already arrived, and we still weren’t ready for it.

The rise of ChatGPT during the beginning of the year got us at Japonica concerned enough that editor-in-chief DC Palter even posed the question: Is ChatGPT killing Medium?

And it should concern us. As cultural experts running a Japan-themed publication, AI called our raison d’être into question.

I previously believed that translation and interpretation would still be safe from the assault of learning machines.

In 2023, looking at the speed of AI advancement — to the point that technologists like Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak called for a temporary halt to AI development — I got extremely worried.

And then something happened that made me relax a little.

Perfectly Grammatical AI-Translated Japanese… with a Twist

A few weeks ago, someone wrote to me on LinkedIn in Japanese (identifying details have been edited out):

こんにちは。 今、一番挑戦していることは何ですか？ 他のブランドと差別化することでしょうか？ 私たちの科学者チームと戦略家、クリエイターが、強力な科学的領域を構築することで、貴社独自の成分、効果、MOA、ノウハウをどのように活用できるかを紹介したいと思います。 Aブランドのために制作したMOAビデオの一例です。プロフェッショナルなメールを送っていただければ、お見せするための簡単な電話を予約します。 ありがとうございました。

It was obviously a cold email, but still, the message left me with more questions than answers.

• Why did this person e-mail me in Japanese? (I’m not even Japanese!)
• Why didn’t the person introduce himself and his company?
• Why did he thank me at the end? I haven’t done anything for him!

The grammar was perfect. I could understand the content, but it was very unnatural.

Where was this coming from?

Remembering Japonica’s experience with a deluge of AI-written articles, the answer struck me with the force of a thousand hammers pounding on my head.

The person who wrote to me must have written the original e-mail in English and had AI translate it into Japanese! Without checking with a native speaker.

Like any curious scientist, I did a bit of reverse engineering to check my hypothesis.

I dumped the unnatural Japanese text verbatim into DeepL.com. The web-based translation application quickly spewed out the following text in English.

Unsurprisingly, it sounded a lot more natural in English than in Japanese.

Hello. What is your biggest challenge right now? Is it to differentiate yourself from other brands? Our team of scientists, strategists, and creators would like to show you how you can leverage your unique ingredients, benefits, MOA, and know-how by building a strong scientific domain. Here is an example of an MOA video we produced for Brand A. Please send us a professional email at XXX and we will schedule a brief phone call to show you. Thank you very much.

I copied the above English text and had DeepL translate it back into Japanese. The output was very similar to the original message I had received.

Hypothesis proven.

I generally try to avoid making theories of Japanese exceptionalism — that the Japanese language and culture are so unique that they cannot be explained or even understood by conventional means.

In this case, however, I must admit that the Japanese language and culture experts are right.

AI translation still has a long way to go.

AI Translation Misses the Cultural Context of Business

Here’s a Japanese cold outreach message that I received via LinkedIn many moons ago. Can you spot the differences? (Names have been changed)

ABC株式会社の事業開発部の佐藤と申します。 弊社は、食品原料、医薬品原薬、化成品に加えて、新規機能性素材やナノ化技術などの紹介を行う専門商社となります。

(URL of the company)

差支えなければネットワークに加えていただけますと大変有難く存じます。 ご検討どうぞよろしくお願いいたします。

佐藤 学

Here’s a translation of the above with help from DeepL.com:

My name is Sato from the Business Development Department of ABC Co. We are a trading company specializing in the introduction of new functional materials, nanotechnology, etc., in addition to food ingredients, bulk pharmaceuticals, and chemical products.

(URL of the company)

If you don’t mind, we would be very grateful if you could add us to your network. Thank you very much for your consideration.

Manabu Sato

This being LinkedIn, the message is relative to the point. Yet, the differences are quite obvious. Here are some of them.

• The person begins by identifying his company and downplays his role. You will notice this type of structure in most business communication in Japan. Unlike in an American-style business context, Japanese companies are less about individuals and more about the organization.
• There is much more detail given about the sender’s role within his department, and what his company does. Compare this to the first e-mail, where no such context was given and the sender jumped straight into asking me what my company’s pain points were. This reflects the Japanese business context. Business is not just about what solutions you offer, but a question of: “Who are you, what do you do, and how do I know I can trust you?” The building of trust is a much longer process than in the typical American context and is a hurdle that puts off a lot of non-Japanese companies seeking to work with Japanese companies.
• The language is much more humble and more indirect rather than straightforward and aggressive. Indeed, there is much more polite language, which is not fully captured by the translation. This highlights the hierarchical nature of the Japanese language and the use of keigo or honorific language, which is indispensable to Japanese professional communication. In the business context, the customer is god, which means the seller has lower status. Using words like “please” is not polite enough — you need to express gratitude. You’re talking to a god!

What to be Aware of When Translating E-mails from English into Japanese with AI?

AI translation is a tool that, if used right, can empower many people to communicate across borders — a boon in these difficult times where cultural differences threaten to disrupt and distract us from recognizing the universality of humankind.

But AI cannot, and should not replace human knowledge, and thought.

Choosing to use an AI translator does mean that you should be aware of the style of business expected of you in Japan. It is the details that will make your e-mail sound more natural and ultimately more readable, polite, and personable.

Here are 4 practical tips to elevate your e-mails if you have to use an AI translator to translate them from English to Japanese.

Tip #1: Show you are professional by being formal. If in doubt, err on the side of being too formal. In business English, the language has become casualized to the point that opening with hello has become acceptable in some circles. But business Japanese, ritual and formality are still very important and are essential to be taken seriously! Hello is not a replacement for a proper business greeting!

Quick Fix: You can start with 初めまして or お世話になります or just skip to the self-introduction if you’re using a professional platform like LinkedIn where the rules of standard business e-mail can be bent a little.

In standard business e-mails to your outgroup (people from outside of your company), the standard opening is always お世話になっております, meaning, “I am in your debt.” See this article for an explanation of in-group versus out-group in a business situation.

Tip #2: Build trust by explaining who you are and what your company does. Err on the side of giving more details than less. Why should your listener trust you? In standard business Japanese, you always introduce who you are and what company you represent. Without doing this, your email sounds impersonal, impolite, and untrustworthy.

Quick Fix: Introduce yourself and your company. Lower your social position by using humble forms. Use the structure XXX社のXXXと申します, meaning “my name is XXX from XXX company.”

Tip #3: Show that you appreciate the receiver taking the time to read your message. Don’t simply end your e-mail with “Thank you!” This is a common mistake for people coming from an English-speaking background. People tend to finish e-mails (or even in regular speech) with ありがとうございます (arigatō gozaimasu) which would sound perfectly normal in an English e-mail.

But this is a Japanese e-mail. You only say thank you if the other party has done something for you — and they haven’t. So, you should say どうぞよろしくお願いいたします, roughly meaning “Please be nice to me.”

Quick Fix: To be on the safe and conservative side, always end your e-mails with the classic どうぞよろしくお願いいたします。

Tip #4: Don’t go solo. AI isn’t going to make you linguistically invincible. Please double-check with a native speaker or someone with professional fluency in Japanese.

Cultural Knowledge — a Barometer of Authenticity in the Age of AI

In truth, and ironically, the outcome might have been different if the first sender had used and prompted ChatGPT to translate the message in the tone of a polite business e-mail.

But this would still require the prompter to have the cultural knowledge in the first place to know that the Japanese language is highly formalized, ritualized, and hierarchical. For instance,

• that “informal” and “formal” Japanese forms (so-called desu/masu Japanese) do not completely capture the nature of social distance implicit in Japanese speech
• that pronouns in Japanese change depending on who you are talking to
• that honorific titles change depending on who you are speaking to!

The takeaway: I am not yet convinced that AI is going to replace humans in the realm of culture and language. Humans still outperform machines in arenas where nuance and context are critical.

In the age of ubiquitous AI, I think cultural knowledge will become more pertinent, more paramount, more vital, more crucial — more salient.

Using only AI without real cultural knowledge or thought will make you less authentic as a person — and in an age where just about anyone has access to the same AI tools, I believe the only way to stand out is to be more human.

© Alvin T. 2023

The author is an editor of Japonica, a Japan-focused publication, but also writes more generally about culture and society. Discover more stories about Japan by the same author in the link below!