This paper examines the potential and problems of commercial schools as an alternative venue for training translators and publishing translations in Japan. These private-sector institutions operate on a business model in a substantial market for translator training, primarily driven by for-profit motives rather than principles of translation pedagogy. Nevertheless, they meet a demand by providing students with practical training and a de facto apprenticeship/mentoring system. They also act as an intermediary between trainees, translation agencies and publishers, although often these arrangements largely constitute a publicity tool and supplementary income stream, and the hopes of anything other than self-funded publication are illusory for many students. There is a disconnect between these institutions, which dominate the field in Japan, and the relatively small number of academic programs in translation, but it is argued here that despite the problems with certain aspects of these commercial schools, they also offer some instructive insights for academic programs in Japan and elsewhere. © 2014, Taylor & Francis.
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