Translation: Botchan

Published: February 2009
PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama
Writer: Natsume Soseki
Cover: Martin Dima
Indonesian Title: Botchan
Book; 224 pages; English/Japanese-Bahasa Indonesia

Speaker: Translation in Asia "Theories, Practices, Histories"

5 - 6 March 2009

Organized by Asia Research Institute and the Department of Malay Studies, National University of Singapore at the ARI Seminar Room, Tower Block, Level 10, Bukit Timah Road

Title of Paper

Japan Image-Shifting through Translation in Southeast Asia: The Toyota Foundation “Know Your Neighbor Translation-Publication” Program

Institutional Affiliation

Institute for the Study of Global Issues
Graduate School of Social Sciences
Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo

Abstract

In this global information age the concept of power has broadened to encompass soft as well as hard power. Soft power is expressed through sharing rather than hoarding information (Nye 2004). Clearly, language plays a key role in the sharing of information between countries with different languages.

Japan has long used translation to pursue its goals, for example westernization and modernization during the Meiji era (1868-1912). Today, people throughout Asia, and much of the rest of the world, celebrate Japanese cultural products as expressions of a popular culture with an identity distinct from those of the United States or other Western countries. But since World War II, Japan has also faced hatred from countries that were victims of the war. One part of the effort to change Japan’s image in the eyes of countries formerly occupied by Japan has been the use of philanthropy by private Japanese organizations.

This paper will focus on one such case of private philanthropy in the cause of Japanese soft power, the efforts by the Toyota Foundation to support translation. This paper first establishes the historical background to Japanese efforts at image-shifting in Southeast Asia. The paper then discusses the history of translation in Japan and how Japan uses translation as a tool of foreign policy. The paper then describes the Toyota Foundation and its “Know Your Neighbor Translation-Publication” Program together with the experience of one participating publisher Mekong, before drawing some conclusions.

Biography

Graduated from Faculty of Social and Political Science, University of Indonesia in 2002, majoring in Mass Communication. Worked as a Fiction Book Editor for General Publisher Gramedia Pustaka Utama, Jakarta-Indonesia (2002-2007). An English and Japanese translator since 1999. Currently a first year master degree student in Institute for the Study of Global Issues, Graduate School of Social Sciences, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo.