A company with lots of translation work, a sense thay they should train a good translator, and a sense that they don't like paying agency rates for translation will sometimes hire an in-house translator. However, in most cases, the amount of salary they are willing to pay has a ceiling to it, this ceiling being established more by emotion than by economics. It usually runs about 500-600 thousand yen. Beyond that, the wa goes to hell, because the salary of at least in-house foreign translators (along with other information like who they go to bed with <g>) is knowledge that many people in house feel a need and a right to know. I know quite a number of in-house (ex, mostly) translators who hit upon this rule of in-house translation salary dynamics and found it virtually unsurmountable.
        Even at dirt cheap agency rates, a freelancer should be able to hit the million yen per month mark with dilligence and ability. That's only about 50, 000 yen per day (actually a bit less) working weekdays only. Do the arithmetic. It's 25 pages at 2000 yen. But since people capable of doing finished translation would not really be willing to work for this rate, use 3500 yen (still lower than the rate paid by direct clients); that puts the page count per day at about 14 pages. Doesn't sound very tough to me, even for someone who is not that speedy. When you get to the point of asking for real money (market rates paid by the client--5000 to 10000 or more per page), the situation gets even easier.
        So I really can't buy the statement that a disadvantage of freelancing is low pay unless (1) the above is completely off (I know from experience that it is not) or (2) companies have started paying in-house translators well over 2,000,000 yen per month, which is not at all difficult to make as a freelancer.
        Bill Lise
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        Bill Lise paints an enticing picture of potential earnings for freelance translators but I wonder is this true for most of us. I now work mainly for one agency, spasmodically for a few others. I also work from Australia and visit Japan for a few weeks most years.
        My general rate for Japanese to English translation is Y3000 per page of English (about 1000-1200 bytes) which has not changed in the last 8 years (when the yen was cheap). Over the years, the rising yen has gradually raised my dollar income and I have not felt strongly motivated to raise my rates with existing clients who keep me more than fully employed. Some of you will possibly take the view that I am lowering the industry standard by working for low rates but I enjoy the work and I enjoy being busy. Retirement sucks!
        Some time ago, when my principal client had a lean period, he suggested I might discount my rates -- a move which I resisted -- but it has prompted me to try to expand my client base and, at the same time, upgrade my rates a bit. This is an extremely difficult thing to do from a distance.
        From what I hear from other translators, the days of Y8000 or more per page are over and the reality is that translators who deal directly with end-user clients have to work much harder than I do, travelling, selling, negotiating, making tables, even layout and desktop publishing work -- all of which are done by the agencies I supply with English text. I don't begrudge my clients the profits they earn from my work.
        Bearing in mind that high rates usually involve "administrative overheads" in addition to translation, Bill's casual remark that churning out 14 pages per day 5 days a week doesn't sound too tough may not be realistic. In my case, while "feast or famine" might be an overstatement, I find I am usually either frantically fighting tight deadlines or twiddling my thumbs (writing letters such as this while I wait for it to be 10:00 a.m. in Tokyo when the fax will start ringing and some new and exciting project will arrive.)
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