Japanese Localization Writer / QC

Job description

Pocket FM is the world's largest audio-series platform, where powerful stories travel effortlessly across languages, cultures, and continents. From India and the US to Europe and beyond, we're redefining how stories are created, discovered, and experienced across the globe. With one of the largest creator ecosystems in entertainment, Pocket FM is home to millions of listeners and an ever-growing catalog of original serialized content. We're building the future of storytelling by bringing together exceptional writers, creators, and creative talent to develop stories audiences can't stop listening to. ### About the Role Pocket FM is seeking a Japanese Localization Writer / QC to help bring our long-form audio and video drama content to Japanese audiences. In this role, you'll review AI-generated Japanese translations and dubbing scripts against the original English content, identifying and correcting issues in meaning, naturalness, character voice, emotional delivery, and story continuity. You'll ensure Japanese dialogue sounds native and authentic while preserving the intent, relationships, emotion, and pacing of the original story. This is a highly hands-on writing and quality-control role for someone with a strong command of Japanese and a deep understanding of dialogue, storytelling, and cultural nuance. ### Responsibilities - Review AI-generated Japanese scripts against English source content to identify translation and localization issues. - Rewrite dialogue and narration into natural, emotionally appropriate spoken Japanese. - Verify speaker and character attribution, names, titles, honorifics, and terminology for accuracy and consistency. - Evaluate character voice, relationship dynamics, hierarchy, and language register, including casual, formal, intimate, respectful, and confrontational dialogue. - Ensure localized scripts preserve story meaning, character relationships, emotional intent, and important plot details. - Review pacing and timing to ensure dialogue is natural to speak and fits the available scene without compromising story content. - Identify and correct issues with emotional or delivery direction and provide clear feedback where needed. - Maintain consistency across characters, recurring terms, storylines, and episodes. - Identify recurring patterns or weaknesses in AI-generated Japanese and provide recommendations to improve future localization passes. - Consistently deliver high-quality work within established review timelines. ### Qualifications - Native or near-native Japanese writing ability with excellent command of natural spoken Japanese. - Strong professional English proficiency, with the ability to understand English source material and collaborate with global teams. - Experience writing, editing, adapting, or localizing scripts or other long-form narrative content. - Strong understanding of dialogue, character voice, emotional nuance, pacing, and serialized storytelling. - Ability to distinguish between literal translation and natural, culturally appropriate Japanese adaptation. - Excellent attention to detail and ability to identify subtle issues in meaning, tone, character relationships, and continuity. - Comfortable reviewing and improving AI-generated content. - Experience with TV, film, anime, audio drama, web fiction, gaming, dubbing, subtitles, or other entertainment localization is highly preferred. - Strong communication and organizational skills with the ability to work independently and meet deadlines. - Passion for storytelling and bringing international content to Japanese audiences.