As a translator, however, I thought I had to write this post to mention how the English statement from the U.S. government has been misinterpreted by a Japanese upper house person without the good knowledge of the English language. - He should have called or e-mailed me in advance.
Here is the Mr. Masahisa Sato's post.
https://www.facebook.com/masahisa.sato.775/posts/557317064363150
Here is the news article
http://www.huffingtonpost.jp/2013/12/29/masahisa-sato-yasukuni_n_4514036.html
Statement on Prime Minister Abe's December 26 Visit to Yasukuni Shrine
http://japan.usembassy.gov/e/p/tp-20131226-01.html
Following is an excerpt from the post of the Japanese upper house member.
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「日本は大切(valued）な同盟国であり、友好国である。しかしながら、日本の指導者が近隣諸国との緊張を悪化（exacerbate）させるような行動を取ったことに、米国政府は失望(disappointed）している。
米国は、日本と近隣諸国が過去からの微妙な問題に対応する建設的な方策を見いだし、関係を改善させ、地域の平和と安定という共通の目標を発展させるための協力を推進することを希望する。
米国は、首相の過去への反省と日本の平和への決意を再確認する表現に注目する。」
disappointedがどれほど強い表現なのか、佐藤にはregretよりは軽い表現にも思えるし、文脈そして日本語感覚的には「失望（望みを失う）」ではなく、大切な同盟国（valud ally）の日本のリーダーが取った行動は「残念」に思う、と言った感覚のように思える。
(略)
佐藤なりに声明を訳すと
「日本は大切な同盟国であり、友好国である。しかしながら、日本の指導者が近隣諸国との緊張をより高めるような行動を取ったことを、米国政府は残念に思っている」
となる。印象が違うと思う。
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It is a simple mistake that he treated and disucussed "disappoint" and "regret" on the same platform when trying to interpret that official statement from the U.S. government.
I start considering why he had to compare "regret" to “disappoint" and say which word is a stronger statement. He must have thought "disappoint" had to be translated as "遺憾である" which is considered less than “失望している”.
“遺憾である”, by the way, is a cliché often used by politicians or top level leaders in such oocasion where he or she was asked to comment on any accident or unfortunate event that has occurred in his or her company (or organization). It can be translated as “I feel sorry to hear that” in most cases. Mr. Sato says the statement “disappointment” from the U.S. government has to be translated more lightly than the “regret” (遺憾である, I feel sorry to hear that).
'残念である' he used should have to be “I feel sorry to hear that” in English.
“失望” (disappointment) that Mr. Sato claims it is a wrong translation is actually a correct translation. – Once again, this is NOT a political point of view. It is just a translation issue I want to speak about here. I almost don’t know anything about the shrine issue, and I am not interested in it. I don’t care if the prime minister visits there, or people like that or not.
Mr. Sato writes that he feels "disappoint" is meant to have been used lightly - even lighter than "regret" and the statement should be interpreted as a general statement to take the balance, and should not be taken as a strong statement.
His intention of the post is that he was dissatisfied with the mass media has deliberately selected only a part of it with a mistranslation, and has been brought to the attention of the Japanese citizens in order to put them into an anxiety or confusion.
Looking into his Facebook page, he has earned 400 likes and a huge number of comments, where some state, “They cannot tolerate what the mass media's been doing” or “America has no right to say this to Japan because they are even worse. They dropped atomic bombs.” Only a few posted his (Mr. Sato's) interpretation was completely wrong, but I don't think these would bring the people's attention. Majority of the comments are hysterical ones, accusing the wicked intention of the mass media. - Verily, verily, studying languages is not easy.
Observing them all - the mass media, the politicians, and the Japanese-speaking people on the internet – something is wrong in every one of them. People get furious from what they have heard from the misinterpretation/ mistranslation.
There is a sentiment among the Japanese in general that they want to look down on or detest Chinese or Koreans by focusing on the news or topics mentioning these non-Japanese Asians’ mischiefs or poor behaviors. My concern is they appear to lift themselves up by finding fault of others, and do not look at themselves. I know, as an individual, this tendency is what every one of us has in common, regardless of where we live on this planet. But looking into SNS or comments on Yahoo Japan news, I am always reminded of the sentiment spreading among the people before the World War II broke out.
Translation should be more important. I know all of the Japanese go schools and study English for years and years. Some of them talk much about the English language they have studied. The problem, however, is sometimes they are completely wrong, including the political post from Mr. Sato.
I have just remembered what I was talking about with someone on the road. He came from Japan, who wanted to pee at the corner of on a sidewalk. He had been talking badly about other non-Japanese Asians because they talk loudly or they don’t use bathrooms nicely. Changing that subject, I started to explain that nobody here do not want to pee outside, even though we Japanese don’t hesitate to pee at a building, walls, or poles while walking outside. He became upset and said cynically, “Does that mean Americans don’t pee at all?! Are you saying they are greater and more cool-looking people than the Japanese? Don’t be fantasized. We are all same human beings!”
Even with this episode, I am still taking about translation issues. - I don’t care about politics but I do care about translation issues.
