A commitment to excellence. Smooth, natural, high-quality translation.

My background is primarily in engineering, construction, and business. I began translating Japanese>English in 1985 as part of my work duties, and began translating Italian>English in 2000 during studies in Rome. I became a full-time translator in 2013, and since then I have translated into English approximately 1,400,000 characters of Japanese, 300,000 words of Italian, and 30,000 characters of Chinese, with my clients being a variety of agencies and private clients.

Fields

To date I have translated almost every sort of document imaginable, but I particularly shine in the following fields: 

 Japanese>English:

   Law (especially contracts)
   Banking & finance
   Engineering
   Science
   Medicine
   General business
   Accounting 

 Italian>English: 

   Law (especially contracts)
   General business
   Engineering
   Mathematics
   Arts
   Gourmet foods & wines
   Tourism
   Hotels
   Restaurants
   Medical surveys
   Medieval prose and poetry

Chinese>English: 

   Classics
   History

Latin>English: 

   Medieval works
   Renaissance works

Having started out as an engineer and businessman, working for Japanese firms in Japan and the US, I have been translating between Japanese and English since 1985. I taught at two different universities in Japan; at one of these, prestigious Sophia University in Tokyo, I taught courses on Japanese>English and English>Japanese translation methods to upper-level undergraduates.

For one major online Japanese translation firm I am a “Pro” translator for Japanese->English, and am proud to have been selected as a “preferred translator” by 36 of that firm’s clients. For another online translation firm in Japan I am a “Senior” translator for Japanese->English, and for a number of months I was solely responsible for grading the firm’s J->E level tests and assigning J->E translators to proficiency levels.

After starting out in Japan, I obtained a degree “summa cum laude” from a university in Italy and ended up living 15 years in Italy. Italian clients and agencies regard me as quite expert in Italian->English translation.

In addition to translation, I have also done a great deal of writing over the years, making me an extremely sharp-eyed editor. As a result, I have come to the conviction that translation has more in common with courtroom law or surgery than it does with sports. That is, I believe that a person who is translating at the age of 25 or 30 cannot possibly have in his/her mind the range of styles and expressions that someone of 40 or 50 will have. And one reason why I generally refuse to proofread the translations of others is precisely because these translations are almost always too wooden or unnatural, requiring extensive rewriting. I pride myself on providing clients with error-free translations that sound as though the original was composed in English.

My experience has shown me that all but the shortest translations will always involve some doubts or options, and I am careful about discussing these things with the client so that the final copy faithfully transmits the ideas of the original writer but in an English style that is both attractive and appropriate for the context.

Because I have training in older forms of Japanese (漢文・文語・候文) and Chinese (古汉语/文言文), I plan in the future to try my hand at translating portions of older works in both languages.