Makoto Nagao

"Research into machine translation and speech recognition has a long history, but both fields were being developed independently until recently. Looking back at the history of each field briefly, I believe that Japanese researchers have contributed a great deal to the development of machine translation. In the early 1980s, Japan was leading the world in machine translation and it still remains a driving force. Translation from Japanese to English and vice versa is very challenging, but the widespread international use of English has given Japan no choice but to grapple with the job of improving its translation technologies. This necessity has caused quick progress in both theory and technology in machine translation in Japan."

"In speech recognition, the U.S. has clearly been the leader in developing world-leading technologies. Research in Japan started as early as 1957 or 1958. Kyoto University has been conducting a broad array of studies in the fields of speech and language processing. These and other Japanese research have made great strides in the fields. By the middle of the 1980s both machine translation and speech recognition had reached fairly mature stages. Many researchers began recognizing the benefits of studying both fields together with a view of integrating them into a single system."

"During the preparation stage of ATR's establishment around 1984 and 1985, we, the members of the ATR Basic Concept Examination Committee, designed a new research approach, which initiated the integration of the two separate fields into one in order to create a comprehensive speech translation system. In 1986, ATR Interpreting Telephony Research Laboratories was founded in line with this new research approach and offered a very attractive work environment for many researchers. During the 14 years since its establishment, ATR has produced a steady stream of impressive achievements, which convinces me that our original decision was correct."