JLPP 現代日本文学の翻訳・普及事業 Japanese Literature Publishing Project

≪ BUNGAKUDAYS2025 SPRING

Biographies of panelists

Matayoshi Naoki: Comedian, Novelist. Born in Neyagawa City, Osaka Prefecture, in 1980. Affiliated with Yoshimoto Kogyo.
In 2003, Matayoshi Naoki formed the comedy duo "Peace." In 2015, his literary debut novel, “Hibana” (Spark, tr. by Alison Watts; Pushkin Press, 2020), won the 153rd Akutagawa Prize and became a bestseller with over 3 million copies sold. In 2017, released his first romance novel, “Gekijo,” and in 2022, published a revised paperback edition of his first serialized newspaper novel, “Ningen,” with over 10,000 additional words. In 2023, released his first essay collection in 10 years, “Tsuki to Sanbun.” His other works include “Tokyo Hyakkei” and “Daini Toshogakarihosa.” He also co-authored “Sobayu ga Konai,” a collection of free-verse haiku, and “Sono Hon wa.”
His YouTube channel "Uzu," which offers a glimpse into Matayoshiʼs mind, and his official community website, "Tsuki to Sanbun," are also gaining attention.

Chad Mullane: Comedian, Audiovisual Subtitle Translator. Born in Perth, Australia, in 1979. During a homestay trip to Japan, Chad Mullane unexpectedly fell in love with Japanese comedy and became an apprentice to Bonchi Osamu. Currently active as part of the comedy duo “Chad Mullane” with Kato Takahiro. In addition, he strives to promote Japanese comedy culture worldwide, working on subtitle translations for films, including those directed by Matsumoto Hitoshi, and supporting overseas performances by Japanese comedians.

Photo by Rana Shimada
©Kodansha

Idogawa Iko: Poet, Novelist. Born in 1987, Idogawa Iko graduated from Kwansei Gakuin University. In 2018, she self-published her first poetry collection, “Suru, Sareru Yūtopia,” which received the 24th Nakahara Chuya Prize in 2019. In 2021, her short story collection, “Koko wa Totemo Hayai Kawa,” won the 43rd Noma Literary New Face Prize, and in 2022, “Kono Yo no Yorokobi yo” was awarded the 168th Akutagawa Prize. Her other works include the poetry collection, “Enkei” and the novels, “Tomo ni Akarui” and “Mukei”.

©Garry Loughlin

Polly Barton: Polly Barton is a Japanese-English translator based in the UK. She was the grand prize winner of the first JLPP International Translation Competition in 2012. Her full-length translations include So We Look to the Sky by Misumi Kubo, Spring Garden by Tomoka Shibasaki, and There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura. Her translation of Where the Wild Ladies Are by Aoko Matsuda won the 2021 World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story Collection, and her translation of Mild Vertigo by Mieko Kanai was awarded a 2023-2024 Lindsley and Masao Miyoshi Translation Prize. Fifty Sounds, her nonfiction book about learning Japanese, was released by Fitzcarraldo Editions in 2021.

Yoshio Hitomi: Yoshio Hitomi is Professor of Global Japanese Studies at Waseda University, where her work focuses on the intersection of modern and contemporary Japanese literature, gender studies, and translation studies. She received her Ph.D. in Japanese literature from Columbia University, previously taught at Florida International University (2012-2016), and was a visiting scholar at Harvard University (2022-2024). She has published in both Japanese and English on topics including modern Japanese women writers, reproductive justice in Japan, and post-3.11 literature. She is currently co-editing the volume, Making Translation Visible: Gender, Hybridity, and Border-Crossing in Modern and Contemporary Japanese Literature. She is the translator of Natsuko Imamura’s This Is Amiko, Do You Copy? (Pushkin Press, 2023) and co-translator of Mieko Kawakami’s Sister in Yellow (Knopf, forthcoming).

Eduard Klopfenstein: Eduard Klopfenstein studied Japanese language and literature at Kyoto University from 1964 to 1966 as the first Monbushō (Japanese Ministry of Education) scholarship student. In 1968, he earned his Ph.D. in German Literature from the University of Bern, and in 1969, became a research assistant at the Department of Japanese Studies at the University of Zurich. In 1979, he received his professorship (PD Dr.) in Japanese Studies at the same university. Between 1989 and 2005, he was a professor at the University of Zurich and is now Professor Emeritus of Japanese Literature there. Throughout his career, he has translated numerous works of Japanese literature into German and organized various lectures and readings by inviting Japanese authors to Switzerland. He has also served as a judge for translation awards such as the Noma Award for the Translation of Japanese Literature, the Nippon Foundation Translation Award, and the Shizuoka World Translation Competition. In recognition of his contributions, he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, by the Japanese government in 2010. In 2019, he received the "Paul Scheerbart" German Translation Prize. As part of the JLPP (Japanese Literature Publishing Project), he translated Shuntaro Tanikawa’s minimal, introducing modern Japanese poetry to German-speaking audiences. As an editorial director for Japanese literary works in the German-speaking world, he has been actively engaged in promoting Japanese literature throughout Europe. In 2023, he published a complete German translation of Yosano Akiko's "Midaregami" from Manesse Verlag

Alexa Frank: A graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop and the Fulbright Program, Alexa Frank is an Associate Editor at HarperVia, an imprint of HarperCollins with a focus on literature in translation. Some of the Japanese titles she has edited include Tomihiko Morimi’s The Tatami Galaxy (shortlisted for the 2023 PEN Translation Prize), Rin Usami’s Idol, Burning, and Shion Miura’s Run with the Wind. Alexa also occasionally works as a freelance manga translator, and her work has received recognition from the Eisner and Ignatz Awards.

［HarperVia］https://www.harpercollins.com/pages/harpervia
HarperVia is dedicated to publishing extraordinary international voices, offering readers the chance to encounter other lives and other points of view via the language of the imagination. Focusing primarily on publishing fiction in translation with an eye for books that celebrate the universal desire for discovery, understanding and connection through exceptional storytelling.

Janine Beichman: Scholar, translator, poet. PhD, Columbia University. Professor Emerita, Daito Bunka University. Author of the Nō play Drifting Fires. Books include Masaoka Shiki: His Life and Works, Embracing the Firebird: Yosano Akiko and the Birth of the Female Voice in Modern Japanese Poetry, and Poems for All Seasons, her translation of Ōoka Makoto's anthology of 1000 years of Japanese poetry. Her translation of Ōoka Makoto's own poems, Beneath the Sleepless Tossing of the Planets: Selected Poems, received the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature. Her most recent books are Well-Versed:Exploring Modern Japanese Haiku, a translation of “Meiku no yuen” by the haiku poet Minoru Ozawa(2021) and This Overflowing Light: Rin Ishigaki Selected Poems (2022). Her work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, and America PEN.

Peter MacMillan: Born in Ireland. After graduating from the National University of Ireland, Peter MacMillan went on to earn a Ph.D. in English literature in the U.S. He is currently a part-time lecturer at the University of Tokyo, a visiting professor at Sagami Women's University, and Musashino University. He was appointed the first cultural lecturer in JICA Chair in 2022. His English translation of Hyakunin Isshu was published in 2008 and won the Donald Keene Center Special Award for the Translation of Japanese Literature from the Donald Keene Center for Japanese Studies and the 44th Special Cultural Translation Prize from the Japan Society of Translators. Penguin Books published his English translation of Ise Monogatari in 2016 and Hyakunin Isshu ( New Translation) in 2018. His many books in Japan include Reading the Japanese Classics in English, Savoring the Manyoshu in English, and Traveling with Matsuo Basho. He also appears on NHK WORLD-JAPAN's Magical Japanese and on KBS Kyoto's Sarapin! Kyoto on KBS Kyoto. He was the teacher for the famous NHK program 100 Pun de meicho in 2024 and in the same year was awarded the Foreign Minister’s Commendations and the Order of the Rising Sun in the autumn honors.

Meredith McKinney: Meredith McKinney earned her PhD in classical Japanese literature from the Australian National University. After living in Japan for around twenty years, she returned to Australia where she now lives near a small country town in New South Wales. She has published over twenty translations. These include classics such as The Pillow Book, Hōjōki and Essays in Idleness; Kokoro and Kusamakura by Natsume Sōseki; and works by modern writers Furui Yoshikichi, Shimada Masahiko and Tanabe Seiko. She won the Japan-US Friendship Commission Prize for Furui Yoshikichi's Ravine and Other Stories. A Tale Unasked, her translation of Towazugatari, will be published by Penguin Classics in 2025. Meredith is currently an Honorary Associate Professor at the Australian National University.

Moriyama Megumi: Born in Tokyo, Moriyama Megumi is a poet, English haiku poet, critic, and translator. She is the author of four full-length books of poetry, including Tangible Dreams (Yume no tezawari, 2005) and Green Zone (Midori no ryobun), which were composed for choir pieces, performed and published. Moriyama had been selected as a New Poet by Gendaishi-techo, and her poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. She has co-translated the full text of Arthur Waley's The Tale of Genji for which she won the 2020 Donald Keene Special Award, and has appeared as a guest lecturer in NHK TV series “100分de名著: Waley’s Tale of Genji”. Her recent works include the critical essay Lady Murasaki’s Tea Party: The Tale of Genji in Spiral Translation and the translation of Virginia Woolf's The Waves.

Arai Hiroshi: Born in 1968. Graduated from Waseda University and joined Bungeishunju Ltd. as a literary editor, working with numerous authors. Later transferred to the copyright management department, Arai Hiroshi began handling the export of publishing rights overseas. He has been involved in the English publication of many works, including Sayaka Murata's Convenience Store Woman and Hideo Yokoyama's Six Four. Last year, The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki was selected as one of Publishers Weekly's "Best Books of 2024" in the SF/Fantasy/Horror category. Currently, he serves as the Senior Manager of the Rights Department at Bungeishunju Ltd. and as a copyright committee member for both the Japan Book Publishers Association and the Japan Magazine Publishers Association.

Saegusa Ryosuke: Editor, Film producer, Co-Founder of CTB Inc. Saegusa Ryosuke began his career in 2001 at Kodansha, where he spent four years as a manga editor at the editorial department of Weekly Shonen Magazine, followed by seven years as an editor of literature and criticism at the first publishing division of literary books and Gunzou magazine. In 2012, he cofounded Cork Inc., becoming its Vice President and CEO, and left there to co-found the literary agency, CTB Inc. in 2017. In 2022, he served as the executive producer of Bullet Train, starring Brad Pitt. He is currently an agent and editor for authors such as Abe Kazushige, Isaka Kotaro, Tanaka Shinya, Hasumi Shigehiko, and Fukami Reiichiro, and also produces Robert Akiyama's Creators File.

Photo by SHIRO KOMATSU

Imamura Shogo: Novelist. Born in Kyoto Prefecture in 1984, currently residing in Shiga Prefecture. Imamura Shogo made his literary debut after gaining diverse experiences as a dance instructor, composer, and cultural property researcher in Moriyama City. He won the 10th Kadokawa Haruki Novel Award for "Dōshin" (later retitled "Warabe no Kami," published by Kadokawa Haruki Corporation, 2018), which was also nominated for the 160th Naoki Prize in 2018. In 2020, he received both the 41st Yoshikawa Eiji Prize for New Writers and the 8th Nomura Kodo Literary Prize for "Happonme no Yari" (Shinchosha, 2019). His novel, "Jinkan" (Kodansha, 2020) was nominated for the 163rd Naoki Prize and won the 11th Yamada Futaro Award in 2020. In 2021, the "Ushu Borotobi Gumi" Series (Shodensha) won the 6th Yoshikawa Eiji Paperback Award. In 2022, he was awarded the 166th Naoki Prize for "Saiou no Tate" (Shueisha, 2021).
Imamura also serves as the Representative Director of Honmirai, a general incorporated association dedicated to promoting the value of words and reading to younger generations. He is also a Councilor of the Japan Writers' Association and a Committee Member of the Literary Culture Promotion Council.
Additionally, starting with the succession of Kinoshita Book Center located in Minoh City, Osaka Prefecture, Imamura opened a new bookstore, called Sagano Shoten, inside JR Kyushu Saga Station. In April 2024, he launched Honmaru, a collaborative bookstore in Kanda Jimbocho, Tokyo, becoming the owner of three bookstores.