Who we are
Our in-house staff consists of only two people, and we have intentionally kept our operation small. This situation means that we each have a vested interest in the quality of our services and the product you get. If we disappoint and you don’t bother coming back, we lose out. So we’re committed to delivering the best we can. That too is a reason that we work with independent contractors—freelancers: their position motivates them to deliver their best.
James Lockhart is JTS’s principal. He oversees all Japanese-to-English translation work, doing some translation himself but mostly checking and editing translations done by our outside translators. Jim also interfaces with clients to ensure that their wishes are reflected in the final product, a job that often entails explaining idiomatic English usage to Japanese clients and reassuring them about grammar and style.
Jim was born and raised in Riverton, New Jersey, a small town near Philadelphia, the birthplace of the United States. He experienced several trades—including printing and graphic design—while growing up and at vocational high school, eventually training there and in Germany as a confectioner. A few years after landing in Japan he moved over to translation and has been working in the field continuously since August 1984. Jim also has extensive experience with PCs and, in the mid 1980s, was involved in setting up one of the first PC LANs used by a translation company in Japan. He lived in Hachioji, Tokyo, from 1981 to 2017 and now resides with his extended family in Yamaguchi Prefecture.
Kumi Lockhart is a native of Yamaguchi Prefecture. Now working primarilly as Japanese editor, sales manager, and accountant, Kumi masterminded JTS’s initial drive into the public-relations field in the mid 1990s, a move that continues to pay off even today as our relationships with many of our current clients developed via contacts made back then.
Good, better, best / Never let it rest
Till the good is better / And the better, best.