• Japanese Literature Publishing Project Shut Down

    by  • June 22, 2012 • News • 76 Comments

    The Japanese Literature Publishing Project has been shut down by the Japanese government, Junbungaku has learned through Twitter friend Morgan Giles, and as reported by JiJi Press.

    The JLPP, under the Agency for Cultural Affairs, worked to promote Japanese literature abroad, selecting and funding translation projects to sell to foreign publishers in English, French, German, and other languages. They would even buy a number of copies from said publisher to donate to universities and libraries, essentially guaranteeing a certain number of sales to publishers who would otherwise be unlikely to take a risk on unknown contemporary Japanese writers.

    The Ministry of Education, Sports, Science and Technology, along with a selection of “experts,” did an inspection of the efficacy of certain government operations, and decided the JLPP and two other organizations were just not up to snuff. Said one expert: “It isn’t necessary for government money to be spent on the myriad translations of exemplary works of literature for private organizations.”

    If only that were true. Without the support of the JLPP, we wouldn’t have seen the publications of works from authors such as Akutagawa Ryunosuke, Tsutsui Yasutaka, Miyazawa Kenji, Yasuoka Shotaro, Kawakami Hiromi, Hemmi Yo, Yamada Amy, Kitakata Kenzo, Ikezawa Natsuki, and many, many, many others.

    I will admit that the selections made by the JLPP were sometimes puzzling, but the diversity of Japanese literature in translation will surely suffer because of this loss. A sad day, indeed.

    76 Responses to Japanese Literature Publishing Project Shut Down

    1. Ash
      June 22, 2012 at 10:52 am

      Oh, that is a shame! There were so many works that we probably wouldn’t have seen available in English if it weren’t for the JLPP. I’m particularly fond of the Atsushi Nakajima collection The Moon Over the Mountain and Other Stories.

      Reply
    2. me.
      June 22, 2012 at 1:15 pm

      This is really sad news… so I wonder will this mean that any titles remaining to be published will never see the light of day?, I really hope not as there’s still alot of titles on their list that I hope make it to publication.

      Reply
    3. GhaleonQ
      June 23, 2012 at 4:14 pm

      Boo. Yuichi Seirai will never find an audience here now!

      Reply

    4. Pingback: JLPP gets the axe « Japonesque Blog

    5. zeev34
      July 21, 2012 at 11:57 pm

      As a JLPP translator, I am quite disappointed at this news, but other means will be found…I published a collection of Akutagawa stories about the same time that the JLPP collection appeared. (Unlike government bureaucrats and other official “experts,” literary translators are primarily motivated by the love of literature.)

      Reply

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