Cultural Positioning Strategies and Information Clarity: An Analysis of Japanese-Indonesian Translation in the JITCO Bulletin “Tomo”

Abstract

Translating informational materials for foreign workers in Japan is essential for bridging linguistic, cultural, and legal divides, particularly for Technical Interns and Specified Skilled Workers. This study analyzes the translation strategies used to render the Japanese source text (ST) into the Indonesian target text (TT) in the April 2026 edition of the JITCO bulletin “Tomo”. The research covers three text domains: an educational comic on coughing etiquette, a guide to labor rights regulations related to pregnancy, and a health article on the traditional food natto. Using Baker’s (2018) theoretical framework of word-level and above-word incommensurability, this qualitative descriptive study identifies five principal translation strategies. The analysis demonstrates the effective application of these strategies: (1) cultural substitution to adapt sneezing and coughing onomatopoeia and local government bureaucratic terms; (2) omission to remove stylistic markers of cute characters that lack functional equivalents; (3) loan words with explanations for culturally specific culinary and medical enzyme terms; (4) generalization in classifying specific food supplements; and (5) paraphrasing to restructure incomplete or informal sentences into complete, formal information. The findings suggest that, within public informative texts, translators prioritize information fluency and cultural acceptability for target readers while maintaining the accuracy of legal and health messages crucial to the adaptation of Indonesian workers in Japan.

Keywords:       Mona Baker, Translation Strategies, Non-equivalence, JITCO Tomo Newsletter, Japanese-Indonesian.