This study is devoted to a critical review of the literary situation in Japan with respect to the way women are represented. Some studies propose that female characters are over-feminised in Japanese literature, whether original or translated. Indeed, this has been an established convention in the Japanese literary world since the late 19th century. Although scholars such as Nakamura (2007a) have investigated the link between gender ideology and women’s language, there have so far been few empirical analyses of these matters in translated texts. My study therefore provides a qualitative and quantitative analysis of some literary texts that were translated in the recent years and argues that the over-feminising convention has played a central part as a mediator of gender ideology in Japanese society.

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Translation is a complex event of performing intercultural communication and the concept of equivalence in translation is full of scandals. This paper explores the discourse of equivalence in relation to theories and applications of translation. Even if translational equivalence in terms of form or meaning between different languages is too naïve to be postulated, the illusion of equivalence remains one of the key words in distinguishing translation from non-translation. The author will first review a main stream of Translation Studies in the European and North American academia, focusing on how the concept of equivalence gave rise to the academic discipline of translation and later became criticized as a rigid linguistic model of analyzing symmetrical texts and making translators invisible. Following that review, Japanese discourse on translation by two antipodal theorists, NOGAMI Toyoichiro and YANABU Akira, will be highlighted to open up the current discussions about the imagined translational equivalence in a Japanese context.

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In “The Translator’s Invisibility”, L.Venuti draws our attention to the relationship between translators and translations through his finding that translators in English-speaking countries, especially in America and Britain, play an invisible role in the process of translation and the translation itself. In fact, apart from domestication and foreignization, translators have other different ways to manipulate the translation. The present paper will analyze two translated texts in Japanese from the perspective of the purpose of the translator, in order to reveal that in translating, selection criteria for the source text and for the notes in the translated text will be used to achieve the translator’s purpose. The two Japanese translations are the earliest collection of Chinese novels that were written after the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976).

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This paper selects Futabatei Shimei’s 『猶太人の浮世』, the first Japanese translation of Russian writer Maxim Gorky (ГÓРЬКИЙ Максим)’s short story Каин и Артем (Cain and Artyem) , and Wu Tao’s 『憂患余生』, a Chinese retranslation based on the Japanese version. It attempts to compare the different translation strategies they apply when choosing Kanji characters to express a foreign concept originally expressed in alphabetic words. It concludes that Futabatei Shimei chooses words purposefully to express his comprehensive understanding of the original work. On the other hand, Wu Tao, Futabatei’s Chinese translator only has a vague understanding towards this Jewish story conveyed by Japanese texts. So he mainly chose words that are either the same or close to the Kanji words in Japanese text, not considering much about the integrity or the aesthetic needs of the story as a whole.

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The inseparable relationship between relay translation and one country’s translation history has rekindled academic interest in relay translation since the last-half of the 1990s. This article focuses on the phenomenon of relay translation (or Indirect Translation) of Japanese literature in Vietnam. Japanese literary translation in Vietnam, which has been affected by political and cultural events, is an excellent example of how relay translation can be introduced in a society and how it can document the society’s change over time. First, the article will confirm the role of Japanese literature in the literary translation system in Vietnam. Then, it will summarize the events in translation of Japanese literature during the period of 1945-2001. Lastly, in order to find out the features as well as the problems that occur in relay translation, the article will also analyze the translations of literary texts.

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We intended to clarify current states and problems of sign language interpreter training in Japan. A questionnaire was sent to 49 sign language interpreter training institutions, and the collection rate was 55.1%. The results were as follows: (a) As almost all the institutions had so small budget only for keeping their basic administration that they couldn’t offer enough course contents and improve them. (b) Trainees attending to courses not always had enough skills and knowledge necessary to learn interpretation, so instructors were required frequently to start teaching from the basic sign language exercises. (c) Because of the wide variety of trainees’ ability, trainers had to devise various methods and materials for effective teaching. In addition, every institution suffered from a shortage of trainers. These situations put a heavy burden for each trainer.

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This essay examines the dramatic effectiveness of an interpreter, based on the writer’s own experience as an interpreter in the theatre. An Irish theatrical company called ‘Mouth on Fire’ performed several later plays of Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) in English at Theatre X in Tokyo between 13 February and 17 February, 2013. First, I will focus on the theatrical role of consecutive interpreting presented as an introductory talk before the performances. I will then investigate the mechanism of liaison interpreting offered for the post-performance discussion at the meeting between the audience and the company to understand the ‘invisible role’ of both interpreter and characters in Beckett’s plays. Finally, I will analyze the theatrical role of the interpreter for bridging the gap between audience and stage as well as between the unseen and the seen.

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