Okinawan company captures market for conference translations

ISCEC Japan, a local company that provides simultaneous literal interpretation services for people with hearing difficulties, was in charge of literal interpretation at the 3rd World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction that took place in Sendai from Mar. 14th through 18th.

This was the first time for the Uruma City based company to contract for the interpretation service in a large-scale international conference.   According to company officials, although there are some companies in Japan that are able to offer same services, ISCEC is the only company that is able to deal with world-class conferences for long hours.

During the conference meetings, ISCEC captioned speakers’ words.  A Japanese transcription was made from the voice data that was transmitted to the company’s interpretation center in Uruma City.  English language captions were then delegated to interpreters in the U.S.  These transcripts were sent in both languages to smart phones and tablets participants used at the meeting.  The speed is almost as fast as with a simultaneous interpretation by human interpreters.

The conference meetings totaled about 50 hours, and two groups with a staff of 12 persons each worked on the Japanese captions. According to company officials, the conference organizer contacted ISCEC to do the interpretation work. Company President Muneya Ichise explains that they expect the demand to increase as Tokyo Olympics 2020 nears, and with MICE projects of the prefectural government.

23:38 28 Mar , 2024