That’s us: Rumi Tasaki (Japanese) and Loek van Kooten (Dutch), owners of Akebono Translation Service. At your service!



The real thing

Expert owners

Loek van Kooten
  • Native in Dutch
  • Master of Arts in Japanology
  • Winner of the national Japanese Speech Contest
  • Sworn translator for Japanese for the past 21 years
  • Judo black belt
  • Level 4 certificate in the Chinese state exams
  • Fluent in Dutch, Japanese and English, intermediate in Mandarin


Rumi Tasaki
  • Native in Japanese
  • Degree in English Literature
  • Professional translator with 21 years of experience
  • Fluent in Japanese, Dutch and English


Our translation agency specializes in Japanese, Chinese, English and Dutch. We explicitly do not specialize in every language and every field. We think it’s better to do a few things really well, rather than a lot of things really badly.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Your documentation is the first chance your contact has to judge your product, and a dodgy translation won’t exactly inspire trust. Least of all in Japan, where most deals fold on account of the Western culture of mediocrity.

The Japanese strive for absolute perfection in all things. Mistakes are almost unforgivable. This is why we only use university-educated experts with years of full-time translation experience. And let’s be honest: these people don’t come cheap. But that’s not what matters to us. We believe in getting it right. We believe your product deserves more than Google Translate or a well-meaning amateur.

But we go much, much further. Unlike the cheap all-rounders, we actually speak all the languages we offer. And in no small measure.

Just take a look at why we are the real thing: qualified, award-winning and highly regarded linguists with nearly two decades of experience each. That’s where we really stand out among other translation providers. We’re not cheap. We’re good. All-rounders may tell you they’re good, but they’re relying on the anonymity of their translators and that you will never spot the difference. However, those translations won’t be done by us or anyone we know. And professional translation is a small world.

We carefully inspect every word that we sell. Letter for letter, character for character. We don’t believe in acting as mere intermediaries - we take personal responsibility for the quality of your translation. But we go a little further to show we mean business:

We will give you a 10 EUR discount for each and every error you find.

Are we perfect? Perfection is a wonderful Japanese ambition, but a little Dutch modesty does not always go amiss. We are only human, after all.

We had to grant this discount twice in the past 21 years.

Both times the offer was refused.