The Kanji Foundry Terms & Conditions
Translation - I usually ask for £80 for 1000 characters of Japanese text (or 0.08p per Japanese character) with no minimum charge. I ignore English words and numbers in calculating the total number of characters per page. As a guideline, I assume that one page of a Japanese patent (published by the Japanese Patent Office) has 90 full lines of text with 22 Japanese characters per line. This approximates 2000 characters per page but most pages are interspersed with figures, diagrams, paragraphs, spaces and subsection headings so the actual character count per page is often much lower.For WIPO patents the character count is about 800 Japanese characters per full text page. I will look over texts and make an estimate of the character count if requested. There is no charge for character count estimates and I will gladly advise you on deadlines and costs. It is important that we agree on character count and cost before I start the translation. I use translation memory software where appropriate to increase turnaround times.
Proofreading - I will proofread texts within my fields of expertise. Please e-mail me with any questions you have.
Other Terms and Conditions - I do not require first-time customers to make advanced payments but I may check the integrity of customers and agencies with fellow translators, J-Net, Honyaku, ITI and other sources (a practice which is routine amongst translators when working for new clients).
Payments are requested to be paid no later than 1 month following the day the completed translation is sent to the customer or by installments for large projects if so negotiated. An invoice will be sent by e-mail and payments can be made by cheque, UK bank transfer or via PayPal subject to our agreement.
Confidentiality - I undertake all translations on a confidential basis and will not divulge the content or nature of any translation project to a third party. I am prepared to sign a confidentiality agreement if requested. I will not use documents which I have been paid to translate and for which I have agreed to conditions of secrecy as examples of my work on my website or for potential clients. I will nominally keep all documents secret for a two-year period from the date of translation unless I agree to do otherwise.