Welcome to my newsletter! đź‘‹ Please allow me to introduce myself.
I started my career as a Japanese linguist. After college, I moved to Japan and quickly saw how translation could make a real difference—especially for people who couldn’t read the language around them. That sense of purpose stuck with me. I passed Level 1 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test and went on to earn an MA in Japanese Translation from the Monterey Institute of International Studies. For the next 15 years, I worked as a full-time legal translator.
By 2017, something shifted. I had translated so many words that I felt it in my bones—it was time to explore something new. Around that time, cloud-based translation tools were starting to change the landscape. I took a certification course from Memsource and was struck by how powerful it was to manage so much through a browser. No local software. No heavy installs. Just clean, connected workflows. It lit a spark.
I wanted to understand not just the tools, but the people who used them. The connection between technology and human expertise became my focus.
Since then, I’ve worked across the localization ecosystem—in startups, LSPs, TMS platforms, and enterprise environments. I collaborate with engineers, developers, account managers, and sales teams to build localization programs that scale.
But no matter the project, empathy is my north star.
The people working in localization—linguists, project managers, engineers—often juggle tight deadlines, complex tools, and unclear expectations. This is one of the most cross-functional, misunderstood industries out there. I do my best to stay curious, open, and grounded. And I try to be the kind of collaborator I wish I had when I was just starting out.
That’s why I started LocNavigator.
This newsletter is a space for real talk about careers, technology, workflows, and what it means to build meaningful work in localization today. If you care about tools and people—if you’re navigating a career change, or just want to understand this space more deeply—you’re in the right place.
Please click the subscribe button below to join the journey. You can also find me on LinkedIn here.
