Translation Whitepaper - Difficult to Translate Words

Translation Whitepaper > Difficult to Translate Words

English

Japanese

内容 - content, details, [cut]

"内容" is a word that is used much more in Japanese than its literal translation "content" in English. In particular, when used as a heading in a table "content" should be avoided. For example:

Should become something like this

Using "details" instead of "content." In some cases, such as "職務内容," the 内容 can be omitted altogether, and be simply written as "duties."

循環型社会 - sustainable society, recycling-based society, sound material-cycle society

循環型社会 is a distinctly Japanese concept that means that a society follows the 3 Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle), properly dealing with all the waste it produces in a sustainable fashion. It has been translated as "sound material-cycle society," and "recycling-based society," the former being difficult to understand, and the latter being somewhat unnatural, but better. If possible, it would be best to translate it into "sustainable society," but because this has a different direct translation in Japanese (持続可能な社会) you may be forced to go with one of the other two.