Since the Meiji period, translators have played a crucial role in Japanese society, as mediators of new ideas, knowledge and cultural experience. This panel will examine the legacy of four translators whose works span nearly a century, and illustrate the varying functions of translators in Japanese society. Fukuzawa Yukichi (1834-1901), an educator and intellectual, played a key role in introducing Western civilization to Japan, although his role as a translator of Western texts somehow induced an image of Fukuzawa as an imperialist promoting Japan's colonial expansion. Futabatei Shimei (1864-1909) and Senuma Kayoo (1875-1914) introduced many works of Russian literature to Japanese readers. Of the two, Futabatei Shimei was more dedicated to conveying the “otherness” of the Russian originals, intervening less in the process of cultural transfer. Chiri Mashiho (1909-1961) was in the unusual position of resorting to the Japanese language in order to restore the culture of his own Aynu people. In order to fulfill the mission of cultural mediator, he had to resort to retranslations from English sources and to abandon the ideal of literal translation.

Papers already accepted for the panel cover issues such as representation (in Akiko Uchiyama's discussion of Fukuzawa Yukichi), foreignising and domesticating strategies (in Hiroko Cockerill’s comparison of Futabatei Shimei and Senuma Kayoo), and the mission of the translator (in Nana Sato-Rossberg’s examination of the work of Chiri Mashiho). Further contributions are invited on these or other translators who have acted as significant cultural mediators in the Japanese context.

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