In 1999 (if I recall correctly) Richard Stallman visited Japan to promote the GNU project and free software. At that time there was an urgent issue: everywhere the term "open source" was gaining popularity and replacing "free software." It was so in Japan as it was in the rest of the world.
Proponents of this change of terminology argued that "free" is often mistaken for "free of charge." Richard Stallman did not approve this. He ordered his supporters to stress that "the free of free software is the free as in freedom." We had a unique situation in Japan. In the Japanese language distinct terms are used for the "free" in "free beer" and the "free" in "free speech." In Japanese, the former is "muryou" while the latter in "jiyuu." So to comply to Stallman's will, one only had to say "jiyuu" software and encourage others to do likewise. Stallman instructed people to do exactly this on every occasion during the visit. Matters were not so simple. The primary translator of FSF/GNU documents (whose name I shall not disclose here) was not complying to Stallman's order. Most people in Japan at that time were using the term "furii sofutouea," a phonetic rendering of the original English. The term was spelled in a special set of Japanese characters called katakana, which is for foreign loan-words such as "piano" "toast" and "radio." The phonetic term was better recognized and the chief translator did not want to change it. Overall the FSF/GNU documents were translated into Japanese of a casual tone. Using "jiyuu" would have made them sound less friendly. At the time the term "furii sofutouea" was being used widely, in various contexts. The adjective "furii" itself was well recognized through its usage in sports, commerce and popular culture. Japanese supporters of GNU software used "furii", and so did hobbyists who were giving away games and trinkets for free. Some companies used the term when strategically distributing programs for free. As such the term did not distinguish between "liberty" and "free of charge." The principal translator also preferred to used "furii" rather than "jiyuu" in other contexts, for example when putting "GNU is a truly free operating system" into Japanese. There was at least one document that made clear that "jiyuu" should be the proper Japanese term when discussing free software. The glaring contradiction made the Japanese translation of the document look strange if not outright stupid. I tried to tell Stallman what was going on, but he did not understand. He had trusted the volunteer translator and could not believe that his friend could be totally unfaithful on a matter so dear to him. There were several more Japanese supporters near him. They knew well what was going on but turned a blind eye to the practice and did not bother to bring the truth to their leader. That left me as the only one trying get him to understand what was going on, and it was an uphill struggle. Unable to realize what was going on, Stallman did not clearly understand either my objections or my intentions behind them. Naturally Stallman wanted people to read GNU/FSF literature. Supporters in Japan led newbies to the official sites and told them to read the translated documents and spread the word. Sadly these documents did not stress that free software was about "jiyuu." This situation stood for a decade or so. Come to think of it, the casual translation caused us to waste many precious years. --- To be continued.
