Japan Association of Translators Releases First Survey Results to Improve Working Conditions in the Webtoon Translation Industry
NPO Japan Association of Translators Press Release: October 3, 2025 Japan Association of Translators releases first survey results aimed at improving working conditions in the webtoon translation industry Survey of 108 People Reveals: Women in Their 30s Are the Main Workforce, and in Some Cases, Their Hourly Wages Are Below Minimum Wage The Webtoon Team of the Entertainment Translation Subcommittee of the Japan Association of Translators (JAT) conducted a survey of translators involved in webtoon (vertical manga) translation to learn about their working environment, contracts, compensation, and job duties (survey period: July 11th to August 11th, 2025).
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Spanish-Japanese (1%), Korean-Japanese & Chinese-Japanese (2%) Years of Experience:Most have 3 years or more Age: The largest group, at about 40%, were those in their 30s, followed by an equal number in their 20s and 40s, with a significant number in their 50s. Gender: Women accounted for over 90%. *Questions were asked about the actual status of each transaction, divided into those with webtoon
distribution platforms (plahos), those with translation companies, and those with other companies. ■ Key Survey Results Highlights
Compensation Reality: The most common translation fee per episode was “less than 3,000 to 3,500 yen.” Working hours: The most common working hours per episode was two hours (39 people), followed closely by three hours (34 people), but there were also many respondents who answered “five hours or more” (14 people). *Although we were unable to fully investigate this question, it is possible that in some cases the hourly wage may fall below the minimum wage (1,226 yen in Tokyo [as of October 3, 2025]). Top 5 Most Common Problems: – Free support for related services (creating character tone charts, proposing titles, proposing catchphrases, etc.) – Sudden delivery schedule ・Revisions without additional compensation (including those not due to the translator’s fault) ・Refusal to include the translator’s name ・Delayed payment of compensation
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/143535/2/143535-2-0ac000f6bbb842f0268a9dc33650a76a-938×566.png Webtoon-related Troubles *Although a certain number of respondents selected “There was no particular inappropriate behavior,” the free-form section asking, “Please tell us about an incident where a problem occurred” received a total of over 50 responses. Translator’s response: Among the responses “Sharing information with competitors,” “Terminating the contract,” “Protesting/negotiating,” and “Could not do anything” (multiple answers allowed), “Could not do anything” was the most common. For a detailed report of the survey results, please visit https://jat.org/documents/uploads/pr_jatent2025_survey.pdf . These survey results are valuable information that visualizes the voices of those working in the translation industry. We hope to continue working to utilize these findings to improve the industry and establish standards. Specifically, we plan to hold seminars on fair trade and contractor rights under contracts, as well as translation events where participants can list their work in their portfolios. For the latest information, please visit https://jat.org/ja. [About the Japan Association of Translators] Name: Japan Association of Translators, Non-Profit Organization English Name: Japan Association of Translators Address: 5F VORT Aoyama, 2-7-14 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Established: 1985 URL: https://jat.org/ja/ For more information about this release
