Japanese Popular Culture as a Tool for Language Teaching and a Field of Research: Project Activities of Japanese Studies Students

"Translation of Japanese Manga Comics and Video Subtitling" is one of the longest-running and most in-demand projects implemented at the Department of Japanese Studies of the Institute of Asian and African Studies for bachelor's students enrolled in the Asian and African Studies program. Today, we will provide a detailed look at what project participants do, summarize the interim results of the first stage, and also speak with students who are mastering the basics of comic translation this year.

Students working on the project

Photo courtesy of F. Demchuk

Within the project framework, participants have the opportunity to gain practical translation skills from Japanese using materials from modern Japanese popular culture that interest them. They also become familiar with the technical specifics of working with such texts, for example, the processes of cleaning (removing the original foreign text, erasing sound effects, and restoring the image background) and typesetting (placing the translated text into designated areas). Finally, for many students, the materials studied during the project can later become sources for their academic research related to various aspects of contemporary Japanese society. The project participants' activities are carried out under the guidance of Faina Demchuk, Tutor at the Department of Japanese Studies.

 

In January 2026, the first stage of the latest project cycle for the 2025–2026 academic year was completed. During this stage, students not only performed translations but also carried out extensive technical work. The result was approximately three hundred translated pages.

 

We asked project participants to share their impressions and discuss the skills they acquired during the process.

 

"For the first part of the project, we had to choose a manga that we would be interested in working on. The translation activity itself allows you not only to develop technical skills for manga translation but also to immerse yourself more deeply in everyday Japanese. We primarily work on translating colloquial speech, which certainly enriches our knowledge of Japanese," shared one of the project participants, Marina Nagnibida, a 4th-year student in the Asian and African Studies program.

 

"The first part of the project left only positive impressions. Due to the specific theme of the manga I was working on, I learned a lot of gaming vocabulary and slang that you won't find in standard textbooks. During the project, besides translation, we also do cleaning and typesetting, which helps develop skills in working with various graphic editors," noted Elina Zarifullina, a 3rd-year student in the Asian and African Studies program.

 

"I really enjoyed participating in the translation project. Our manga was related to the theme of computer games, and the most interesting part was translating words from the in-game chat so that the Russian reader could immediately feel the character's personality without losing the essence of the Japanese utterance," shared Polina Bogdanova, a 3rd-year student in the Asian and African Studies program.

 

The project "Translation of Japanese Manga Comics and Video Subtitling" continues its work. We wish the current team of translators success, and we will be glad to welcome into its ranks next year all those who are interested in modern Japanese popular culture and who strive to improve their skills in translation, the Japanese language, and technical text layout.