Apparatus and method for translating Japanese into Chinese, and computer program product therefor

A method of Japanese-to-Chinese machine translation, comprising:

• searching a Japanese-to-Chinese translation dictionary stored in a memory, in which a Japanese word and at least one Chinese word which is a translation of the Japanese word are registered in association with each other, for a Chinese word associated with an input Japanese word;
• searching a Japanese thesaurus stored in a memory, in which a Japanese word and a synonym of the Japanese word are registered in association with each other, the synonym being a Japanese word representing a same meaning in a different expression, for a synonym associated with the input Japanese word, when plural Chinese words are hit to be associated with the input Japanese word as a result of search;
• calculating a degree of similarity, which indicates a degree of association between the synonym and the plural Chinese words associated with the input Japanese word, for each of the plural Chinese words;
• and
• selecting a Chinese word with a highest degree of similarity as a translation of the input Japanese word.

A computer program product having a computer readable medium including programmed instructions for executing Japanese-to-Chinese machine translation which is executable on a computer, wherein the instructions, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform:

• searching a Japanese-to-Chinese translation dictionary stored in a memory, in which a Japanese word and at least one Chinese word which is a translation of the Japanese word are registered in association with each other, for a Chinese word associated with an input Japanese word;
• searching a Japanese thesaurus stored in a memory, in which a Japanese word and a synonym of the Japanese word are registered in association with each other, the synonym being a Japanese word representing a same meaning in a different expression, for a synonym associated with the input Japanese word, when plural Chinese words are found to be associated with the input Japanese word as a result of search;
• calculating a degree of similarity, which indicates a degree of association between the synonym and the plural Chinese words associated with the input Japanese word, for each of the plural Chinese words;
• and
• selecting a Chinese word with a highest degree of similarity as a translation of the input Japanese word.