Company Profile

Message from the President

Synergy between Machine and Human
"Realization of Next Generation Translation Capability

Representative Director, Kodensha Corporation

When I joined Kodensha in the 1990s, translation software was a niche product used by a few users. Times have changed, and now it has become a field that attracts so much interest and attention that even the world's largest IT companies have entered the field, and I am deeply moved by this.

As the need for translation software grows, so does the number of companies entering the field, and competition is fierce. In this age of overwhelmingly rapid technological advancement, what kind of products will we be able to deliver to the world? And what kind of human resources can we produce? As I face these questions, I am reminded again of the heavy responsibility I have assumed as President and Representative Director. I also feel a sense of elation as I take on this responsibility.

Nowadays, translation software is required to work with handwritten input, speech recognition, and text-to-speech. Due to the nature of our business, we have formed alliances with prominent overseas companies and research institutes, and we are fortunate to be able to procure technologies that we have not developed ourselves, regardless of national borders. We will continue to discover outstanding technologies from other countries and combine them with our own technologies to create synergies.

With the determination that "technology is life and people are treasure" and "the second founding of the company will be made possible by the collective efforts of all employees," the entire company will work together to develop products and services that will be of service to all of our customers.

Company name	Kohdensha Corporation
URL	https://www.kodensha.jp/index/
Company name	Representative Director and Chairman Yoko Iwaki Representative Director and President Kyotetsu Koh
Founded	July 1, 1979 (Incorporated on November 10, 1982)
Capital	50 million yen (authorized capital: 12 million yen)
Number of Employees	45 employees
Business Activities	Translation software development and sales Human-powered (manual) translation and interpretation Smartphone and Internet content development and sales Cloud services

Access

Head Office: 3F J-Pro Hanzomon Bldg. 2-13 Hayabato-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-0092
TEL.03-6705-5720 FAX.03-6705-5719

Osaka Branch Office: 3-7-1 Showa-machi, Abeno-ku, Osaka 545-0011
TEL.06-6628-8880 FAX.06-6628-2351

Achievements and Awards

Japan

October 1, 1998 "Japan-Korea Translation System j/Seoul/JK" received the Excellent Information Processing System Award from the Information Technology Month Promotion Council, Ministry of International Trade and Industry.
Received a research and development grant for a Japanese-Korean translation system for TV subtitle broadcasting from the Communications and Broadcasting Organization of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications.
Japan-Korea Translation Program" was selected as one of the excellent companies for promotion in the year 2000.
December 22, 2005 "J-SERVER Pocket" won the Judges' Special Award (Ito Seiko Award) of the i-mode Site Awards 2005.
June 26, 2008 "J-SERVER Pocket" won the 3rd Nagao Award of the Asia-Pacific Association for Machine Translation (AAMT)

Korea

Licensed Korean word processor and other software technology to Samsung Electronics Co.
Received the Industrial Technology Award from KBS, Korea.

China

Developed "Japanese-Chinese/Chinese-Japanese translation software j-Beijing

Europe and America

Developed word processing software for 20 languages
Developed multifunctional English-Japanese translation software based on the concept of "Connect, View, Translate" for the Internet

History

～1984-1984

1979 - 1979

Jul.

Spun off Iwaki Electric Works Co., Ltd.'s Engineering Division 2 and established Kohden Co.
Convinced of the potential of the personal computer business, KO DENSHA was founded.　Ltd. to develop personal computer software and to sell personal computer hardware.
1980 (Showa 55)

Jul.

KO DENSHA PC Academy is established and PC education begins.
1981 (Showa 56)

Aug.

Developed and released WORD3000, Japan's first Japanese word processor for PC-8000.

Oct.

Developed and released the Korean word processor "Hangul 4300" for the PC-8000.

Nov.

English word processor for PC-8000 "WORD9000" developed and released.
1982 (Showa 57)

Nov.

Incorporates the organization and establishes Kodensha Co.
1983 (Showa 58)

Apr.

Tokyo branch established.
1984 (1984)

Jul.

Formed a software technology alliance with Samsung Electronics Co.

Aug.

Received a loan from Osaka Prefecture for fostering R&D-oriented companies.

1985 - 1994

1988 (Showa 63)

Aug.

Developed and released KOA-TechnoMate, a 15-language word processor.
1991 (Heisei 3)

Nov.

Developed and released "j-Seoul" Japanese-Korean translation software.
1992 (Heisei 4)

Mar.

Developed Mongolian word processor with Japanese government ODA.
1993 (Heisei 5)

Feb.

Provided "Korea News Bulletin" service on NEC's PC-VAN.
1994 (Heisei 6)

Mar.

English-Japanese translation software "j. London/EJ" developed and released.

May

Developed and released Korean-Japanese translation software "j-Seoul (Korean-Japanese version).
Released j-London/JE, Japanese-English translation software.

Sept.

Chinese input software "Chinese Writer" developed and released.
Korean input software "Korean Writer" developed and released.

1995 - 2004

1995 (Heisei 7)

Aug.

Developed and released "WorldNet/EJ", Internet communication software with translation function for Windows95.
1996 (Heisei 8)

Aug.

Japanese-Korean translation software "j-Seoul/JK" released.
1998 (Heisei 10)

Apr.

Released Chinese-Japanese translation software "j-Beijing.

Oct.

Received the Excellent Information Processing System Award from the Information Technology Month Promotion Council of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (now the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry).
1999 (Heisei 11)

Received the Industrial Technology Award from the Korea Broadcasting System (KBS).
2000 (Heisei 12)

Aug.

Released the ASP site "Translation Station J-SERVER" (Solution).
2001 (Heisei 13)

Mar.

Launched the "J-SERVER Pocket" cell phone automatic translation service, the first service in Japan to offer paid services as official content for telecommunications carriers.

Apr.

Website automatic translation service "My Site Translation", the first service in Japan to be offered to sightseeing sites.

Jul.

Developed and released "World Voice," speech synthesis software in 11 languages.
2003 (Heisei 15)

Feb.

Developed and released "Translation Walker j/Beijing," Japanese-Chinese/Chinese-Japanese translation software for Windows cell phones.

Jun.

Increased capital to 50 million yen.

Aug.

Launched Japanese-Chinese/Chinese-Japanese web translation service on Excite, a search site.
2004 (Heisei 16)

Mar.

J-SERVER Professional" is provided to NEC Corporation's "BIGLOBE Translation Tool".

2005 - 2014

2005 (Heisei 17)

Dec.

J-SERVER Pocket" receives the judges' special award (Ito Seiko Award) in the i-mode Site Awards 2005.
2006 (Heisei 18)

Sept.

Provides "J-SERVER Professional Translation Gateway," an automated translation service, to the Japan Foundation.
2007 (Heisei 19)

Mar.

Provided services for NTT Communications Corporation's "OCN Translation.

Aug.

Provided Japanese-Chinese and Chinese-Japanese translation services for Yahoo! China, a major Chinese search site.
2008 (Heisei 20)

Jun.

J-SERVER Pocket," a translation service for cell phones, received the 3rd Nagao Award from the Asia-Pacific Association for Machine Translation (AAMT).
For more information, click here.

Sept.

HTC adopts "Dictionary Walker English" for Windows Mobile as built-in software for Touch Diamond and Touch Pro series.

Oct.

Launched "Chinese Proficiency Test Past Question Web" service, which faithfully reproduces past questions of the Chinese Language Proficiency Test.
2009 (Heisei 21)

May

Announced collaboration with OMRON SOFTWARE CORPORATION on Chinese and Korean document creation software.

Jun.

Provided Korean translation engine to "excite translation" and started service.

Sept.

Tokyo branch moves to Akasaka.
2013 (Heisei 25)

Apr.

Opened Osaka office at K820, 8F, Knowledge Capital, Grand Front Osaka.

Nov.

Developed and released the Android application of "Translation Keyboard", a translation application linked with Wnn Keyboard Lab.
2014 (Heisei 26)

Jun.

Developed and released "J-SERVER Guidance," a multilingual translation broadcast system.

2015 - 2012

2015 (Heisei 27)

Feb.

Developed and released "J-SERVER Office Biz." (solution), an intranet translation support system for corporations.

Jun.

Developed and released "J-SERVER Office Biz. Cloud" (solution), a cloud translation service for enterprises.
2016 (Heisei 28)

May

Developed and released "My Interpreter Assist," a real-time voice interpretation application.

Dec.

Developed and released "J-SERVER Guidance (for premises)," a multilingual translation broadcast system.
2018 (Heisei 30)

Jul.

Launched "My Site Translation Premium," an automatic website translation service for e-commerce and reservation sites.
2020 (Year 2020)

Feb.

Head office is relocated to Hayacho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, and the Osaka head office is renamed the Osaka branch office (registration completed in March).

Apr.

Tokyo Branch relocated to the Head Office.

Oct.

Developed and launched "kode-AI Translation," an AI translation service for corporate clients.
2021 (the 3rd year of the 20th year of the 20th year of the 20th year of the 20th year of the 20th year of the 20th year of the 20th year)

Apr.

Closed Osaka office at Grand Front Osaka Knowledge Capital.
2023 (5th year of the 20th year of the 20th century)

May

Multi-lingual speech synthesis service "OTO Creator" developed and released.