The ninth volume of “Yaraku-Jin (やらく人)”, a series that focuses the people involved in Yaraku and YarakuZen, will introduce Keisuke Watanabe, a marketing team manager at Yaraku.

Yaraku-Jin＜VOL9>
Yaraku, Inc. Marketing
Keisuke Watanabe

―The Appeal and Reward of Marketing: Always Outdoing the Best

Could you start by telling us about your work at Yaraku?

Sure. My primary focus is attracting new customers. In order to sell YarakuZen, we firstly need to spread awareness of what YarakuZen actually is and the kinds of problems it can solve. Once people are familiar with the name ”YarakuZen” and the product, one of the main tasks is to explain its specific functions, compare YarakuZen to other similar products, and convey in an appealing way what makes it superior.

What do you find most rewarding about working in marketing?

After all, I feel happy to see the numbers go up. If I had to say what specific moment made me happy, it would be the moment when I felt like I’d reached that point for the first time, for the first time in Yaraku’s history. I feel happy that I was able to do something that nobody had been able to do before. I kind of have a thing for “the best ever.”

What kind of work did you do before working at Yaraku?

There are two main jobs: the first is a freelance affiliate marketer. Another thing is that as an office worker, my first job was at a company that sold cosmetics, and my second job was at a company that provided English learning services.

What’s an affiliate marketer?

I really enjoy sharing content. Let’s say I create something called “Keisuke Blog.” Then I place an ad in one of the blog posts. For example, I could approach a company that sells pens and say, ‘Hey, I’d like to feature your pens in one of my blog posts. If someone clicks on an ad on my blog (Keisuke Blog) and ends up buying your pens, would you give me a percentage of the sales?’ That’s the kind of thing I could do. This system is called affiliate marketing, and that’s how I made a living.

―Insights on English Learning Led Him to Yaraku

How exactly did you get to know about Yaraku?

The company I worked for as an employee was providing a service related to English language learning. I was interested in English even back then and studied it little by little. I never really disliked English. It wasn’t that I disliked English; in fact, I was quite keen on working hard to learn it. The issue was that I was so busy or distracted that I kept putting off studying. At my previous company, I worked with the hope that I could provide people in the same situation as me with opportunities and tools to study English. I was also part of the marketing team at that time, and I decided to team up with an English native teacher to create learning materials. Since I needed to communicate with the teacher in English, I used Google Translate and made minor corrections myself. As I continued working with them, I started thinking, ‘Using a translation engine and then fixing the parts that don’t seem right might actually be a form of English learning…?’ That’s how I became increasingly curious about machine translation.

From there, I started researching what machine translation was in the first place, and that’s how I came across Yaraku.

It feels quite rare to have people who developed an interest in translation engines before joining the team. Now, do you think your English has improved since you joined the company?

I feel like it’s improved. Well, actually there are aspects where I feel that improvement and others where I don’t.”

First, I found that my speaking abilities wouldn’t improve simply through texting. The speed of back-and-forth conversation is on a totally different level. When I have the opportunity to use English at Yaraku, it’s often in meetings with multiple people rather than one-on-one. I still get nervous, and due to a lack of confidence, I often find it difficult to find the right words right away. This is something I’ve realized I need to work on properly. However, in the case of Yaraku, there are many kind members who don’t react negatively when I make a mistake. Instead, they always make an effort to understand what I’m trying to say, which makes me feel encouraged to be more confident.

On the other hand, I did notice an improvement in the speed at which I could read and understand, or write responses, or even the pace at which I edited machine-translated text. I can also learn natural words and phrases that native speakers use. For example,  difficult words like “extract” which we often use like “to extract data” do certainly come up with machine translations, but I wonder if it really needs to be “extract” there, like could words like ‘output’ or others also make sense? When I had that feeling and looked back on Slack messages, I noticed that other members were also using “get” and “output,” and realized that those could also make sense. An environment like this is what I appreciate.

―Discover Yaraku: The AI Translation Platform Leading the Change

I’d like to know what you think is the charm of Yaraku.

Absolutely. One is the global atmosphere.

Another thing is that we are in the AI industry. For example, for a word like ChatGPT, we’ve heard it like a thousand times. But when I talk with my family, it can seem quite new and unusual. Cutting-edge technology is what’s shaping our era, isn’t it? I believe AI is probably that kind of technology. I think the appeal of Yaraku is that it sells something that will change the world.

That’s right! Both our customers and ourselves tend to be driven by the idea that we have a lot of documents that need to be handled and translated, but your comments made us realize once again that we are developing and selling something that can change the world.

Totally. Translation tools themselves have been around for a long time, but the role of these tools is now becoming clearer, I guess. In the past, the idea may have been that using translation tools would allow you to translate more efficiently and save you time. I’ve been thinking that, nowadays, talented in-house translators might start using tools to delegate translation tasks to others, allowing them to focus on more productive work or to take on roles related to globalization or more significant positions within the business. I believe that the role of translation tools is evolving into something for translators to reach a higher level of ability and to go beyond the mere task of translation. This was something that Yvan, who spoke at Yaraku’s online discussion seminar the other day, mentioned, and I thought it was certainly true. I’m starting to think that the role of managing globalization might be taken on by translators in the future. That’s how big the impact of translation tools is becoming, I think. Translation tools themselves have been around for a long time, but I feel that it has recently they have continued to bring about change in a world where there is a trend toward promoting globalization.

―Anyone Looking to Improve Their English is More Than Welcome!

Finally, please tell us if there is any type of person you would like to work with at Yaraku.

Well, let me put it this way, anyone who wants to work hard on English learning is always welcome. People who want to work hard to improve their English but have been feeling a bit reluctant and unable to do so until now. When you step into a global environment, you often need to use English. This is the point that I want to emphasize. And indeed there are many moments that can leave you feeling devastated. Even though I work in English, I often find myself reflecting on my actions and wondering if the expression might be conveying a completely different nuance. And that reflection has actually become a source of motivation for me. I sometimes think that I might have developed the skills needed for effective reflection. People who want to work in English, even if they aren’t very good at it right now, but would like to improve, and anyone eager to dive into this kind of environment are all welcome!