Converting units into metric ones is quite a common translation practice in my
country (especially when translating from languages of some backward
countries). I wonder whether translators often do so translating into
Japanese, or they just leave the original units and add footnotes to explain
in metric terms.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-07-10T12:26:02.193
60002
2018-07-10T18:41:25.083
10168
question
translation
Do translators often convert units of measurement when translating into Japanese?
There is no hard rule about this, and each translator decides whether they
will convert units or not, taking many things into consideration.

  * Young readers may not understand foreign units at all.
  * The importance of each figure depends on the context. Most Japanese people cannot instantly tell if a 身長6.5フィートの男 is tall or not, but 身長2メートルの男 is instantly understandable as a tall man. If you need to convey the clear image of his height in the story, it's probably better to convert. But converting the length of _Titanic_ (882 ft) may not be that important; usually all you need to understand is "it was a large ship" :)
  * Nevertheless, unconverted and unfamiliar units can add a good, exotic atmosphere to the scene. Understandably, some people always dislike unit conversions. Probably no one wants to see [500 Miles](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ExNM0RrH0o) translated as 800キロメートル.

For example, if I remember correctly, one dubbed version of _Back To The
Future_ uses 時速88マイル to describe the speed to achieve temporal displacement.
Another version uses 時速142キロ, which is far familiar to the Japanese audience.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-07-10T14:31:36.323
60005
2018-07-10T18:41:25.083
2018-07-10T18:41:25.083
5010
5010
60002
answer