School Study Guides

21

Japanese Book News

Number 17

1996 Publishing at a Glance

There was no shortage of major best-

sellers last year, with as many as six

books selling a million copies by

early December. Haruyama Shigeo’s

Nônai kakumei [A Great Revolution

in the Brain World], published by

Sanmâku Shuppan in the autumn of

1995, recorded sales of 13.9 million

copies, and its sequel, Nônai kakumei

2, looks certain to break into the mil-

lion-seller rank soon. Another huge

hit was Graham Hancock’s Finger-

prints of the Gods, published in

Japanese in two volumes by

Shôeisha. Also quick to reach the

million mark was Saruganseki Nikki

(Part 1) [Diary of Saruganseki, Part

1] (Nihon Terebi Hôsômô [Nihon

Television Network Corporation]), a

travelogue by popular new comedy

duo Saruganseki that retraces their

adventures hitchhiking from Hong

Kong to London, as featured in

Nihon Television’s variety program

“Denpa Shônen.”

The opening of a number of giant

bookstores, in spite of the trend away

from reading, was another notable

feature of 1996. Between January and

October, there were 741 cases of

book retailers opening new stores or

shop space, representing a total of

231,600 square meters of added

sales-floor area. Although the number

of expansions was down from the

previous year, the increase in floor

space was up by 16,500 square me-

ters. Kinokuniya Bookstore opened a

huge new outlet at the south exit of

Shinjuku Station in October that

boasts display space of 4,620 square

meters. Declining rents and big-is-

better marketing strategies in the

book retailing industry, among other

factors, are apparently spurring the

shift to large-scale stores.

Sales of electronic books and the

spread of Internet shopping also

gained momentum as the multimedia

era grew a year older. Shôgakukan

teamed with Sony to publish a CD-

ROM version of an encyclopedia in

March, and Shinchôsha released a

CD-ROM set of one hundred titles in

collaboration with e-book publisher

Voyager. In another aspect of the

same trend, an increasing number of

publishers and bookstores are selling

their products through Internet home

pages. Shôgakukan, Iwanami Shoten

and Kinokuniya all have catalogs on

their own or on major mail-order

companies’ home pages, allowing

customers to browse from home and

order by phone or fax.

On a more somber note, 1996 will

also be remembered for the deaths of

a number of popular writers, in-

cluding Shiba Ryôtarô, Ôyabu

Haruhiko, Uno Chiyo, Endô Shûsaku

(see above), and Yamamura Misa.

Further information about the books in the New Titles section starting on page 8 may be obtained by

contacting the following publishers.

Publishers

Asahi Shimbunsha

Inquiries from overseas should be addressed

to:

Mr. Hirano, Book Export Dept. 2

Japan Publications Trading Co.

P. O. Box 5030, Tokyo International

Tokyo 100-31

Tel: [phone]     Fax: [phone]

Bungei Shunjû

3-23 Kioi-cho

Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102

Tel: [phone]     Fax: [phone]

Chikuma Shobô

Komuro Bldg.

2-5-3 Kuramae

Taito-ku, Tokyo 111

Tel: [phone]     Fax: [phone]

Dôbunkan Shuppan

1-41 Kanda-Jimbocho

Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101

Tel: [phone]     Fax: [phone]

Heibonsha

5-16-19 Himon’ya

Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152

Tel: [phone]     Fax: [phone]

Impakuto Shuppankai

Bunkyo Dai-ni Bldg.

2-30-14 Hongo

Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113

Tel: [phone]     Fax: [phone]

Iwanami Shoten

2-5-5 Hitotsubashi

Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-02

Tel: [phone]     Fax: [phone]

Kadokawa Shoten

2-13-3 Fujimi

Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102

Tel: [phone]     Fax: [phone]

Kôdansha

2-12-21 Otowa

Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 112-01

Tel: [phone]     Fax: [phone]

Kyôdô Tsûshinsha (K.K. Kyodo News)

1-9-20 Akasaka

Minato-ku, Tokyo 107

Tel: [phone]     Fax: [phone]

Kyôiku Shiryô Shuppankai

2-4-6 Nishikanda

Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101

Tel: [phone]     Fax: [phone]

Nihon Keizai Shimbunsha 

Inquiries from overseas should be addressed

to:

Nihon IPS Sokatsu-ka

3-11-6 Iidabashi

Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102

Tel: [phone]     Fax: [phone]

NTT Shuppan

Aruko Tower 11F

1-8-1 Shimo-Meguro

Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153

Tel: [phone]     Fax: [phone]

Ôzorasha

2-36-12 Akabane

Kita-ku, Tokyo 115

Tel: [phone]     Fax: [phone]

Shinchôsha

71 Yaraicho 

Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162

Tel: [phone]     Fax: [phone]

Shôdensha

Kudan Shogaku Bldg.

3-6-5 Kanda Jimbocho

Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101

Tel: [phone]     Fax: [phone]

Shôgakukan

2-3-1 Hitotsubashi

Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-01

Tel: [phone]     Fax: [phone]

Shûeisha

2-5-10 Hitotsubashi

Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-50

Tel: [phone]     Fax: [phone]

Sôshisha

4-26-26 Jingumae

Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150

Tel: [phone]     Fax: [phone]

Suzusawa Shoten

Fujita Bldg.

23-1 Wakamiyacho

Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162

Tel: [phone]     Fax: [phone]

TBS Britannica

Itochu Nenryo Bldg. 3F

1-24-12 Meguro

Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153

Tel: [phone]     Fax: [phone]

Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai

(University of Tokyo Press)

7-3-1 Hongo 

Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113

Tel: [phone]     Fax: [phone]

Yomiuri Shimbunsha

1-2-1 Kiyosumi

Koto-ku, Tokyo 135

Tel: [phone]     Fax: [phone]

---

In Their Own Words

Positive on Translation                                     

Tsushima Yûko

It was about fifteen years ago that I was approached

with a proposal to translate my novel, Chôji, for publi-

cation in English. I was very glad for the opportunity

and met with the translator. For New Zealand-born

Geraldine Harcourt, the project was her first attempt at

translation of a full-length novel. It was through that 

experience that I first learned exactly what the work of

translation involves.

It seemed to me that the translator took forever. She

would come or call saying she had “a few questions.”

And then, after I had blithely said sure, I’d be happy to

answer questions, I would find myself faced with a

string of queries about things that seemed completely

trivial, things which I had never given the slightest

thought, and that sometimes left me at a loss. We went

through several sessions like that throughout the trans-

lation process: Is this word singular or plural? (Japanese

nouns do not show number; one must judge from the

context) Is this character a man or a woman? (Since the

family name-plus-san usage is not gender specific,

sometimes it is unclear.) How should she translate “X-

san no okusan”? (The wife of Mr. X/Mrs. X, etc.) How

should she render the name of the protagonist’s

boyfriend, “Y-san”? Harcourt knew that in cases when

using Mrs. and Mr. seemed stiff, it was sometimes the

practice to simply make up first names for such charac-

ters, but somehow she resisted that solution. What did I

think she should do?

Indeed, the nuance and feeling of “Y-san” in Japan-

ese and “Mr. Y” in English are completely different.

The usage and connotations of “-san” in Japanese are

very broad. Some wives can call their own husbands by

their family name, adding “-san” in formal fashion

without sounding distant. And employees address their

superiors respectfully adding the suffix “-san.”

After we discussed these various dilemmas at great

length, Harcourt reminded me that foreign readers of

novels learn about the customs and landscape of a

country through translation. So why don’t we show the

English readers of your novel, she suggested, what

these special usages of “-san” involve in Japanese? She

believed that the day when Japanese novels had been

distorted to suit the understanding of readers in English-

speaking countries was over; her task, she said, was to

get the foreign reader to enter willingly into the

Japanese cultural context through the translation. These

days the Japanese form of address using “-san” has

come to be well known, but a couple of decades ago,

such a proposition seemed awfully bold to a person like

myself. 

I understand that there are actually quite a few

Japanese authors who remain skeptical about the trans-

lation of their works into other languages. For myself,

having been fortunate to have a talented and sensitive

translator, and having—thanks to her endeavors—been

blessed with translations that have been very well re-

ceived, I have always been basically favorably disposed

toward the translation of literature. I do not get involved

myself in the checking of the translations into English

or French word-for-word. Rather, I simply make it my

standard practice to meet directly with the translator.

That way, after some discussion of the work in ques-

tion, I can tell the extent to which he or she understands

the work and what caliber of translation I can expect.

Then, if the translator brings to me any questions or

problems that come up in the course of the translation

process, I can be assured that the product will be of a

quality I can trust.

There are many cases, of course, in which one cannot

meet a translator. The project is initiated by a publisher,

the translation is handled in a rather mechanical

fashion, and there is no contact between author and

translator before the book is published and put on book-

store shelves. When this happens, you never know what

may result. There have apparently been cases when ar-

bitrary changes were made in the work, parts omitted—

even the plot revised without any consulting with the

author. 

Still, I tend to think that despite these risks, some

kind of translation is better than none at all. I believe

this because there is something about a literary work

that is transmitted from one human being to another,

and it will be successful even if some of the words are

not quite right or the grammar slightly odd.

But of course, we want translations of literary works

to be done as carefully and skillfully as possible, and

translators need as much moral support and financial as-

sistance in their endeavors as possible. It is most unfor-

tunate that there is not adequate financial support for

translation, so that the vast majority, except perhaps in

the case of scholarly work, is done in a less-than-profes-

sional way.

Born in Tokyo in 1947, Tsushima published her first work at

the age of 22 and her first collection of short stories, entitled

Shanikusai [Carnival] at 24, drawing attention as an upcoming

young woman writer for the intellectual and descriptive

quality of her writing. Her works have won the literary

world’s top prizes. In 1991 she lectured on modern Japanese

literature for one year at the Institut National des Langues et

Civilisations Orientales de

Paris. In 1995 she super-

vised the publication of an

anthology of Ainu poetry

in French, 

Tombent, tom-

bent les gouttes d’argent:

Chants du peuple aïnou

(Éditions Gallimard,

1996). Among her best-

known works are “Mugura

no haha” [The Mother in

the Grass Hut], 

Chôji

[Child of Fortune], Hikari

no ryôbun [Domain of

Light], and 

Hi no kawa no

hotori de [On the Banks of

the Fiery River]. Tsushima

is the daughter of novelist

Dazai Osamu.

---

Document Outline

• Contents
• From the Editor
• Maruyama Masao and Democracy in Japan
• Writing and the Aging Society
• Japanese Books Abroad
  • Manga Publishing: Trends in Europe
• New Titles
  • MEDIA AND PUBLISHING
  • RELIGION AND THOUGHT
  • HISTORY
  • POLITICS AND ECONOMICS
  • MIND AND BODY
  • SOCIETY AND CULTURE
  • ARTS
  • LITERATURE
• Events and Trends
• Publishers
• In Their Own Words(Tsushima Yuko)