Translators' Voices

In March 2024, two roundtable panels were held on the topic of literary translation and Japanese literature at the Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference in Seattle, Washington. The theme of Japanese literature in translation is a timely one, as titles published over the past decade have achieved remarkable recognition worldwide—from Murata Sayaka’s Convenience Store Women (Konbini ningen, 2016; tr.2018 Ginny Tapley Takemori) and Kawakami Mieko’s Breasts and Eggs (Natsu monogatari, 2019; tr.2020 Sam Bett and David Boyd) to Yuzuki Asako’s Butter (Batā, 2017; tr.2024 Polly Barton) and Kawakami Hiromi’s Under the Eye of the Big Bird (Ōkina tori ni sarawarenai yō, 2016; tr. 2025 Asa Yoneda). If you visit almost any bookshop in London or New York or a university town, you will find shelves lined with Japanese literature in translation, reflecting its growing presence and influence on the global literary stage. Within this phenomenon, translators have played an indispensable role in the selection, creation, promotion, circulation, and reception of Japanese literature overseas, and the following roundtables engage directly with these questions from the translators’ point of view. Here, we showcase these conversations, featuring participants actively involved in literary translation in order to bring attention to translation as a visible and multiple, embodied practice.