Real-Time English-to-Japanese Translation at MedTech ROUND Pitch Day in Tokyo

Real-Time English-to-Japanese Translation at MedTech ROUND Pitch Day in Tokyo

Nine medical-device startups pitched in English. A room full of Japanese doctors, engineers, and manufacturers followed along in Japanese, in real time, on their own phones and on the screen.

A pitch in English on the main screen; the live Japanese translation running on the second screen to the left.

The event

MedTech ROUND Pitch Day was held on Thursday, May 28, 2026, at Tokyo Midtown Yaesu, in a fifth-floor event space that looks out over Tokyo Station. It is the demo day of MedTech ROUND, an accelerator program for medical-device startups run by the University of Tokyo’s Tokyo Biodesign program and backed by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED).

The bar to get on that stage was high. Around 80 startups applied, 12 were selected for the program, and 9 pitched on the day. In the audience were about 15 medical-device companies: leading Japanese and global manufacturers there as the program’s corporate partners, alongside investors and the people who run the program. The room was full.

The program is backed by the University of Tokyo’s Tokyo Biodesign, METI, and AMED.

The challenge

The whole event ran in English. Every one of the nine startups pitched in English, the common language for the global manufacturers and international guests in the room. But most of the people the startups wanted to reach most directly, including Japanese device makers, clinicians, and investors, think and work in Japanese. If the English went past them, so did the pitch.

Medical-device pitches are also hard to translate well. They are dense with specialized language: anatomy, clinical procedures, device mechanisms, regulatory terms, and the names of conditions and technologies. These are exactly the words a general translation tool tends to get wrong. In this room, the specialized words were the whole point. A pitch only lands if the terms land.

The fifth-floor event space at Tokyo Midtown Yaesu, before the room filled up.

What VoicePing did

VoicePing provided the event’s live translation, running each English pitch into Japanese as it was spoken. Because every session was in English, the translation only needed to go one way: English into Japanese. That let the setup focus on making that one direction as accurate as possible.

Ahead of the day, VoicePing built a custom English-to-Japanese dictionary for the event. It was drawn from the organizer’s own list of approved term translations and from the pitch materials themselves. The system was tuned to recognize the specialized English medical and technical terms so they came through correctly in Japanese, rather than being guessed at. The aim was simple: when a founder said a device name or clinical term, the Japanese translation showed the right word.

People in the room could follow along in whichever way suited them. Many scanned a QR code and read the live Japanese translation on their own phones, with no app to install. The translation also ran on a dedicated second screen next to the main stage, so anyone could look up and follow it there. After the event, VoicePing handed the organizer the full record: the English and Japanese transcripts of the day, together with the audio.

Attendees scanned a QR code to follow the live translation on their own phones, with no app to install.

How it went

The day ran smoothly. Pitch after pitch, the English on the main stage appeared in Japanese moments later, on phones around the room and on the second screen. The audience could stay with each talk instead of waiting for a translation. Because the term dictionary was prepared in advance, the specialized language these pitches turned on was something the system was ready for, not a term it was meeting for the first time on stage.

The organizer had asked for a bilingual record of the day, and got it: matched English and Japanese transcripts plus the audio, delivered after the event.

The live translation on VoicePing’s screen, shown here during the pre-event soundcheck.

Why it matters

Japan’s medical-device industry is trying to work more closely with the rest of the world: bringing in ideas from abroad, and helping Japanese startups reach a global market. Days like this one, where founders pitch in English to a room of Japanese and international manufacturers, are exactly where that exchange happens. It only works if the language is not in the way.

That is what VoicePing is for: helping a room full of people follow each other in their own language, even when the words on stage are highly specialized and the stakes are high.

A full room, following the pitches with the live translation running at the front.

At a glance

Running an English-language event for a Japanese audience?

VoicePing brings real-time translation into conferences, seminars, and pitch days, including events full of specialized vocabulary where the exact terms are what matter.

• Built for your terms: a custom dictionary can be prepared from your own term list and materials, so the specialized language comes through correctly rather than being guessed at.
• Just scan the QR code: people follow on their own phones, in their own language, with no app to install.
• On the room screen too: live translation can also run on a shared screen, so the whole room can follow together.

Learn more about VoicePing for events.

This article describes VoicePing’s real-time translation support for MedTech ROUND Pitch Day. Event details are drawn from the public event listings and the on-site materials. Startups, corporate partners, and individuals are described generically by role.