AI Translation[Case study]
Nitori Holdings

Promoting efficiency by introducing IT into business. The conclusive factor is the unlimited number of IDs allowed. T-tact AN-ZIN® can be used by all employees without hesitation.

Nitori Holdings advocates the “globalization and expansion of the business domain” to realize their romantic goal of “providing the foundation of prosperous home living to the global community”. They are now facing the need for speed in overseas communication as well as in collecting information to achieve the faster overseas store openings they’ve declared in their 10-year corporate theme.

T-tact AN-ZIN® allows an unlimited number of accounts, so employees throughout their enterprise are accessing and using T-tact AN-ZIN®.
We asked how T-tact AN-ZIN® has changed business in the Governance Team, the Intellectual Property Team, and the Legal Team, and what made them decide to use AN-ZIN.

Interviewees

Legal Affairs Office Mr. Makoto, SUZUKI	Patent Attorney, Chief, Legal Affairs Office Intellectual Property Team Mr. Hideo Kawaoka	Legal Affairs Office Ms. Kei Ishibashi
Governance Team. Works as the secretariat for committees, including Stock Administration Office, Board of Directors, Internal Officers, and Audit and Supervisory Committee.	Intellectual Property Team. Responsible for intellectual property rights acquisition and clearance search.	Legal Team. Provides legal consultation, examines contracts, and communicates with overseas subsidiaries for legal content.

―　How was your translation process prior to introducing the AI translation system?

Mr. Suzuki: Regarding the convocation notice, we requested the translation work together with the creation of original texts from Takara Printing, which is a disclosure translation company and a group company of TOIN.

Mr. Kawaoka: I translated myself if it was a translation into English.

Ms. Ishibashi: I had to read the English contract presented by the client by myself, examine the contract, and ask a lawyer who is familiar with English contracts for a final confirmation. Therefore, the process was very time consuming. When applying the English template created by Nitori, we took the time to translate the difference between the provided material and the template, and examined the translation.

■ Significant reduction in the time required to collect information and understand the contents of documents written in foreign languages.

―　 Did anything improve after introducing the AI translation system?

Mr. Suzuki: We have disclosure information posted on our HP. Much of it is standardized, therefore, we only have to extract and translate what has changed every year. AI translation helped us quickly identify which part of the new content should be translated.

Mr. Kawaoka:We can save time as the AI translation gives us an idea of the contents in a short time.

Ms. Ishibashi:Now it is a lot easier to do my job. I can get the translation of e-mails or English contracts soon after they are sent to me, so I can do my tasks very easily.

―　How reliable is the AI translation internally?

Mr. Suzuki: I think there is no negative impression with the quality when we want to roughly know about the content or to gather information. Our overseas subsidiaries create approval documents either in Japanese or English and the AI translation tools have been accepted. So there are not many who feel uncomfortable about it. However, our employees are instructed not to use the free translation service because of security issues.

■ Free of charge based on measured character count and an unlimited number of accounts allowed. The tool is always available without worrying about exceeding the limit.

―　Please give us your impressions about using AN-ZIN.

Mr. Suzuki: Our other vendor’s services charged per characters translated and we had to choose the content to translate carefully and sparingly. The number of IDs was limited as well and we had to ask someone who owns an account to help use the service. That was very inconvenient.
AN-ZIN does not charge per characters translated and allows an unlimited number of users. We can translate whatever we want without worry.
In the future, I want to become familiar with convenient functions such as glossary registration, and then familiarize other departments with them.

Mr. Kawaoka: When there is an ID restriction, we have to assign some specific person to use the service. With AN-ZIN, I can use the service by myself without asking someone for help. That is a significant advantage.
Also, AN-ZIN can be used for non-English languages, such as Chinese, so it helps when I just want to quickly confirm the content of emails in Chinese.
I am also interested in useful functions such as reflecting terminologies.

Ms. Ishibashi:I feel a little that An-ZIN is not good at handling legal terminologies, but there is no significant problem with the quality of translation of daily communicated emails.

→In July 2020, in response to requests from customers, TOIN released a legal engine that can create high translation accuracy in legal documents. For details about the legal engine, please click here.

   

■ Support for scanned data such as PDF files

―　Ｗhat were the challenges for you before introducing AN-ZIN?

Mr. Suzuki: Most of the documents we wanted to translate were PDF files, but our legacy version did not support PDF file translation so it could not help. That was the biggest problem. But our request was accepted and now PDF files can be translated.

Mr. Kawaoka: In some of our subsidiaries, only hard copy data could be available according to their regulations, so the translation service should support PDF files of those hard copy data. In particular, the Thai language does not support JIS standards, so Word cannot be used because the characters would be garbled. Instead we had to scan the documents in Thai and save them in PDF files.

■ Advantages and disadvantages understood prior to introduction through company-wide trial use

―　What made you finally decide to introduce AN-ZIN?

Mr. Suzuki: The accuracy of the translation and the speed of response to our request.

We also intend to improve the IT skills of the entire company and want every employee to be able to use IT freely. AN-ZIN has no limit on the number of accounts, so it can be used by all employees.
We were allowed to extend the trial period as we wanted, so they all could learn the advantages and disadvantages of AI translation and use the service wisely.

AI translation is very convenient as it is speedy and easy to use, and its capability has been evolving. But it is important to know that AI translation cannot always be successful. You must choose between AI translation and manual translation according to the content. Think of AI translation as one of the tools for improving your business efficiency.
With 57 years of trust and experience, TOIN helps our customers make the most use of AI translation. Please feel free to ask if you have any questions.