Interest
MediBang Allegedly Pays Manga Translators 120 Yen Per Page
posted on by Kim Morrissy
Translators Meru and David Evelyn recently spoke up about manga translation and localization company MediBang, which allegedly pays manga translators 120 yen per page.
On Twitter, Meru wrote: "A company really shows you who they are when they respond to your application, which demonstrated that you're a highly qualified and experienced translator, with a copy-paste email offering 120 yen per page for manga translation. The company in question is MediBang btw."
Evelyn tweeted in Japanese (translated as follows): "A certain company is currently recruiting manga translators, but I can only laugh at how ridiculous the job requirements written in their email is. 1) Japanese language N2 proficiency. 2) Manga/game translation experience required. 3) Image-editing/typesetting program (including redrawing) experience required. Despite having these three requirements, the rate they pay per page is 120 yen. I'm crying with laughter."
Evelyn further explained the ridiculousness of the requirements: "First of all, it's unclear whether they comprehend the job of a manga translator. Translation is handled by a translator, lettering is handled by a letterer, and corrections are handled by an editor. It's general practice to separate each of these, or otherwise things won't move. They're not gonna find a Getter Robo-like person that combines three people into one lol."
ANN has independently confirmed the contents of the email from MediBang.
The MediBang localization and distribution service was first established in 2014. According to the official website, the service handles a number translations of manga distributed on Shueisha's MANGA Plus service, including the Spanish translations of One Piece and My Hero Academia, and the English translations of Monster #8 and Tis Time for "Torture," Princess.
ANN reached out to MediBang for comment, but did not receive a response by press time.
Last year, translation and typesetting company Amimaru drew criticism for paying letterers as little as US$1 per page.
Thanks StocKIT for the news tip.
