Swet Columns

December 7, 2018

The History of SWET

The late 1970s were years of growth and ferment in English-language book and periodical publishing in Japan. Book publishers Charles E. Tuttle, Inc., John Weatherhill, Kodansha International, and the University of Tokyo Press released dozens of new volumes in English annually. Japan Echo, the Japan Interpreter, and Japan Quarterly published high-quality Japanese journalism and writing in English translation. Four daily... more

December 2, 2018

SWET Kansai Event Report: Juliet Winters Carpenter—Reflections on the Translation of Ryōma!

By Susan E. Jones

In October, 17 SWET members and interested others eagerly gathered at Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts in Kyoto to hear illustrious translator Juliet Winters Carpenter talk about her latest work, a joint translation project with two other translators of Ryōma! The Life of Sakamoto Ryōma:  Japanese Swordsman and Visionary by historical novelist Shiba Ryōtarō. The Japanese... more

August 31, 2018

2017 SWET Financial Report

The SWET treasurer has submitted a (PDF) financial report of Tokyo and Kansai activities for 2017.

August 30, 2018

Word Wise: Attention Please

注目 Chūmoku

By Richard Medhurst

I often see the phrase 注目を集める or its close counterpart 注目を浴びる translated to say that something is “attracting attention” or “drawing attention.” As 注目 means “attention” this popular rendering naturally follows. While it is not incorrect, and I use it myself at times, the English phrase is nowhere near as common in texts by native writers as... more

August 25, 2018

Punctuation Encounters and the J-E Translator

Reviewed by Lynne E. Riggs

Punctuation..? By User Design. 35 pages. ISBN: 978-0-9570712-2-3. £10.

Forty years trying to master the skills of clarity, consistency, and coherence have not made me a model copyeditor, yet. Reviewing the rules of correct usage set down in this slim volume tests my progress. Always distracted by the larger issues of accuracy and comprehensibility I face... more

July 28, 2018

EVENT REPORT – SWET Travel Writing Meet-up

By Rob Goss

The new travel writing group within SWET is up and running. Seventeen people came together on July 19 for the first meeting on a hot and humid night in Tokyo, some traveling from as far as Niigata and Kobe to the Book House Cafe, Jinbocho, Tokyo. We had a mix of writers, photographers, translators, interpreter-guides, and two tourism ambassadors... more