Tricky translation issue: Japanese often obscures gender even when you are 99% sure the character speaking is assuming a gender, so if you translate it straight, in English the character will sound woke and progressive on gender, which is not really implied in the Japanese BUT
me inserting gender could be construed as perpetuating harmful Western mindset or something? Even though we know there is hella sexism in Japan. Just because someone uses a non-gendered term does not mean they don’t have a gender in mind or even know the person’s gender.
I think there's always space to argue via context for what you think a text is implying and reflecting that in your translation. You basically have to with Japanese. I think suddenly making the language conspicuously gender-neutral when the original isn't implying that would be the imposition
Oh yes! I once asked Erika about a character I wanted translate (in a yet-unpublished work) as a "they", as there was a line about them - and this is a talking cat we're talking about here - being difficult to place, gender-wise, and she was delighted by the idea. But I did feel I needed permission
