When I first began interpreting meetings between overseas investors and Japanese companies, I thought my job was primarily to make sure that each side understood the other's words.
It did not take long to realize that the harder part was often somewhere else.
An investor may be trying to understand the return on a particular investment, the durability of a margin, or the assumptions behind a management target. Management may answer the question accurately, but from a different starting point. The language can be perfectly clear while the real question remains unanswered.
That gap has shaped the way I approach investor meetings ever since.
Before becoming an interpreter, I spent years translating sell-side research and earnings-call transcripts. In that work, I would listen closely to the exchanges between analysts and management: why a particular question was being asked, which variables the analyst was trying to isolate, and how management chose to explain the business.
Over time, I became less interested in translating individual sentences and more interested in understanding the investment process behind the conversation.
I have since interpreted more than 300 investor meetings involving Japanese companies and overseas investors. Those conversations have taught me that good interpretation in an investment setting requires more than bilingual fluency. It requires an understanding of what the investor is trying to establish and enough familiarity with the business and financial context to recognize the significance of the answer.
That does not mean speaking for the investor or steering management toward a particular conclusion. An interpreter should never replace either side's judgment.
The objective is simpler: to help the question arrive with its intended meaning intact, and to help the answer be understood in the context in which it was given.
I established Japan Investor Interface in 2023 with that idea in mind.
For overseas investors researching Japanese companies, JII aims to be more than a language intermediary. We help investors communicate effectively with management, understand the nuances behind the discussion, and make the most of the limited time available in a company meeting.
At the same time, we work with Japanese companies on the other side of that interface—helping them communicate their businesses, capital allocation decisions and long-term priorities more clearly to an international investment audience.
There will always be differences in language, convention and perspective between a Japanese company and an overseas investor. Those differences do not need to disappear.
Our role is to make sure they do not get in the way of a good investment conversation.
Teddy Okuyama
Representative Director
Japan Investor Interface Co., Ltd.