Thanks for this actually! I'm glad it came from another source than myself since I have a very negative personal connection to him and my view is not gonna be given as much merit.
Here's one of the two updates I was referring to. Now for full disclosure - I'm sure it's completely plausible that he ran into issues with his translators. I'm not calling him a liar on that. I am, however, surprised by his ranting about it and to me it's extremely unprofessional. This type of behavior in business (at least where I work) would get you sued for libel or fired.
I have to imagine though based on this guy's track record with other people that his attitude/sociopathy is 75% of the issue:
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11/21/2013 - "Dealing with Unethical People"
"I had intended to post this report while in Japan (in fact I even considered going to the police), but given certain individuals repeated attempts to derail the project, and acquire emotional insurance should I complain, there were suggestions from colleagues that I wait until I was home - with the interview material safe - before making the truth public.
First, the good news: I have returned, the main part of the mission complete. I have more than the number of interviews promised, plus plenty of video footage, and a lot of exciting secrets. The project was a success, the ingredients mixed, we just have to let it bake.
Now to detail some serious problems I had.
My coordinator Hanako Abe / 安倍華子 (maiden name Hanako Kaku) failed to live up to her part of our agreement, was excruciatingly intolerable, made thinly-veiled threats, and demanded advance payment for services she later failed to provide and sabotaged. By extension her sister Agness Kaku (who was a backer until I refunded her), behaved the same, posting negative messages online, spamming my Kickstarter page, and contacting people on my Facebook friends list in an effort to harass me. I am posting this as a public record so everyone knows what went on. It's long, but it's all here - just the facts.
These two sisters have proven to be extremely vindictive and calculating in their behaviour, and I fully expect them to retaliate. I ask that whatever fabrications they produce, you continue to have faith in delivery of the book as promised. I have audio recordings of meetings, all email correspondence, and signed invoices as evidence.
The background...
Prior to Agness putting me in touch with Hanako to act as coordinator, I was securing freelance interpreters. One came from a reliable source in the games industry - Hanako later referred to her as "the junior". I had other freelancers too. After communicating with Hanako she dismissed my others, but said the junior could work as part of the "elite" group she had hand picked. She would act as coordinator, and I simply had to list a day, time and duration, and for 5,000 yen ($50 / £30) per individual interpreter booking, Hanako would call the interpreter and book them. I went along with it. Later she suggested phoning interviewees to lock down their times, for an additional 5,000 yen fee. I went along with this too, because of the stress of organising things by myself. Interviews would use a mixture of elite interpreters and "the junior" who I had brought on board myself. Different days would make use of different people.
However, problems soon followed. The elite interpreters were not what I expected. Let me use an analogy: a man goes to town to buy the most prestigious, most pedigree race horse available. He then takes it back to his farm to plough a field, but the race horse does not like this.
For all the posturing about her and her colleagues working for the UN, the prime minister, Fortune 500 companies and so on, what I ended up with was some pampered ladies unused to the work I presented, despite paying 80,000 yen ($820 / £500) a day. The high price did not bother me, because I was hoping for the best. From the start I was up front with regards to the work involved. One interpreter, who I used only once, was so terrible I refused to work with her again and received a 50% refund (I had the recording checked with a native speaker, who confirmed the interpretation was appalling). Another interpreter was sickly, requiring a 10 minute break every 45 minutes - and still complained that I overworked her, falsely claiming I "forced" her to work for 90 minutes at a time. Which was a complete fabrication. I suggested to Hanako that if my interpreters were going to fabricate complaints about lack of breaks, I could jot down when we hade breaks and how long they are, so everyone would be happy. Hanako then accused me of creating a hostile atmosphere. The next day she recanted and said that I should keep a record of breaks. This changing of her rules happened continuously with every aspect of the project.
For the record: two of the other elite interpreters were excellent, in addition to the junior, who I should have stuck with from the start. This so called "junior interpreter" was not part of Hanako's private cabal of friends, though they knew of each other professionally, she was an outside person I brought on board and who Hanako accepted only reluctantly. She was one of the best interpreters I had, skilled and with plenty of stamina.
Hanako herself is emotionally unstable, extremely manipulative, and prone to changing the rules of any agreement. Almost daily I would receive complaining phone calls, saying I'm working the interpreters too hard, or the project is becoming too much. She moaned incessantly, berating my work style and the workload I was requesting of interpreters. Fearing the project's failure, I offered her more money to deal with logistics, including all email correspondence, culminating in her requesting a monthly admin fee of 80,000 yen, on top of individual booking and email fees.
On one occasion she suggested that the standard method for interpretation is to book two interpreters simultaneously for 8 hours, and have them work 30 minutes on and then 30 minutes off (meaning a doubled fee of 160,000 yen instead of 80,000 yen). So with a lunch break, that's basically a 3.5 hour day. I stated this was out of the question and she had to stick to the original printed agreement of one interpreter per 8 hour day. Later on she denied ever suggesting this. Hanako also expressed surprise every time I mentioned a single interview would last 3 or more hours. Given the low stamina level of the sickly interpreter I eventually felt forced to book a second person for her particular day - but it would be two interpreters at a half day each. This equalled 112,000 yen (56,000 x 2) as opposed to a single full day booking of 80,000. I soon regretted this decision.
Working with Hanako was the biggest mistake of this project - there are only so many times one can hear her condescending tone lamenting: "But Johhhhhn, this is NOT how they did it at the New York Times!" Or any other number of comparisons.
Hanako kept adding more logistics fees. When I started to become unsettled she had her sister Agness meet me and then lecture me on how I shouldn't "burn my bridges" by complaining to Hanako, and that I should just carry on. Agness warned me about getting blacklisted among the interpreter community if I expressed my displeasure with their ability or her sister's way of operating. Then she gave some warped analogy about how as a backer she was losing faith in the project because I refused to go along with her sister's demands: "if a CEO seems unhappy, then share value goes down", she said. As the CEO of this project, she said I needed to put on a happy front.
The big revelation for me came when working with another completely outside interpreter, a language professor with 25 years experience. They said these interviews were the easiest thing they'd done. Usually for corporate interpretation one is given a 20 page script to memorise, whereas I was just having conversations. I spoke with other people too, and they said if my coordinator is complaining, with those fees and those alleged credentials, then there's something seriously wrong.
The final straw with Hanako came when I received another phone call whining about the 50% refund. My understanding on the phone was Hanako did not want to honour it anymore - I said let's discuss it in person. An online Excel tab sheet first showed it, then had it removed, then reinstated it. Hanako said this "proved nothing" other than she'd made a mistake.
I was tired of suffering her complaints, her condescending attitude, and also her constantly wanting to change the rules of our agreement. So I sent a polite email, telling her to stop this whining and silly nonsense, and to stick to our original agreement which she set out in writing. Or to give me a week's notice. I said I was very displeased with her.
She immediately gave notice, stating that she would consult a lawyer to draw up a Non-Disclosure Agreement that I had to sign. We would meet the next day to discuss things.
I refused to sign any NDA, despite her repeated attempts to persuade me through positive and negative means. First she threatened that the interpreters booked for the remaining week would not do the work unless I signed the NDA. Minutes later she offered to do logistical work for free in exchange for my signing the NDA - "pro bono" as she put it.
The main clause in the NDA was that I could not disclose any information related to our business dealings, the health of interpreters, or the quality of interpretation. I recorded the meeting we had, and to quote her: "I need some guarantee that you're not going to slander me on the net, and use the kind of language you did in your email."
"What language?" I asked. "I read that email three times before sending it. I stand by everything in it."
Her gripe was the term "prima donna" I used. And to quote the immortal Ray Kassar, she was most definitely a high strung prima donna.
Finally she stated that she would speak with the interpreters and - in what I perceived as a thinly veiled threat - she could not guarantee they would stick with the project once she left. I specified that I wanted to keep the bookings with "the junior", which I had paid for in advance and whom I had brought on board myself.
After this I received an email from said junior, stating that Hanako had spoken with her and she no longer felt comfortable attending appointments. Hanako had officially sabotaged my project.
Every booking fee I had paid in advance, for the remainder of my trip, was lost. The other cancellations did not concern me so much (especially not for the sickly one), but this particular junior interpreter I had booked for at least four interviews, and paid Hanako in advance (at least 5,000 yen x 4) for making the bookings, which were now not being honoured because of Hanako's actions. I specifically requested they be honoured, regardless of whether Hanako chose to leave or not.
I sent two emails requesting a refund for these junior booking fees, since I paid for them in advance, the bookings were made, I requested they be kept despite Hanako choosing to leave the project, and then they were not honoured - because Hanako had spoken with the interpreter.
I received no reply to these emails.
My complaint is not the money or the fees, which I willingly paid, but the failure to honour agreements. As for Hanako's choosing to leave the project, it's the best thing that happened to me. Working with her on a daily basis was excruciatingly painful, and she went out of her way to psychologically demolish me every time we spoke.
After she left I went back to several of the original interpretation offers I was given, and found them quite excellent - and without lamenting my inadequacies compared to the New York Times, NASA, the Guam Government, and various Fortune 500 companies.
I will be detailing every yen in the book. Backers who funded me need to know where the money went.
However, it gets worse, thanks to Hanako's disturbed sister, Agness Kaku.
Not long after Agness' lecture to me to keep quiet, around the time Hanako decided to leave, Agness started posting disparaging remarks online about the Kickstarter project, telling people: "It's imploding. There's nothing coming out of there but blame and self-pity. It's physically painful to be around that level of negativity."
Not as painful as enduring Hanako Abe's relentless whining, fabricated complaints about my project's implosion, or having to deal with two ethically and morally bankrupt sisters. Damn right I felt sorry for myself - I had allowed myself to be taken for a ride and then still had to suffer this kind of abuse online.
Then, in a blatantly obvious attempt to gather emotional insurance should I go public, Agness started spamming the general comments section on my Kickstarter page, describing Hanako's donating half her fees to charities for orphans, and asking you to click links and support her. Agness makes a point of describing her as a mom and a professional for the last 20 years. That's wonderful. But being nice to some people does not absolve you of manipulative, condescending and poor behaviour to others. Nor does it absolve the fact that you reneged on our agreement, and that bookings I paid for were not honoured.
In addition, Agness stated: "The best thing you can do with certain kinds of money is to let it go..." which I took as a personal insult. Did she feel the money pledged by you, the backers, was somehow tainted?
I flagged Agness' comment as spam. It was deleted and she soon reposted it without the links. After her second spam posting I raised a complaint with Kickstarter, and their official advice if someone was harassing me was to give them a refund. Agness is no longer a backer, and contrary to what she may say, she is absolutely in no way a "friend to the project". Although she offered to receive a package of supplies I posted to Japan in advance, she very quickly revealed her true colours.
In addition, showing the Kaku sisters for what they are, Agness started contacting people on my Facebook friends list (which I have since made private). On more than one occasion, after Hanako left, I would go into an interview and be asked: "Why is the sister of your former coordinator contacting me on Facebook?" After explaining the entire saga they would express understanding - "It all makes sense now!" I don't know how many she contacted, maybe everyone, but if you're on my list and she sent a friend request or bizarre message, just ignore it. Her FB profile contains the same idiotic emotional spam message that she was plastering on my comments page.
Finally...
I would not recommend Hanako Abe / 安倍華子 (née Hanako Kaku) for involvement in any project. She needs a serious attitude adjustment, and she needs to adhere to agreements - especially when payment is made in advance. Her behaviour when her demands are not met is unprofessional. After refusing to acquiesce to said demands she proceeded to burn every bridge related to my project that she could, claiming that the world of interpreters is so small I would never find replacements. Well I found many, both freelance and through highly respected agencies.
I can only apologise to all my backers for allowing myself to be manipulated like this. I lost a portion of my budget to services which were not delivered, but I also emptied my savings and put £3000 of my own money into this project.
This project has been incredibly exhausting; the workload and the unsavoury dealings with my coordinator and her sister. For everyone who backed though, rest assured I have secured all the material I need. The project did not implode, despite the machinations of nefarious agents, and through sheer stoic endurance I succeeded.
The first thing I intend to do is speak with each of my Guest Editors, to discus their chapters, and also send the video footage to my editor. Depending on how long manufacturing takes, DVD backers might even receive the DVD a little before the book itself.
Now that I've made events public knowledge, I fully anticipate a retaliatory strike and will be keeping all correspondence in case it needs to be made public. The fact that Agness made a point of reposting her spam about her sister and the orphans after Kickstarter deleted the first message, shows me how relentless and sociopathic she is when angered. The Kaku sisters will try to hurt me after this, and I hope that my 1500 backers will be there to witness events and back me up.
Brace for the storm."
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