What Is an IT Comtor? Role, Skills and How It Differs from a BrSE 24-10-2023

An IT Comtor is the interpreter and go-between who connects Japanese clients with a software development team in Vietnam. The role exists almost only in companies that run offshore projects for Japan, and it is one of the most common ways for people with strong Japanese to start a career in IT without being programmers.

What is an IT Comtor?

"Comtor" is short for communicator (Japanese: コミュニケーター). In an offshore project the client in Japan writes requirements and asks questions in Japanese, while the engineers in Vietnam work in Vietnamese. The IT Comtor sits between the two: translating documents, interpreting meetings, and making sure the team's questions are understood correctly and answered in time.

Unlike a general interpreter, an IT Comtor has to understand enough about software to translate its terms correctly and to notice when a requirement is being misread, whether it concerns a screen, a data field or a business rule.

What an IT Comtor does day to day

• Translating project documents: specifications (仕様書), screen designs, test cases, bug reports and meeting minutes, in both directions between Japanese and Vietnamese.
• Interpreting meetings: regular status meetings, requirement clarification and product demos with the client, usually over Zoom, Teams or Google Meet.
• Running the Q&A list: collecting the team's questions, sending them to the client, following up until they are answered and passing each answer to the right person.
• Progress reporting: writing and translating daily and weekly reports (日報・週報) and flagging risks or schedule changes.
• Supporting the PM and BrSE: preparing meeting material and keeping tickets up to date in Backlog, Redmine or Jira, Chatwork, Slack and email.
• Bridging working cultures: helping the team work the way Japanese clients expect, from 報連相 (report, inform, consult) to the level of detail and politeness a report needs.

IT Comtor vs BrSE

Many BrSEs started as IT Comtors and learned the engineering side later; on small projects a BrSE often covers the Comtor's work as well.

Skills you need

• Japanese: most job postings ask for JLPT N2 or above; for live meeting interpretation, N1 or experience living in Japan is a strong advantage.
• IT fundamentals: how software is built and tested, what front end, back end, database and API mean, and how to read a design document.
• Business Japanese: honorific language and the conventions of Japanese business email and reports.
• Precision and initiative: one mistranslated word in a specification can send a whole team in the wrong direction; a good Comtor asks rather than guesses.
• Tools: Excel (used heavily for Japanese documentation), Backlog/Redmine/Jira and online meeting tools.

Career path

After a few years, IT Comtors typically move on to senior or lead Comtor roles, to BrSE after learning programming and design, or to business analyst, project manager or QA roles on Japanese projects; some go on to work in Japan. Pay depends mostly on Japanese level, IT knowledge and how much responsibility the client trusts them with.

IT Comtors at Digi Dinos

Digi Dinos builds software, websites and mobile applications for Japanese companies, with offices in Hanoi and Yokohama. Our Comtors work directly with Japanese clients alongside the project's PM and BrSE. See our open positions.