Linking Translators and Scholars: The impact of the J-E translation field on foreign Japan Studies
The burgeoning U.S. interest in Japanese culture is making more funding available for Japan Studies programs. However, money is a secondary need. Primary is English-language source material on Japan. Might the budding translation capabilities at Japanese universities be enhanced and linked to meet this need?
Linking Translators and Scholars: The impact of the Japanese-to-English translation field on foreign Japan Studies programs
Recent years have seen foreign interest in Japanese culture flourishing in a manner unprecedented in post-war history; an occurrence manifested in pop-culture trends such as the Japanese animation craze gripping the younger generations in America and Europe as well as Hollywood’s sudden and considerable attention through mainstream productions of Kill Bill, The Last Samurai, and the upcoming Memoirs of a Geisha. These trends, in turn, have spurred a similar surge in academic interest, consequently giving rise to a notable increase in funding and university resource allocation to non-Japan based Japan Studies programs (hereinafter referred to as foreign Japan Studies programs) around the world, most particularly those within the U.S. university system. But despite this surge of interest and resources, the state of the Japanese literary and academic translation industry has remained unaddressed, lagging far behind the development of Japan Studies itself. Furthermore, the reality of the dependent relationship between foreign Japan Studies programs, as well as Japan’s international relations, and the Japanese translation industry is being largely ignored. What must be realized is that, in the interest of developing foreign programs and furthering Japanese foreign relations, more emphasis must be placed on the development of Japanese text translation via the development of the capabilities present within Japanese universities hand in hand with an overall paradigm shift to include Japanese universities as a primary element within the foreign Japan Studies programs’ structure. Without such action, foreign Japan Studies programs’ development and effectiveness will be severely limited, if not crippled. In order to adequately examine this issue, the current nature and structure of foreign Japan Studies programs must be understood.
Japan Studies programs as a whole can be said to be a mid-level (middle-tier) program; its growth heavily dependent upon a lower-level base of resources and instructional availability yet itself directly effecting an upper tier pertaining to the portrayal and perception of Japanese culture and people within the programs’ home countries. This upper-level effect on the perception of Japanese culture by the home country’s public cannot be said to result primarily from the opinions and education of Japan Studies B.A., M.A. or PhD students, since they constitute a very small percentage of any university population. Rather it should be associated with the wider university population that participates in the Japan Studies program on a non-emphasis level encompassing only a few classes. This wider population cannot be expected to have a command of the Japanese language on either the spoken or the written level, and thus the dissemination of Japanese cultural information within this population, and through them to the broader public realm, is limited entirely to texts available in their native language (or at times in a broader international language such as English). As such, it can be logically concluded that any limits on the availability of translated texts for these foreign Japan Studies programs will have a direct effect on the overall perception of the culture, with the quite obvious likelihood of effecting public perceptions and political elements. It was the awareness of this likelihood that spurred such acts as the Japanese Government’s grant of $10 million and the recent funding and resource allocation increases mentioned earlier. But as much as this shows the importance attached to this structure, it also reveals the flawed perception of the nature of Japan Studies programs as they exist today.
Recent statistics on the state of the Japanese translation field paint a rather gloomy picture. In 2002 the ratio of foreign books translated into Japanese to Japanese books translated into a foreign language stood at 20:1. Though some point to this as an improvement over the 1982 ratio of 36:1, this optimism is greatly dampened by the 2003 report by the Ministry of Finance that Japan’s exports of books (almost entirely of translated materials) were down 4.8% from the previous year. This deficit in translated material is pervasive, with even the most established and world-renowned of Japanese authors being effected. A case in point is that of Mishima Yukio, only 20% of whose works are available in translation despite his continuing popularity abroad. A more current example is Murakami Haruki, whose novels remain untranslated for long periods of time despite strong demand abroad, many of them remaining unscheduled for translation even today and most likely never to be translated. For the most part, translation remains largely unsought for the vast bulk of Japanese literature, and the average translation rate is only 5-20% even for those few authors whose works are translated. The cart before the horse, the Japan Studies program instructor finds the secondary need of money emphasized even as the primary need of translated resources is neglected. As governments, donors, and resource allocators, especially those within Japan, view the Japan Studies programs as institutions originating and remaining completely within the sphere of a foreign country and foreign academic system, they see funding as the best way to develop those programs. Thus foreign Japan Studies programs find their budgets growing while the avenues in which to invest those funds remain limited and underdeveloped.
What is ignored in the status quo is the reality that, due to the complexity of the Japanese written language and the burdens inherent within its complex structure, foreign Japan Studies programs are generally unable to carry this burden on their own. They are thus stymied, lacking both the translated materials crucial to their development and growth and the infrastructure required to produce the necessary resources. Because the key shortage is of available materials, no increase in funding alone can possibly remedy the situation. They cannot purchase what does not exist, and the only solution lies in the involvement of an outside variable, an outside institution. What is required is a shift in the current paradigm that defines the causality limits of foreign Japan Studies program institutions. If the obstacles are to be overcome, the limits of this causality must be redefined so as to include the crucial role of Japanese universities and a new paradigm created which seeks to effect a liaison between the two institutions, allowing the foreign Japan Studies programs to utilize Japanese universities as a source of translated materials and support. In response to this, Japanese universities need to develop their programs and potential in consideration of the translation field and foreign programs. More importantly, funds must be diverted to those Japanese university programs that can play a key role in developing the translation field, thereby facilitating the development of foreign Japan Studies programs. Such a shift could come at no better time, as the current Japanese university system, now more than any other time in recent history, possesses the capability needed to accomplish such a change.
The primary aspect of the Japanese university system supporting this change is the recent ongoing shift from the traditional Japanese structure that ties students almost entirely to a single area of study to a more liberal structure that allows students to pursue multidisciplinary courses of study, including interdepartmental work. With this restructuring, students within the universities are given the opportunity to pursue the multifaceted areas of study required for translation. For example, a student wishing to become a professional Japanese-to-English translator must master elements of English and Japanese translation as well as obtain an understanding of both Japanese and English literature. Within the structure presently developing, such a student would be able to study in these departments concurrently, building ties and acquiring information that would enable him/her to accurately translate and disseminate Japanese texts in the future. If developed effectively, this new structure could be melded into the infrastructure needed to mobilize translation efforts on all academic levels, especially the undergraduate level. This incorporation of the undergraduate population is of the utmost importance. Promoting the establishment of institutions such as literary translation journals, as well as encouraging and funding undergraduate research and a variety of similar undergraduate activities, would greatly enhance the ability of emerging MA- and PhD-level translators even as it nurtures the ability of the undergraduate population at large.
The final source of the potential growth lies in the growing numbers of Japanese university students who have lived and studied overseas. Thanks to the increasing number of Japanese families living abroad, Japanese universities have experienced a sizable increase in overseas-experienced returnee students over the last few years. Unlike the general student population, returnee students often possess the ability to interrelate Japanese and a second language (most often English) fluently. This ability becomes invaluable in attempting to convey key meanings and symbolisms from one language to another, and mobilizing them into an overall system within Japanese universities and the translation programs therein would further the quantity as well as the quality of the translation output. As has been shown within the Japanese translation field within the U.S. (mostly in the area of manga translation), the utilization of returnees paired with rewriters can yield faster and more accurate translations than otherwise. Developing this student population in tandem with Japanese university programs would provide the resource base foreign Japan Studies programs require, overcome the present obstacles, and allow for development abroad.
The difficulties enunciated above notwithstanding, the present attempts at developing foreign Japan Studies programs should not be viewed too negatively. Rather, they should be treated simply as well-meant but misguided attempts. But as furthering understanding and interaction between Japan and the world is the true aim, it is crucial that changes take place that will bring that goal into range. Academic, government, and social institutions in Japan and abroad must re-adjust their perspectives on the relationships inherent to foreign Japan Studies programs and shift to a more realistic paradigm that encompasses all relevant aspects. Failure to do so would guarantee that money invested in foreign Japan Studies programs, and hence Japanese international relations in general, would remain simply money and would never be converted into development and progress in understanding and education.
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