Books by JAT members | Japan Association of Translators

The Stationmaster

by Jiro Asada, translated by Terry Gallagher Japanese original was a bestseller, selling over two million copies. Won Naoki award for popular fiction in 1997, and spawned several films: 1999 film starred yakuza film icon Ken Takakura, who won a best actor award at the 1999 Montreal Film Festival for his performance, title film was Japan's submission to the 72nd Academy Awards for Best Foreign...

Self-Reference Engine

by Toh EnJoe, translated by Terry Gallagher “Hard SF” book stands at the intersection of surrealism and quantum physics, exploring ideas about non-linear time, parallel universes (at war with one another!), the future of computing, and the concept of narrative itself. The author was awarded the Akutagawa Prize in 2012, and this translation won the Philip K. Dick Award Special Citation in 2014.

Jasmine

by Noboru Tsujihara, translated by Juliet Carpenter Intrigue, betrayal, family secrets, forbidden passions – this tale of adventure and suspense links the Tiananmen Massacre of 1989 and the Kobe earthquake of 1995 through the story of Akihiko Waki. The story begins in 1990, as Akihiko learns that his father, presumed dead in China, was leading a double life and is in fact alive and in danger....

Clouds Above the Hill: A Historical Novel of the Russo-Japanese War

by Shiba Ryotaro, translated by Juliet Carpenter (volumes 1, 2 & 3) Published by Routledge Clouds above the Hill is one of the best-selling novels ever in Japan, and is now translated into English for the first time. An epic portrait of Japan in crisis, it combines graphic military history and highly readable fiction to depict an aspiring nation modernizing at breakneck speed....

A Cappella

By Mariko Koike, translated by Juliet Carpenter Published by Thames River Press Kyoko Noma visits the city of Sendai, where she used to live, and reflects on the events that took place there 20 years earlier, in the second half of the sixties, when the winds of the counterculture student movement were sweeping Japan. This is a tale of intense, heartbreaking love in adolescence, and the...

A True Novel

By Minae Mizumura, translated by Juliet Carpenter Published by Other Press A True Novel begins in New York in the 1960s, where we meet Taro, a relentlessly ambitious Japanese immigrant trying to make his fortune. Flashbacks and multilayered stories reveal his life: an impoverished upbringing as an orphan, his eventual rise to wealth and success—despite racial and class prejudice—and an...

Salad Anniversary

By Machi Tawara, translated by Juliet Carpenter Published by Pushkin Collection This internationally bestselling book took the world by storm on its publication. Covering the discovery of new love, first heartache and the end of an affair, these poems mix the ancient grace and musicality of the tanka form with a modern insight and wit. With a light, fresh touch and a cool eye, Machi Tawara...

Monkey Kingdom

By Toshio Hagiwara, translated by Jeremy Angel Pub. Kodansha 2007 Monkeys are supposed to have a natural fear of water, but the Japanese macaques inhabiting the steep slopes of Jigokudani (literally “Hell’s Valley”) in northern Nagano are famous throughout the world for their predilection for soaking in the steaming hot springs that give the location its name. Born and raised near Jigokudani,...