122.Current status of medical translation services in JapanNice to meet you all. I am Rinka Miyajima. I will be involved in The NewZ. I am currently majoring in biology at the International Christian University (ICU) and thinking about business administration as a minor. After studying in Thailand in high school, I became interested in learning about cultures and values that differ from those in Japan. Recently, in a class called Research Writing (RW), I had a discussion with my friends about the lack of medical translation services. It was very interesting, so I would like to compare it with the Thai medical translation service and let you know.Do you know about medical translation? In recent years, globalization has increased the need for multilingual support in the medical field. As a result, growing attention has been paid to the importance of medical translation, which involves accurately translating the words of medical professionals into multiple languages to ensure appropriate medical access for foreign patients. Medical translation is more than just language replacement. It has medical expertise and advanced language skills to protect patient safety and medical reliability. In this report, I will compare the background of medical translation services in Japan and Thailand and examine the challenges to this.First, let us consider the current situation and challenges of medical translation services in Japan in the context of its broader healthcare system. Have you ever seen a foreign patient interacting with a healthcare professional through a translator at a hospital in Japan? Chances are, most people have not. This is because many hospitals in Japan have not yet been able to provide medical translation services. Nevertheless, some hospitals have introduced medical translators. For example, Hiroo Hospital began deploying medical translators for English and Chinese in 2016. In addition, video interpretation services have been introduced to provide in-hospital interpreters who can handle multiple languages, including English and Chinese. In fact, the number of interpreters handled in the second year of the Reiwa era reached 2,908, and a lot of support was provided. As such, the medical translation system has gradually begun to be introduced in Japan, and hospitals are increasingly calling for the need for medical translators. However, the reality is that the number of medical translators in Japan is still small and there are not enough human resources available. One of the major reasons for this is that the profession of medical translator is not recognized as a national qualification. Therefore, while anyone with medical English knowledge or translation skills is involved in medical translation work, there are limited means to objectively prove their expertise. Although the Japanese Medical English Test and the JTF Honjo Test exist as certain criteria, there has been no official qualification for evaluating interpreting skills for a long time. In March 2014, the International Society of Clinical Medicine (ICM) established a qualification for “medical interpreters,” and as of April 2022, 299 individuals had been certified in 15 languages. Nevertheless, there are few cases in Japan where medical translators are employed as formal occupations, and many of them work as volunteers or part-time workers. Even if you work as a "medical translator," you cannot guarantee a stable life. The way you work is mainly divided into full-time or freelance work. For full-time employees, the annual income is estimated to be about 3.7 million to 5 million yen. Freelancers, on the other hand, tend to have unstable incomes because they are largely dependent on the unit price and number of projects. The actual voices include harsh working conditions, such as "I'm almost stuck at home on Saturdays and Sundays and I'm busy translating," and "I have to work from morning till late at night to meet the deadline." "One year after I first got a job, my monthly income reached around 200,000 to 300,000 yen." In light of these circumstances, while medical translators are required to have advanced knowledge and language skills, they do not have a stable income and an easy-to-work environment, making them less attractive as a profession. As a result, it is difficult to gather people with the necessary skills, and there is still a shortage of excellent medical translators in Japan. This situation creates variations in translator skills and instability in the overall quality of medical translation. Poor translation accuracy can lead to misunderstanding and trouble in the medical field, and the value of the medical translator itself tends to be neglected. In such situations as "whether or not you are a good translator depends on your luck," it is difficult for hospitals to actively hire translators. Against this background, it is difficult to say that the Japanese government is actively supporting the medical translation field. Indeed, efforts have been made to improve the system for accepting foreign patients, introduce multilingual tools, and partially subsidize training expenses, but they are limited. Government support is mainly focused on medical interpreters and research funds related to medical language, and support for translators who are responsible for practical work in the field is insufficient. For this reason, medical institutions, NPO R i n k a M i y a j i m a1.IntroductionThe International Christian University, ThailandComparison and Issues of Medical Translation Services
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