Translation guide
In Japanese, 'quality assurance' is commonly expressed using the loanword 品質保証 (hinshitsu hoshō) or the abbreviated QA. This guide covers how to talk about quality assurance in business and technical contexts.
quality assurance
Standard term in business and manufacturing.
Referring to the systematic process of ensuring products or services meet quality standards.
The standard term for quality assurance in business and manufacturing. Often used in formal contexts.
Our company focuses on quality assurance.
Abbreviation commonly used in IT and software development. Pronounced as the English letters.
The QA team checks for bugs.
Often translated as 'quality control', but can overlap with quality assurance in some contexts. More focused on inspection and testing.
We need to review the quality control process.
Referring to the department or job function responsible for quality assurance.
The quality assurance department in a company.
He belongs to the quality assurance department.
Job title for a QA engineer, common in tech companies.
I was hired as a QA engineer.
品質保証 (quality assurance) focuses on preventing defects through process design, while 品質管理 (quality control) focuses on identifying defects in finished products. In practice, the terms are sometimes used interchangeably in Japanese, but 品質保証 is closer to the English 'quality assurance'.
Quality assurance emphasizes process, while quality control emphasizes inspection.