Translate a tender document into Japanese

What changes when a tender goes into Japanese

Japanese mixes three scripts (kanji, hiragana and katakana), puts no spaces between words and has a single plural form. In a tender pack, this has very practical consequences.

• Plurals vanish. Phrasing such as « lot(s) » or « the bidder or bidders » has no Japanese counterpart; the sentence simply stays neutral. Quantities, however, take a counter word: « 3 hard copies » becomes 3部, and a « lump sum » line in a bill of quantities is commonly rendered as 一式.
• Register depends on the document. Clauses and specifications tend to use the plain written style (である endings), while a cover letter or technical proposal addressed to the buyer calls for the polite form (です・ます). A single document that switches between the two for no reason stands out at once.
• Punctuation is full-width. Comma 、, full stop 。, brackets （）. Western colons and semicolons look out of place in running text.
• Large numbers are grouped differently. Japanese counts in units of ten thousand: « 1.2 million euros » reads 120万ユーロ. « Excluding / including tax » becomes 税抜 / 税込.
• Dates run year-month-day: 2025年3月14日. Japanese public bodies also use the imperial era (令和7年); if the buyer is a Japanese authority, check which format it expects.

Tender terminology: the traps specific to Japanese

Tender packs are full of abbreviations that have no direct Japanese equivalent: RFP, ITT, SoW, BoQ, PQQ, or national ones such as the French CCTP and DPGF. In Japanese they are usually rendered descriptively (a statement of technical requirements becomes a 技術仕様書, for instance). The real risk is not the translation of one acronym but its consistency across documents: if the instructions to bidders refer to « Section 5.3 of the Conditions of Contract », that reference must name the same document, with the same Japanese title, in every file.

A few procurement terms deserve particular attention:

• « bid » or « offer » may mean the overall proposal (提案書), the price submitted (入札価格) or a quotation (見積書);
• « successful bidder » is 落札者, « variant bid » 代替案;
• the « submission deadline » must leave no doubt about time and time zone: « 17:00 GMT » is translated as written, and converting it to Japan time is your decision.

Manuce does not take glossaries. If a lot name, an acronym or a product name must stay unchanged, pick a paragraph containing it for the free extract, then check that it is handled consistently throughout the full translation.

What Manuce delivers, and what it does not

Your tender is handled by Dédale, the engine specialised in technical texts. For a pack of around 9,000 words (roughly 30 pages), you get an instant quote on upload, based on the exact word count of the source file, with the Japanese language coefficient (×1.6) applied.

• Accepted formats: Word, PDF, PowerPoint, Excel, plain text, Markdown, HTML, RTF and CSV. Instructions in Word, a pricing schedule in Excel and a pitch deck in PowerPoint each come back in their own format, layout included.
• Turnaround: a standard document is translated within minutes and stays available in your client area.
• Level: for documents going to a Japanese buyer or partner, the Professional level is designed to produce text ready to send; Premium adds a cross-review.

What Manuce does not do:

• No sworn or certified translation. If the buyer requires certified translations of company documents (registration certificates, tax compliance letters, articles of association), you will need a sworn translator for those.
• No scanned PDFs. A scanned page with no selectable text, such as a signed and scanned form of tender, is not read.

Preparing the pack and checking the Japanese version

Before uploading:

• Upload source files (Word, Excel) rather than an exported PDF where you can; if you only have the PDF, make sure the text can be selected.
• Set aside signed or scanned pages: they will not be translated.
• In the Excel pricing schedule, keep description columns reasonably wide: Japanese characters are full-width, and a short label may wrap onto two lines.

On delivery:

• Open the files on a machine with Japanese fonts installed; otherwise empty boxes replace the characters. For a PDF you will submit, make sure the fonts are embedded.
• Update the table of contents in the Word document: headings have changed, and so have page numbers.
• Check line breaks in tables: a line should never start with 。 or 、.
• Check figures, dates, quantities and counters (一式, 部, 個) line by line against the source schedule.
• Make sure each cross-reference (« see clause 7 of the instructions ») points to the correct Japanese title.

In practice

1. Gather the tender files in their source format (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and set aside scanned pages.
2. Upload them to Manuce and choose Japanese as the target language: the quote appears straight away.
3. Read the free extract, choosing a paragraph dense with acronyms and procurement terms.
4. Pay, then download each translated file in its original format from your client area.
5. Check dates, amounts, counters and cross-references before submitting.