Why it is difficult to translate from Japanese

It is difficult to translate from Japanese, as well as from any language that uses hieroglyphs. The situation is aggravated by the presence of 4 types of writing:

• kanji, a traditional hieroglyphic writing;
• katakana, for loanwords;
• hiragana, for suffixes and words without a hieroglyphic analog; and
• Romaji, for transliterating the Japanese alphabet into the Latin one.

The Japanese actively use all types of writing, which puts an additional burden on the translator. Technical texts are particularly difficult to translate. Oral speech is no less difficult due to the various dialects. The main one, but by no means the only one, is the Tokyo dialect. The Japanese spoken language is extremely metaphorical and allegorical, which does not make the task easier for a translator without knowledge of the culture and history of the country.