This hasn't been my experience with English/Japanese translation with Google Translate. For context I used Google Translate for pair programming with Japanese clients 40 hours per week for about 6 months, until I ponied up for a DeepL subscription.
As long as you're expressive enough in English, and reverse the translation direction every now and again to double check the output then it works fine.
As long as you're expressive enough in English, and reverse the translation direction every now and again to double check the output then it works fine.