The following content is translated from Chinese source by machine translation without post-editing.
1. Background
With the increasingly frequent economic exchanges between China and Japan, many Japanese companies have set up branches or representative offices in China. Due to the involvement of cross-border business, compliance localization has become one of the important issues faced by these enterprises. Compliance translation refers to accurately translating legal and regulatory texts from one language into another, to ensure that businesses can correctly understand and comply with relevant laws and regulations in different language environments. This type of translation not only requires language proficiency, but also a deep understanding of relevant legal knowledge. This article aims to explore the best practices of compliance translation for Japanese companies in China, in order to provide some useful references for related enterprises.
2. Customer needs and issues
When Japanese companies in China conduct compliance translation, in addition to maintaining the same level of compliance as their Japanese parent companies, it is also to better adapt to the changes in the Chinese market. Because it requires highly accurate and localized translation files.
Our long-term client M is a well-established Japanese enterprise that has been established for over 130 years. Since the normalization of Sino Japanese diplomatic relations in 1972, M has undertaken many milestone large-scale projects in China and has been in the Chinese market for more than 40 years. In order to better adapt to the Chinese market environment and provide high-quality products to the Chinese market, M company needs to better fulfill its corporate social responsibility. Among them, making the enterprise a more suitable standardized enterprise for the local market and maintaining the same level of compliance management as the Japanese headquarters is what they currently need. In order to achieve this goal, M Society needs to translate documents such as compliance guidelines, compliance lecture materials, and compliance promotion guidance every year. They mainly face the following problems and needs:
(1) Language accuracy: The translation needs to fully consider the differences between the two languages to ensure accuracy and fluency.
(2) The ability to understand relevant texts such as laws and regulations: Compliance translation involves a large number of professional terms, such as legal terms, industry terms, etc. Translators need to have relevant professional background and knowledge, and must ensure the correctness of the terms.
(3) Cultural factors that are in line with the Chinese market: The Japanese company has been in the Chinese market for many years, and the terms and phrases used by various departments have been localized. It is necessary to ensure that the translation is consistent with the company’s customary usage in China.
3. Solution
We have taken the following measures in response to the customer’s needs.
(1) Establish a professional compliance translation team: Before the translation begins, a group of translators with legal background and relevant translation experience who meet the client’s quality expectations were selected from Tangneng’s Japanese talent pool based on the client’s previous requirements for the quality of the manuscript. At the same time, relevant enterprise information of the client was provided to the translator teacher to enable the translator to grasp its basic information. Secondly, arrange a fixed PM and reviewers to form a project specific team. The fixed personnel ensure the stability of translation quality.
(2) Confirm the internal circulation of language within the enterprise: Confirm with customers whether the departments, positions, and other information involved in the documents have a fixed Chinese usage.
(3) During the translation process, we noticed some content related to the company’s cross-border holidays or lifestyle scenes. To handle these contents, we provide several common practices for customers to confirm:
a) Copy the original text: Keep the holidays, life scenes, and related terms unchanged to ensure the accuracy and consistency of the content.
b) Add annotations in the original text: Add annotations at appropriate positions in the text to explain relevant holidays or life scenes, especially for content that Chinese readers may not be familiar with.
c) Localize according to the Chinese market: Based on cultural differences and market demands in China, localize holidays or lifestyle scenes to better suit the customs and habits of Chinese readers.
The final processing of these contents was carried out according to the customer’s choice
(4) Establishing a corpus and terminology database: Organizing the above circulating terms and localized expressions into a database, allowing translators to quickly search for and reference relevant terms during translation, improving the accuracy and consistency of the document. The accumulation and updating of these resources also lay the foundation for future translation projects, thereby promoting smoother and more professional work in the future.
4. Reflection and Effect Evaluation
The above measures have effectively improved the translation quality of M Company’s compliance documents, ensuring their accuracy and consistency. At the same time, the language used in the documents is more localized, making it more suitable for promoting its compliance measures in domestic enterprises. M Society’s recognition of Tang Neng’s compliant translation quality has also facilitated our long-term cooperation.
In short, compliant translation is an indispensable part of multinational corporations’ operations in China. Our professional translation program can effectively improve the level of compliance translation, providing strong support for the compliance and operational efficiency of enterprises.
Post time: Dec-18-2025