Translation query

Hi,

To all you Japanese & English language masters out there, this one's for you. This is in a Divorce in Japan context by the way where I have to write in an English document the reason for divorce and also in the Japanese translation version of said document. I don't want it to mean different things in both the original and Japanese version, because that will just be lying so I would like to know the closest Japanese translation of the below:

IRRECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES - how would you write that in Japanese? 性格の不一致?

I've also searched google and so far there's a lot of different translations like 和解し難い不和 and 乗り越えられない違い (which is a general term only and it's not used in a divorce setting apparently) and 相容れない違い

調整不可能な違い - google translate lol -_-

和解しがたい意見の相違 - longan dictionary which according to my Japanese friends sounds weird/strange

This has got me stumped.

Help me please.

Thanks :)

和解しがたい不和 would be more faithful to the English and I understand that this is a phrase that is often used in English in the divorce context. Maybe in substance it is something like 価値観の違い – differences in values – in the sense that it is so fundamental that the gap cannot be closed.

I would not put it as 性格の不一致, because this is speaking about “personality,” which the English doesn’t touch on, and it does not really point to something being “irreconcilable” or “fundamental.” Best wishes.

Thanks AK.

So which one would you recommend I put down which Japanese authorities would accept on a divorce document (even though it’s a translation)

和解しがたい不和 ? Or the latter

Thanks once again for your help.

Is this just document submission, or are you going to have an opportunity to be asked about it and explain verbally?
I am assuming the original document (meaning the official) is the English version, and the Japanese translation is added for reference; if that is the case, I might stick to the 和解し難い不和 (和解しがたい不和), as something more faithful to the original.

If you are asked about it, you could explain (if it is true, that is!) that it comes from different values you hold, which would be the other phrase I used. In either case, if the parties agree that such difference exists, the exact wording you use should not matter – either sounds fundamental and non-negotiable, without being specific.

Hi AK, thanks for your reply again. This is for a CNI application form (Certificate of No Impediment to Marriage) which I need to show cityhall to marry again. With that I need a Japanese translation of the original application form.

Ok I’ll take your word for it and use 和解し難い不和 for “irreconcilable differences”

Thanks again

It may depend on where, in what things the two persons have the differences,
but I suppose 歩み寄れない [ あゆみよれない ] 食い違い can be a Japanese phrase for "irreconcilable differences" in English.

不和 means discord or friction rather than differences.
和解し難い不和 somehow sounds weird to me (a Japanese native speaker).
Presumably it is partly because 和解(する) focuses not on the solution for the problem but on the repair of the relationship between the parties.

oOoOo another contender. Which one will the OP be writing down???

AK do you have anything to add to the new info provided by omotenashi?

I am a native speaker of the Japanese language myself too, and while I don’t consider 和解しがたい不和 as “natural sounding” Japanese, that cannot be helped to some extent because it is translation, which attempts to replicate the meaning and needs to bridge the differences in concepts between different languages - and fail - at times. That is part of the reason why I asked whether the original = official version = was supposed to be English; if the OP is going to be asked questions ever about it, it will be based on the English.

I take “ayumiyorenai” as another way to express a similar situation. The picture that comes to my mind is the couple still trying to make amends and trying to get each other to understand one another. On the other hand, this 和解しがたい不和 “irreconcilable” simply describes the current state, that (whatever the problem was - differences in opinions, habits, whatsoever) simply cannot be resolved, the gap cannot be closed, without describing the nature or intentions of the parties at all.
It has the tone that this is final, already settled, and in that sense (while it is definitely not be something you use in your every day language) reflects the meaning in English. OK, that is my take of the phrase.

Also this 和解しがたい不和 seems to be the standing phrase when celebrities’ divorces appear in the news in Japanese.

And that’s that. We have a winner. Thank you for that AK.