> 1) Some Japanese programmers might be able to translate directly to
idiomatic
> English.

That's a possibility, but the likelihood of a Japanese person being able to
translate directly to "idiomatic" English is very slim, since it requires
basically native-level fluency.  I'm an accredited translator (Portguese
into English) with the American Translators Association, and am in contact
with a lot of Brazilians and Portuguese people, who speak a language that is
much more similar to English that Japanese, yet I still don't know a single
one of them who can translate into their second language (English) at
native-level ability.

>
> 2) American people are not the only native English speakers in the world
:-)

True!  There are the British, some areas of India, Australia and South
Africa, to name a few, but nobody that hasn't been raised in an English
speaking country can claim to be a "native" English speaker :)

Carl Youngblood