In a recent article for the Society of Writers, Editors and Translators, D. Patrick Dimick has defined the great trade deficit in literary translation between Japanese and other languages: "In 2002 the ratio of foreign books translated into Japanese to Japanese books translated into a foreign language stood at 20:1." Optimistically, he appends this happy thought: "Though some point to this as an improvement over the 1982 ratio of 36:1."
It's instructive to note that, although Kenzo Kitakata has published 100 books, we have only two in English. Even Joyce's "Finnegan's Wake" has been translated into Japanese in a storm of furigana, homonyms and puns, a seven-year task completed in 1993 by Yanase Naoki.
But as we know, Japan is hot right now. And Vertical Inc., with great style (Chip Kidd is perhaps the first book designer to become famous outside the industry) and a wide brief, is in on the renaissance, publishing a range of Japanese fiction including fantasy, history, manga, horror, and two novels by Kitakata, probably the most famous writer in the Japanese hard-boiled tradition.
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