Airui Translation

How Much Does It Cost to Translate Product Manuals from Chinese to Japanese?

It’s Not Just About the Price Per Thousand Characters

You might be searching for a quick answer:
"What’s the price for translating 1,000 Chinese characters of a product manual into Japanese?"
But here’s a better question:
“How much would it cost your business if the manual is mistranslated?”

At Elite Translation, we’ve translated hundreds of manuals across industries—from medical devices and industrial machinery to consumer electronics and automotive parts. And one thing is clear: manuals are not “just texts”. They are legal, technical, and user-sensitive documents.


⚠️ 01 | Why Manual Translation Is a High-Risk Task

Unlike marketing content or general websites, product manuals have a very low tolerance for error. A single mistranslation could:

  • Violate regulatory requirements in Japan

  • Lead to product misuse by end-users

  • Expose your company to legal liability

  • Damage brand trust in a competitive market

This is why manual translation is typically handled by specialized linguists with technical backgrounds—not general translators or AI tools alone.