Building bridges between Japan & Britain
Japan Interface does exactly what the name says — it provides an interface between Japan and the English-speaking world through translation, websites and consultancy. All work is undertaken by native speakers of English and Japanese, fluent in both languages. Genuine communication involves more than just translating words — it means conveying ideas in ways immediately understandable to the target audience. That's what Japan Interface is all about.
What we do
Japan Interface was established in August 1999 by David Powers, former BBC Tokyo correspondent and Editor, BBC Japanese TV. It brings together the talents of a select group of experts, each working independently, to provide Japanese translation, interpreting, and web design. David Powers continues to write and broadcast about Japan, and is currently assisting a leading international consultancy in its efforts to broaden its client base in Japan.
Japanese-English & English-Japanese translation
Japan Interface specializes mainly in the fields of business, economics and current affairs, with all translations undertaken by a native speaker of the target language.
Simultaneous and consecutive interpreters
Top class interpreters are available for both simultaneous and consecutive interpreting assignments, both in the UK and Japan.
Stage translation
Before establishing Japan Interface, David Powers worked in close collaboration with Keita Asari of the Shiki Theatrical Company in Tokyo on several stage translation projects. These included creating the English stage subtitles for the hit musical Ri Koran. The English version was originally created for the Asian Festival of Performing Arts in Singapore in 1997, and is still regularly shown at selected performances in Japan.
Bilingual web design
Japan Interface has many years' experience of designing websites in both English and Japanese. It also works in close cooperation with a fully-trained database designer, with experience in a wide range of database systems.
Other services
With more than 30 years' experience in international journalism, David Powers has a broad knowledge of world affairs. He also gained an MBA (with distinction) from the University of Bradford School of Management in 2001, so is well placed to understand the needs and concerns of business people. He is an accomplished public speaker (in both English and Japanese), and has delivered presentations to the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), the Japanese Chamber of Commerce in London, the University of Wales, and TradePartners UK. David Powers also participates regularly as a speaker in conferences devoted to Japanese affairs. Away from his Japanese interests, he is also an acknowledged writer on website design, and has published two books about working with Dreamweaver — Foundation Dreamweaver MX 2004 (friends of ED) and PHP Web Development with Dreamweaver MX 2004 (Apress).
