As a person who is bilingual since birth - well, that's what bilingual means, innit? Sorry - and who speaks and reads four languages now - no Japanese, but it's the principle of the translation thing - I can tell you that on one hand there is no such beast as a perfect translation because you can't translate cultural referents and when you try you end up utterly screwing up the original subtext which, BTW, is way more important than text in understanding written prose or poetry.
On the other hand, once you realise there is a very concrete limit to what translation can do, a good translation will give readers the original subtext and mood, even if it doesn't seem to be too adherent to the apparent text.
Given that nothing can replace being able to understand the original text and subtext and cultural references - but one has to have lived in that particular palce for years, hasn't one, to get it all - I still say that it's possible to read a good translation of everything. Maybe your problems are more related to how you operated when you first started translating and subtitling - which is a rather difficult art all in itself - than to what people who are not you are doing now.
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On the other hand, once you realise there is a very concrete limit to what translation can do, a good translation will give readers the original subtext and mood, even if it doesn't seem to be too adherent to the apparent text.
Given that nothing can replace being able to understand the original text and subtext and cultural references - but one has to have lived in that particular palce for years, hasn't one, to get it all - I still say that it's possible to read a good translation of everything. Maybe your problems are more related to how you operated when you first started translating and subtitling - which is a rather difficult art all in itself - than to what people who are not you are doing now.