Swet Columns

July 21, 2009

Self-Publishing a Self-Initiated Translation

A professional non-fiction translator for over 40 years, Fred Uleman, in September 2009, self-published Rethinking the Constitution: An Anthology of Japanese Opinion, a translation of Kodansha’s 2004 Nihon no kenpo: Kokumin shuken no ronten. SWET asked Uleman how he came to translate and publish a book he was not paid to do, and what it involved.

August 21, 2008

Japan Image Use Conference

by Lynne E. Riggs

On June 23, 2008, the North American Coordinating Council on Japanese Library Resources held a symposium in Tokyo (International House of Japan) entitled “Japanese Images: Using Them to Support Japan Studies Internationally.” Bringing together librarians, publishers, museum staff, editors, Japanese studies professors, and other interested parties, it was a landmark event in developing good practices... more

March 31, 2006

Markuz Wernli Saitō on Book Design

by Peter Goodman

A Swiss designer with a background in commercial and website design, Markuz Wernli Saitō was the photographer/designer of Stone Bridge Press’s Mirei Shigemori: Modernizing the Japanese Garden, a book based on the doctoral dissertation of author Christian Tschumi on the twentieth-century scholar and garden designer. On January 22, 2006 Wernli Saitō spoke about how the photographs... more

December 1, 2005

Kyoto Journal Inspired

by Damon Shulenberger

The Kyoto Journal has always been a source of admiration and inspiration to editors, translators, and writers connected with Japan. In 2005, founding editor John Einarsen and associate editor Stewart Wachs spoke to a large SWET audience about their different perspectives on the journal’s making and showed a lively collection of slides of KJ covers and... more

November 1, 2005

On Staying Published

by Kay Vreeland

Publishing a guidebook to Kyoto is a daunting undertaking, so seeing it on bookshelves eight years after publication is gratifying. What is involved in staying in print and in maintaining a relationship with a publisher that is taken over by other presses along the way? Judith Clancy talks with SWET about the process and the rewards of remaining... more

December 14, 2004

Notes from a Garret

by Michael Hoffman

You don’t have to pay half your salary in rent or brave commuter crowds every day to pursue a successful writing or translating career in Japan. From his “garret” looking out on the waters of Ishikari Bay in Hokkaido,  Michael Hoffman contributes articles regularly to two of Japan’s English-language dailies, translates, and, most recently, writes fiction. How did... more