Due to the rising number of Covid-19 Coronavirus infections nationwide, the Japanese government officially announced a state of emergency on April 7th. However, given that the measures being taken are not as severe as the complete isolation and lockdown seen in France or Italy, it seems that many foreign countries are voicing criticisms surrounding Japan’s emergency declaration, noting that it was “too late” and that “there is a lack of mandatory requirements and penalties for violation of the order.”

The German magazine Der Spiegel’s online edition posted an article titled “Japan and the Corona Puzzle”, in which they report on the death of famous Japanese comedian Ken Shimura while also asking “Is it possible that the disease is ignoring Japan?” (Ist es möglich, dass die Krankheit Japan nur streift?), despite the fact that the rest of the world is in the midst of a tense battle with the Coronavirus.

Even During A State Of Emergency, It’s Business As Usual For Patent Translators

So will Japan, the country of the aforementioned “Corona Puzzle”, eventually be able to successfully put an end to the Coronavirus? Amid such times of uncertainty, we patent translators are quietly devoting ourselves to our craft. When it comes to the work of intellectual property, whether the job be a new patent application or a post-application procedure, the deadline for submission to the patent office must be met at all costs. While it’s true that the European Patent Office and the German Patent and Trade Mark Office, as well as even the Japan Patent Office, have announced special measures to be taken in response to the Coronavirus outbreak, deadlines themselves have not actually been significantly deferred. As such, patent firms and corporate intellectual property departments are generally required to continue operating as usual. That of course means that they continue to make translation requests which we have to complete by the designated submission date. If we were to put it in slightly more dramatic terms, even if there were to be a natural disaster, or if the Coronavirus were to spread even further, patent translators would still not be in a position to fall behind on their work. In fact, during the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, we continued working just as we normally would have.

Translation Is A Profession Well Suited For Remote Work

So then, why are translators able to continue their work in such dangerous conditions? The biggest factor that makes this possible is probably the fact that translation is a profession that at its core doesn’t require an office, and is instead better suited for working at home.

According to the results of a survey carried out by the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry on April 8th titled “Measures Taken Regarding The Covid-19 Novel Coronavirus”, of all small- to mid-sized companies operating in the Tokyo Metropolitan area, only 26% are currently implementing working from home measures. Some reasons cited for this included the “lack of tasks that can be carried out remotely” and “difficulties regarding ensuring security and preparing the appropriate IT infrastructure.”

In such conditions, during a state of emergency, it seems that professions which are uniquely suited to remote work are gaining more and more attention. It’s probably true that the mental image most people have of a translator is someone working from their desk at home, wearing blue light blocking glasses, typing elegantly away at their keyboard with a cup of coffee and a dictionary nearby.

The job of an interpreter is no doubt similar to that of a translator, in that they both convert words from one language to another, but the form their work takes is entirely different. With interpretation, especially for the purposes of tourism, meetings, factory tours, and so on, interpreters are required to be in a particular place at a particular time. This makes the job rather unsuited for working from home. Translation on the other hand, doesn’t even really have the concept of “place” – although time is definitely a factor in terms of the deadline, the actual task can be done anywhere at one’s own convenience, so long as you can outfit yourself with a computer and ensure a secure working environment. Translation can be said to be an ideal job for the remote worker. Actually, given the amount of freelance translators working from home, you could say that on the contrary, a translator not working remotely is more unusual.

But is translation really such an “elegant”, carefree profession? Is it really a job that anyone could do, if they have a PC and a secure server?

We have over 30 translators who work for us at transeuro, and most of them were actually working from home even prior to the Coronavirus crisis. I’d like to use this opportunity to once again examine in detail what it means to be a patent translator working remotely.

For advice from us on how to transition into telecommuting, don’t hesitate to check out our previous blog entries, where we took a look at how to efficiently tackle working from home and discussed the pros and cons of remote work!

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