Edward Lipsett Fax: 092-712-9220
Fukuoka 810-0001 JAPAN
EDUCATION FIELDS OF STUDY
1972-80 University of Maryland
Electronics Engineering
Japanese Language & Civilization
1979 Middlebury College
Intensive Japanese Language
1980 Keio University
Intensive Japanese Language
PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES
･ The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers of Japan
･ The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.
･ The Mystery Writers Guild of Japan
･ Japan Association of Translators (JAT)
･ Society of Writers, Editors and Translators (SWET)
･ Sierra Club
･ Rainforest Alliance
HONORS AND AWARDS
1980 One year scholarship to Keio University, Tokyo, Japan, in Japanese studies.
WORK EXPERIENCE
1984-present Legal representative and chief operating officer of Intercom Ltd. (head office Fukuoka, Japan)
Intercom was originally established in 1984 as the Advanced Technology Information Center, Inc. (ATIC), with only one employee. Almost all business was in the computers and electronics fields, and consisted of Japanese-English translation of manuals (technical and user), product catalogs and general information (articles). The firm branched out to include other languages, other business users, and added new lines of business such as clipping services, layout/ design/ printing services, and technical writing services (in Japanese and English). Growing business in computers and electronics was joined by significant business in the automobile industry, and ATIC added translation into Japanese, Korean and Chinese (both mainland and Taiwanese) to its line of services. In 1994 we acquired personal and clientele from another firm in the industry, paving the way for our entry into creative writing, translation/copywriting, and high-end, full-color design and layout. In 2000 we added multi-lingual capabilities in website design and coding, constructing and localizing large websites into English, Japanese, Chinese (TC and SC) and Korean.
In 2003, Intercom leveraged its existing capabilities in translation and desktop publishing to launch a new publishing arm named Kurodahan Press, which translates fine works of Asian (primarily Japanese) literature into English for publication in America and Europe. With about a dozen well-received titles currently in print and solid new release schedule, Kurodahan is gradually making a name for itself in the field of Japanese fiction, while also developing a line of works translated from other languages into Japanese.
1980-84 Iwatani & Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan
Machinery Trade Section, Machinery and Plant Dept.
Iwatani & Co., Ltd. is a general trading company with annual sales of around US$ 1.5 billion. My duties with the company involved the following:
･ Integrated Circuits (ICs)
Translated materials into English for a major line of IC assembly machinery including: die bonders, wire bonders, encapsulation presses, deflashers, printers, leadframe and loadframe handlers, and mold cleaners; developed the export market for these units and arranged factory visits to Japan; interpreted for buyer-manufacturer discussions; drew up sales and installation contracts including specifications, acceptance testing, shipping, foreign exchange reservations, and collection procedures with all documents in both English and Japanese. Customers included Intel, Texas Instruments, Siemens, Philips, Fairchild, Toshiba, Hitachi, Anam, Intersil, and others.
･ Isostatic Presses (CIP)
Developed sales for isostatic powder presses. Work included developing sole agency contract in Japanese and English; visits to customers; and technical consultations with companies that included KIMM (Korea Institute of Machinery & Metals), Kanto Denka Kogyo, Mitsubishi Metal, NGK Insulators, Shinagawa and Kurosaki Refractory, Fuji Dies and many other companies. Was responsible for all communication between Japanese customers and manufacturers in Europe.
･ Other Sales
Handled international tenders for India, SE Asia, Malaysia, Brunei, Fiji, and other Pacific nations. Locked-in Yanmar tractors and power tillers in West Malaysia and Brunei. Successfully tendered a 4-vessel, US$4.6 million bid for fishing trawlers to India.
･ Consultancy
Acted as personal consultant to the President of Iwatani & Co., Ltd., concerning international business philosophy (as different from Japanese concepts), conference strategy and manners, and comparative business policies in the US and Japan.
4/1984-PRESENT
CONSULTING:
Acted as consultant for Westpoint-Pepperel Carpets for their entry into the Japanese market; arranged contacts with Japanese distributors and marketing firms; explained Japanese construction problems and American inventory taxes to the appropriate people; was actively involved in working out a successful system for the import and sale of wall-to-wall carpeting in Japan to a major housing supplies firm.
CONSULTANT TO:
･ Major Japanese toy manufacturer active in Japanese and export markets for export product development.
･ Mineral sand department of Iwatani & Co., Ltd., for contract negotiations and development of ilmenite, rutile and zircon imports from Australia, as well as assistance in explaining differences in contract and strategic thinking.
･ Group of American photocopier companies interested in new developments in large-size PPC document copiers in Japan. Includes company contact, product research, and minor purchasing and shipping. Successfully handled manufacturer contact and negotiation leading to the first export of an A0 PPC copier to the United States, in competition with Canon.
MAJOR PAST PROJECTS
Completed translation and layout of 2500 pages of operation and maintenance manuals for a General Electric steam power generation facility being constructed in Japan, consisting of over one million words. Document required work in Interleaf, Illustrator and Photoshop, and was submitted as PDF files with embedded Japanese fonts, on CD-ROM media.
Ported automobile CAD system (CÆLUM) for Toyota Motor/Unisys, from Japanese to English. Project amounted to about 20,000 pages of documentation, on-screen displays and program messages.
Translated user and maintenance manuals and screens for the CREATE line of semiconductor manufacturing equipment from Kyushu Matsushita Electric, sold overseas under the Panasonic label. Project required extensive training in equipment and technologies to assure understanding of vague and poorly written engineering documents originally written for in-house use only.
Translation and copywriting of scripts for several CD-ROM interactive mystery games from a Japanese manufacturer, for sale in the United States to PC and Macintosh users. In addition to being accurate translations, the resulting English also had to be natural for the setting in modern Chicago and other major cities, use current slang, and fit within narrowly defined time frames.
Acted as interpreter for a four-way conference between IBM-Japan, IBM-America, IBM-Italy, and major Japanese robot manufacturer Toyo Kanetsu concerning specifications for a class-100 cleanroom transport robot for magnetic disk manufacturing. Aided Toyo Kanetsu in writing the successful bid specification, and was responsible for writing, editing and submitting about 1,500 pages of hardware/software and maintenance documentation based on technical discussion held in both languages, and technical reports and catalogues. Was responsible for overcoming major problems involved with the different approaches to contracts and specifications Japanese and Western officials. Total project time stretched over a 14-month period.
Employed as consultant by major Japanese electronics firm to design software and handle basic parameter research for an automatic English language spell-checker, to be installed in an electric typewriter for export to the United States market. Work included analysis of English prefix and suffix generation rules, lists of exceptions to those rules, and research into word usage frequencies. Total project time was 200 hours, not including approximately 10 days of business trips to the manufacturer's factory complex.
Worked with Fujitsu US and Japanese lawyers for approximately 6 months to determine content of Fujitsu documentation concerning MSP/MVS OS suit by IBM. Was responsible for verbally outlining content of about 2,000 pages of Japanese text, discussing technical import, and then translating in the event it was considered valuable for the AAA defense proceedings.
WRITER/EDITOR
･ Writing monthly articles for a Japanese magazine, in Japanese, about the problems of translating from Japanese to English.
･ Writing monthly articles for a Japanese magazine, in Japanese, concerning new developments in the American gaming and hobby fields.
･ Summarizing and translating a continuing series of articles for the Electronics Engineering Times, from sources in Nikkei BP technical magazines including Electronics, Microdevices and Materials.
TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETING
These activities have involved technical manuals for BGM equipment and industrial timers, radio direction finders, ECR, optical disc library units, personal computers, main-frame hardware and software, remote sensing, quality control, satellite telecommunications, and electronic typewriters; international bids for fiber-optic systems in Hong Kong; numerous annual reports for Japanese firms; conference material and pamphlets; and countless translations of newspaper and magazine articles in the electronics field.
･ Have translated three Japanese novels into English, Administrator by T. Mayumura, and Aphrodite by M. Yamada, which are currently im print from Kurodahan Press, and Wolfcrest by best-selling Japanese author Kazumasa Hirai, which was published by Kodansha International in September, 1985.
･ Translation instructor for the Tokyo group of SF/mystery translators who have translated Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Erle Gardner, Ellery Queen, and Agatha Christie, among others.
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
･ Japanese language and culture
･ Japanese business and social procedures
･ Japanese import/export regulations
･ Translation and copywriting
･ Knowledge of computer science (Windows and Macintosh) and programming (Microsoft Visual Studio)
･ Electronics engineering
･ Semiconductor assembly process and technology
･ News writing and editing, technical writing
･ Desktop publishing (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign)
･ Webpage design and execution (GoLive)