2. PERSONAL
BACKGROUND
Over 30 years ago, Nintendo hit the gaming
market and has played key roles in the
progression of the gaming industry. They have
always needed to effectively communicate with
their players around the world. Simple
translations proved to be not good enough in
the early years and as a result, a localization
team was created. Shun Tsunoda is the current
leader of the localization team and plays a
critical role in the way Nintendo’s customers
consume their content, whether it’s
merchandise, information, or gaming media.
Mr. Tsunoda uses a wealth of experience and
abilities runs the team that makes sure that the
world is always on the same page.
3. QUESTION 1.
WHAT WAS YOUR CAREER PATH TO
THIS POSITION?
A.
In the beginning, I worked as a translator for restaurants
and brochures, translating them for places that needed
English for when tourists came. I was still a student, but I
wanted to practice my English, so I took these jobs for
experience. Soon I got a job at Nintendo as an entry-level
translator, working on small things like manuals and
merchandise that we would send overseas. I remember
when I was translating some Pokémon material. It was
difficult because we could not translate the Pokémon
names into English. Our team in America made the
Pokémon names and gave us the list so we had to ask the
original Japanese developers to only send us Pokémon ID
numbers instead of names so we could find the English
names faster. As Nintendo’s games required more and
more English, my responsibilities grew, and I was
promoted, and more people were recruited into the team.
Eventually, I reached my current position, where I
oversee multiple teams, with some of them in other places
of the world.
TSUNODA SHUN (角田 俊)
DIGITAL CONTENT LOCALIZATION MANAGER
GLOBAL SOCIETY M.A.
(THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO)
4. A.
In the beginning, you would need to
become a base-level translator. Because
your native language is English, you
would like submit small amounts of
translations or doing localization edits
for drafts from Japanese native
translators. Most of our localization team
are native English speakers. The
Nintendo executives, producers, and
directors do not speak English, so your
responsibility would be transmitting their
statements into English that sounds
natural.
5. A.
Nintendo’s hope is that everyone, all over
the world, will enjoy Nintendo products
and games. Everyone knows Nintendo is a
Japanese corporation, but we want our
translation to make everyone comfortable
with our games. When people see a bad
translation, it hurts their experience and
their trust in us. One of my translators said,
the goal is to make people forget that
Nintendo is a Japanese company, and just
think of us as a game company. The better
our translation are, the more we can do
that.
6.
7. A.
Everyone understands the value every
single translation is to Nintendo. The
greatest motivation is knowing that our
work will be seen by millions of people all
over the world. Once you understand that,
it’s very hard to not be motivated!
8. A.
Sometimes it’s hard getting a translation
just right. The native localization team
helps a lot to achieve this, but there is
always the feeling you get when you’re
not sure something is “perfect” yet. We
always worry a translation can miss
something or could say something
incorrectly that ends up on the Internet.
We tell our teams that it happens to
everyone, but no one wants to see their
mistakes on social media.
9. A.
Humans want to help other humans. It feels good when we do. I always
remind my team that we are helping people enjoy great Nintendo
experiences and connecting them to other people all over the world.
Helping people is the greatest thing we can do, and everyday we get the
chance to help people enjoy a Japanese product comfortably in their own
language. It’s up to us!
Question 3.
What advice would you give to an
employee/team member looking for purpose
in their daily work life?
10. A.
I must sign off on translations that our teams
cannot agree on, which is always hard. I also must
organize and arrange teams by their strengths and
weaknesses, which at times causes difficulty. I
want to always strive for employee happiness.
Sometimes when I send an employee to a new
team, they wonder why. It’s hard to tell an
employee that they have a weakness and may not
fit well within an assigned team, but we’re all
humans and must understand and acknowledge
what our weaknesses are.
Question 4.
What are the most critical
skills a manager needs to
successfully lead their team?
11. A.
Their motivation is number one. Workers
that work hard and try their best will
succeed within their team. The most
skilled person can have no motivation and
be the worst worker very easily.
12. A.
I always make sure everyone gets the
help they need when we need
translations done quickly. I will help
when I can, and I always the last one
to leave our floor. I will translate with
them, if I can. A boss that cannot do
what his employees do will not be
respected.
14. Spending my time interviewing Mr. Tsunoda, he brought
many realizations to mind, during our interview.
Responsibility in the Digital Content Localization Manager
position is abundant; I feel I may struggle in this aspect if
given the opportunity too early. Tsunoda spoke about the
dedication required from himself, the team, and all
employed by Nintendo; this is a strength I feel I may have
no issue displaying consistently. The sheer dedication that
he represents by not leaving before his staff is inspiring to
me in efforts to earn buy-in with his team and not show
dominance over any person. Mr. Tsunoda Shun provided
me a brief glimpse of what his job entails, and even though
I have my current reservations over my weakness in
responsibility, I would love to hold this position and
continue to develop myself and the team that I oversee. I
would aim to continue to provide endless entertainment to
households globally through this position at Nintendo.
