Japan: Social Translation in Times of Crisis · Global Voices
Tomomi Sasaki

This post is part of our special coverage on the Japan Earthquake 2011.
When disaster struck on March 11th, Japan was thrust onto the global stage. As inquiries, goodwill, advice, and donations pour in from around the world, citizens have responded in kind through various forms of social translation.
Earthquake manual
This is a basic manual on how to protect yourself during an earthquake, translated into 24 languages by students from the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.
This project started from just one TUFS university student from statement on Twitter. Since the magic of twitter, a large number of people turned into strong supporters who built up number of teams to make all the translation, more than 24 languages. Thanks to everyone who support this project.
They even have a Japanese easy version with katakana.
English wiki about earthquake information
This straightforward wiki contains practical information about the earthquake in English.
Japanese translations for #prayforjapan
Tweets with #prayerforjapan have been a source of great comfort to the people in Japan, and Noda Yuuki kicked off a crowdsourced project to translate the flood of tweets into Japanese. He is using tweetvite, his personal blog, and of course Twitter to call for people to pitch in. Translated tweets are bundled here on Togetter.
Spreading happy energy
Gen Taguchi, of 100shiki blog fame, tweeted this on March 10th:
元気の出るつぶやきを集めました・・・ – http://bit.ly/h52EM9
Professional translator/interpreter @vida_es_bella responded:
@taguchi タグチさん、ありがとうございます。これ、英訳しても良いですか？「日本人すごいね」みたいなのは、あまり強調しすぎるとイヤミになりますが、ならないように気をつけて。海外の友達にも知らせたいです。私は同時通訳者・翻訳者です。すでに翻訳中なら一緒に！
Here are a few selected tweets, with translations by @vida_es_bella.
@yunico_jp:
バスが全然来ない中、@saiso が、バス停の前にある薬局でカイロを買ってきて、並んで待ってる人みんなに配った！
@HASUNA_Natsuko:
日本人すごい！！こんな時にも山手線ホームできれいに整列してる …涙。有楽町駅を上から眺む。
@endless_6 in Fukushima Prefecture:
スーパーで無事買物出来ましたヽ(´o｀； でもお客さんのほとんどが他の人の事を考えて必要最低限しか買わない感じだったのが感動しました（涙）
Read more in English in this Google doc, or find French, German, Chinese, Vietnamese, Spanish, and Korean versions here.
Multilanguage Aggregator
This site aggregates tweets with the hashtag  #jishin_{language} in 11 languages.
2011 02 11 Earthquake JAPAN disaster information on Twitter in MULTILANGUAGE
このサイトは個人が立ち上げ、多くの個人が賛同して無償で通訳・情報提供を行っています。命令・指示に従うのではなく、ご自身の有機的な判断で参加してください！手伝ってください!!
Blogs
Many bloggers have also put their language skills to good use, highlighting useful resources and positive messages in their own languages.
Hatena blogger herbe published an English list of the frequency channels for NHK Radio 2(AM), which offers English, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish broadcasting.
Jiro Ohmizu translated 50+ tweets from celebrities abroad into Japanese on his site.
Roy Berman published a post entitled Who can and can not donate blood in Japan (and more):
There has been a lot of confusion over who exactly is allowed to donate blood according to Japanese regulations, especially foreigners. To try and clarify the situation I have translated the entire list of categories of persons who are NOT allowed to donate blood in Japan, from the Japanese Red Cross official web page.
Non-fiction writer Minetoshi Yasuda has set up a bulletin board for Chinese language speakers:
中国国内のミニブログで流れている
日本に留学や仕事で行っている中国人の安否を尋ねる情報を、
ツイッターで、留学生の樹八さん（@hathiko8）という方が集積している。
以下、中国から見られるうちのブログに転載しておく。
元ツイート等で携帯番号の記載があるものは、
場合が場合なのでそのまま載せます。
台湾とか香港の人探し情報も受け付け。
Images
And of course, words need not be spoken (or translated!) with images. Webstagram has a filtered view for Instagram photos with #prayforjapan. There is a Naver page that has bundled images, too.
If you know of other good resources, please add them in the comments.
This post is part of our special coverage on the Japan Earthquake 2011.