Did you know Fukuoka is home to Japan’s biggest academic English editing company? New Zealander Kerry Greer, a former corporate lawyer, founded Edanz Group Japan in 1995 to provide specialized English editing for medical papers. He had previously visited Fukuoka on business and decided to set up shop here after growing fond of the city. Incorporated in 2001, Edanz now employs 30 at its headquarters in Minato, half of whom are foreigners, and has contracts with 400 expert editors in 15 countries. The company now handles editing in a wide range of fields, including health science, physics, social science and the humanities, and provides a host of other services, including expert scientific reviews and abstract development. “We are the biggest English editing company in Japan, and one of the biggest in the world,” says Greer. According to him, a paper that would take an English-speaking researcher 95 hours to write takes a Japanese person 200 or more hours, on average. “Researchers should focus on research. We want to save them time, “ says Greer. The recent debate on STAP cells has raised questions about how research papers are produced, and the demand for English editing among non-native speaking scholars is high. “Japanese researchers produce high quality papers, and we want to help them achieve global recognition,” adds Greer. In addition to Japan, Edanz also has an office in China.
Source: Nishinippon Shimbun 6/18
