http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20020828b2.html
By YOSHIAKI TSUCHIYA
Kyodo News
Keiko Kawashima's job as a Persian-language court interpreter sometimes requires her to respond to calls in the middle of the night.
"It's not the kind of job that a homemaker can do on the side," said Kawashima, who receives requests to serve as an interpreter in trials involving Persian-speaking people from district courts in Tokyo, Chiba, Shizuoka and Kofu, Yamanashi Prefecture, as well as courts in Nagano Prefecture and Hokkaido.
Her assignments also require a great amount of insight into Islamic culture.
She earns about 15,000 yen per hour and is also paid for translating trial documents, but she claims she could get considerably more as a translator in the private sector.
Kawashima, who has been doing interpretation and translation for 11 years, was in courtroom No. 411 of the Tokyo District Court on July 4. "Turn the volume up a little, please," she called out to an Iranian defendant as jailers at the Tokyo Detention House began attaching a waist pouch containing a small receiver to him.
He replied in a subdued tone to Kawashima's voice, relayed via earphone. Silence then prevailed over the courtroom for awhile before the session opened. Suddenly, the 31-year-old defendant covered his face. Tears started running into his beard.
As the trial began, Kawashima stepped to the witness stand and took the oath: "I pledge to faithfully interpret according to my conscience."
She returned to her seat beside a court clerk in front of the three-judge panel and spent the next hour or so speaking into the microphone while taking notes.
The Iranian was charged with two crimes, including violation of the Narcotics Control Law. He was allegedly caught selling cocaine on a street in Tokyo's Shibuya district two months ago in a sting operation when a narcotics officer approached him and asked if he had any "coke."
When the presiding judge asked him questions in the arraignment, the Iranian stood up, walked over to Kawashima, spread his arms and sharply proclaimed his innocence. "That's my friend's property and was not for sale."
Kawashima explained after the day's hearing was over that "in Iran, it is a virtue for a person to convince the other (party) of his contention. That's why he did his best in talking. He was not trying to skirt his responsibility. It's a difference in culture" between Japan and Iran.
Citing another case, she said, "There's an excuse that could be misunderstood." In a four-person case involving the illegal possession of drugs, she quoted one of the defendants as saying, "I was allowed to live under (a friend's) roof, and was asked to deliver this. I just helped him. They are trying to hold me accountable."
Kawashima explained: "In Islam, it is a matter of course for a poor person to do work for a rich person who is taking care of him," she said. "Furthermore, in the case of the four people, their feelings were that one person was accountable for one-fourth (of the alleged crime)."
Among the 7,454 foreigners receiving guilty verdicts in 2000, 6,151 defendants were assigned court interpreters.
A freelance interpreter and translator, Kawashima studied the Persian language in the graduate school of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. While working for the Japan-Iran Society, an organization under the Foreign Ministry, she was asked by courts to serve as an interpreter.
Her assignments are not confined to a courtroom. She is also on hand when a lawyer goes to a detention house to interview a client. She also translates trial documents, including indictments, opening statements, prosecutors' demands for punishments and court rulings.
Kawashima, who lives with her father in Yokohama -- her husband has been stationed by his company in the Philippines -- once drove to Narita airport around midnight in response to a lawyer's telephone call.
At the request of the Tokyo High Court, she taught interpretation at a training session for novice interpreters.
A Tokyo District Court judge said, "We are relieved when we hear her interpret, so we ask her to handle difficult cases in which the defendants deny the charges."
Kawashima said differences between languages can pose confounding problems. As an example, she cited a Persian word that can be variously translated as "steal," "grab," "receive" and "accept" in Japanese.
She knows the words "steal" and "receive" make a completely different impression in court. She said at times she could hardly sleep the night before a trial, worrying she might err.
"I get frightened to enter the courtroom," she said.
When the Iranian Embassy dispatched an interpreter to court to check on her work, "It was so painful that my stomach hurt," Kawashima said. In another case, she was threatened by a person connected to a trial she attended as an interpreter.
She recently spoke to a gathering of more than a dozen lawyers in a Tokyo Bar Association hall about Islam.
One lawyer said a defendant charged with murder once claimed innocence because he had apologized to Allah. She said he must have been "very serious if he said the (slain) person died in response to God's summons."
Kawashima told the dozen-plus lawyers present: "Anyone can become a court interpreter in the absence of a qualification system. The bar associations and courts need to create a system to train interpreters and upgrade their quality."
At present, 3,412 interpreters are registered with high courts across the nation -- 4.4 times more than were available 10 years ago. They handle 46 languages altogether.
The number of Chinese-language interpreters tops all others with 1,407, while the number of Persian-language interpreters stands at 69.
Kawashima said she wants to see court interpreter rooms where reference materials and views can be exchanged, noting she also hopes court libraries can also be utilized.
Osamu Watanabe, a Kobe Gakuin University professor commissioned by the Justice Ministry to study court interpreter systems overseas, said Japan does not "check on the language ability (of court interpreters)."
He also said training of interpreters on ethics, including adhering to the principle of confidentiality, is lacking.
By YOSHIAKI TSUCHIYA
Kyodo News
Keiko Kawashima's job as a Persian-language court interpreter sometimes requires her to respond to calls in the middle of the night.
"It's not the kind of job that a homemaker can do on the side," said Kawashima, who receives requests to serve as an interpreter in trials involving Persian-speaking people from district courts in Tokyo, Chiba, Shizuoka and Kofu, Yamanashi Prefecture, as well as courts in Nagano Prefecture and Hokkaido.
Her assignments also require a great amount of insight into Islamic culture.
She earns about 15,000 yen per hour and is also paid for translating trial documents, but she claims she could get considerably more as a translator in the private sector.
Kawashima, who has been doing interpretation and translation for 11 years, was in courtroom No. 411 of the Tokyo District Court on July 4. "Turn the volume up a little, please," she called out to an Iranian defendant as jailers at the Tokyo Detention House began attaching a waist pouch containing a small receiver to him.
He replied in a subdued tone to Kawashima's voice, relayed via earphone. Silence then prevailed over the courtroom for awhile before the session opened. Suddenly, the 31-year-old defendant covered his face. Tears started running into his beard.
As the trial began, Kawashima stepped to the witness stand and took the oath: "I pledge to faithfully interpret according to my conscience."
She returned to her seat beside a court clerk in front of the three-judge panel and spent the next hour or so speaking into the microphone while taking notes.
The Iranian was charged with two crimes, including violation of the Narcotics Control Law. He was allegedly caught selling cocaine on a street in Tokyo's Shibuya district two months ago in a sting operation when a narcotics officer approached him and asked if he had any "coke."
When the presiding judge asked him questions in the arraignment, the Iranian stood up, walked over to Kawashima, spread his arms and sharply proclaimed his innocence. "That's my friend's property and was not for sale."
Kawashima explained after the day's hearing was over that "in Iran, it is a virtue for a person to convince the other (party) of his contention. That's why he did his best in talking. He was not trying to skirt his responsibility. It's a difference in culture" between Japan and Iran.
Citing another case, she said, "There's an excuse that could be misunderstood." In a four-person case involving the illegal possession of drugs, she quoted one of the defendants as saying, "I was allowed to live under (a friend's) roof, and was asked to deliver this. I just helped him. They are trying to hold me accountable."
Kawashima explained: "In Islam, it is a matter of course for a poor person to do work for a rich person who is taking care of him," she said. "Furthermore, in the case of the four people, their feelings were that one person was accountable for one-fourth (of the alleged crime)."
Among the 7,454 foreigners receiving guilty verdicts in 2000, 6,151 defendants were assigned court interpreters.
A freelance interpreter and translator, Kawashima studied the Persian language in the graduate school of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. While working for the Japan-Iran Society, an organization under the Foreign Ministry, she was asked by courts to serve as an interpreter.
Her assignments are not confined to a courtroom. She is also on hand when a lawyer goes to a detention house to interview a client. She also translates trial documents, including indictments, opening statements, prosecutors' demands for punishments and court rulings.
Kawashima, who lives with her father in Yokohama -- her husband has been stationed by his company in the Philippines -- once drove to Narita airport around midnight in response to a lawyer's telephone call.
At the request of the Tokyo High Court, she taught interpretation at a training session for novice interpreters.
A Tokyo District Court judge said, "We are relieved when we hear her interpret, so we ask her to handle difficult cases in which the defendants deny the charges."
Kawashima said differences between languages can pose confounding problems. As an example, she cited a Persian word that can be variously translated as "steal," "grab," "receive" and "accept" in Japanese.
She knows the words "steal" and "receive" make a completely different impression in court. She said at times she could hardly sleep the night before a trial, worrying she might err.
"I get frightened to enter the courtroom," she said.
When the Iranian Embassy dispatched an interpreter to court to check on her work, "It was so painful that my stomach hurt," Kawashima said. In another case, she was threatened by a person connected to a trial she attended as an interpreter.
She recently spoke to a gathering of more than a dozen lawyers in a Tokyo Bar Association hall about Islam.
One lawyer said a defendant charged with murder once claimed innocence because he had apologized to Allah. She said he must have been "very serious if he said the (slain) person died in response to God's summons."
Kawashima told the dozen-plus lawyers present: "Anyone can become a court interpreter in the absence of a qualification system. The bar associations and courts need to create a system to train interpreters and upgrade their quality."
At present, 3,412 interpreters are registered with high courts across the nation -- 4.4 times more than were available 10 years ago. They handle 46 languages altogether.
The number of Chinese-language interpreters tops all others with 1,407, while the number of Persian-language interpreters stands at 69.
Kawashima said she wants to see court interpreter rooms where reference materials and views can be exchanged, noting she also hopes court libraries can also be utilized.
Osamu Watanabe, a Kobe Gakuin University professor commissioned by the Justice Ministry to study court interpreter systems overseas, said Japan does not "check on the language ability (of court interpreters)."
He also said training of interpreters on ethics, including adhering to the principle of confidentiality, is lacking.
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