What has the industry done in Japan to make itself more marketable to an American audience?
A. Because it’s such a large industry in Japan, now the trend is to make the themes a little more universal. They have the audience in mind more. Q. Is it difficult to find people who know enough about the details of the Japanese culture and language to make accurate translations into English? A. We always laugh about that. It’s hard to find people (who can do this). Most of my translators have been with me for more than 20 years. Now it’s more difficult to find good translators. Most of ours are local- or Mainland-born but who have a background in the Japanese language, have lived in Japan and know how to write (in Japanese). Q. JNP produced training videos for high-end retailers that marketed to Japanese visitors during the ’80s and ’90s. Are you still producing these videos now that the Japanese are returning to the Islands? A. Not so much now but (Japanese) tourists are just coming back so I imagine that retailers and those marketing to the Asian tourists eventually will want them
