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'Forgotten Center': Japan calls on website operators to fix odd translations amid tourism influx

Apr 04, 2019 | News On Japan

Apr 04, 2019 (Japan Times) - “Forgotten Center” instead of “Lost and Found” is just one of the mistranslations discovered on websites that may puzzle foreign tourists in Japan, the government said Wednesday, urging the operators to fix such problems as soon as possible.

With the country readying itself for an influx of more foreign visitors ahead of next year’s Olympics, the Japan Tourism Agency conducted a survey between February and March, looking through a total of 85 websites by train and bus operators as well as transportation signs in towns.

Peculiar English words were found on websites that rely on direct machine translation, with problematic examples including the use of “dwarf” for “children” and “release place” for “ticket machines.”

The agency also found that translations of some sentences were confusing or incomprehensible, with examples including “what happens to the children fare from what age?”

The machine-aided system also did unnecessary translation of the names of train stations on some websites, making it difficult for non-Japanese speakers to comprehend, the agency said.

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