Nina Raj (1949–2025): Editor, Colleague, and Friend

Nina Raj, colleague and friend of authors, translators, artists, and many others in Japan and around the world, passed away at her home in Tokyo on June 16, 2025. She was 76. 

Nina was born on March 5, 1949, in the Rokko district of Kobe. She was educated at Canadian Academy in Kobe and later at International Christian University in Tokyo, where her interest in the field of publishing was sparked. 

After graduating from ICU she became an editor at Weatherhill Publications, the English-language publisher of many high-quality books on Japanese art and culture. Among the titles she worked on there and was most proud of were several volumes of the landmark 30-volume Heibonsha Survey of Japanese Art in English translation.

 In 1974, she moved to the International Division of the University of Tokyo Press, where she was in charge of editing UTP’s English-language books mainly in the humanities and social sciences. Over the next two decades she was responsible for the publication of several dozen highly regarded books by Japanese scholars in anthropology, history, linguistics, and sociology, as well as English translations of Japanese classical and modern literary works. 

In addition to her regular full-time work at UTP, and while raising her two children, she was a founding member of SWET (Society of Writers, Editors and Translators) in 1980. She contributed to the SWET Newsletter (1981–2012) and was a core editor of all three editions of the Japan Style Sheet (SWET), a reference and resource for those who publish, translate, edit, and write work in English on Japan-related topics. 

She also was an active participant in several Japan-based NPOs, including a branch of the international movement to end female genital mutilation, and other women’s-rights organizations. After leaving her full-time position at UTP in 1996, she worked for the Japan UNI Agency, negotiating translation rights for authors and publishers.

Petite but dynamic, Nina carried the heritage of her Indian father and her Japanese mother with energy, grace, and devotion. She built on her bilingual upbringing to build a career in the publishing industry, which involved not only the nitty-gritty of editing and proofreading manuscripts and guiding them through production in a multilingual environment, but also navigating the human networking and relationships that the profession involved. She was known for insisting on taking the time needed for meticulous copyediting, asking the right questions of authors and translators, and gently insisting on quality and care. Friends and colleagues recall her wrinkled brow, slight pauses, and smiles as she wielded her red pen over the printed page. 

Nina enjoyed music, art, and being outdoors with family and friends. After her family acquired a summer home in the Nagano Prefecture community of Shikayama, she spent many summers working remotely, exploring the area, making new friends, welcoming visitors, volunteering at a local vegetable farm, and patronizing all the onsen within driving distance.

Nina struggled with the effects of Parkinson's disease for several years and made great progress in maintaining her health and activities; friends enjoyed good times with her in 2023 and 2024. In February 2025, however, she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and her health declined rapidly. 

She is survived by her husband Hashimoto Hitoshi, daughter Maya, son Jo, and four grandchildren. 

Nina brightened the lives of everyone she encountered, with her warmth and bright smile. She will be sorely missed by many colleagues from the publishing, writing, academic, and social activist worlds, and by all those whose lives intertwined with hers. She made us all better people, and the world a better place.

(Susan Schmidt and Lynne Riggs, October 2025)

Comments Received

I first got to know Nina on more than a casual basis when she oversaw the publication of Women of the Mito Domain, which came out at the beginning of 1992. How exactly that came about I also no longer remember. I had accidentally encountered Yamakawa Kikue’s Buke no josei and was thinking about the possibility of translating it. Somehow the idea of publishing the translation through the University of Tokyo Press took shape, probably through Nina’s assistance, and she went out of her way to support the project and shepherd it through to completion. Among other things, she identified Yamakawa's book as being eligible for a subvention from the Japan Foundation that would provide funding for its translation as well as publication, and she took care of the entire application procedure. I was quite amazed, and of course extremely grateful, that in addition to getting funding for publication it would be possible to have the translation funded as well.

At that time Susan Schmidt was also working at the press, and so that was how I got to know her, and it was also through Nina that I later met Lynne Riggs. After Nina, too, had left the press, I met her periodically on different occasions. In more recent years, I enjoyed hearing about her cabin at Tateshina and her activities there, which brought her into contact with other mutual friends. 

As I’m sure is true for all who knew Nina, what stands out in my recollection is the combination in her of a modest, soft-spoken gentleness with a firm inner core. She was a truly beautiful person. 

Kate Wildman Nakai
Professor emerita, Sophia University
October 29, 2025

Back in the 1970s, Nina and I were part of a group of English-language book editors who would occasionally get together and swap war stories, gossip, and language insights. This group later morphed into the SWET steering committee. I remember (mistakenly?) a gathering of us at a Denny’s in Takadanobaba, famous for its bottomless cups of coffee. I also remember looking at Nina and thinking she was, compared to me, the real deal – working for University of Tokyo Press and having to deal with long indexes, complex footnotes, and world-altering content. There was a seriousness about her that made me listen carefully to what she said. As an editor relatively new to the profession, and working for a trade publisher, I was glad for the learning opportunity. Some years later we had all moved on, but I stayed in touch irregularly with Nina through SWET and in particular through her work, with others, on the SWET Style Sheet. Stone Bridge Press published the first commercially distributed edition, which involved a lot of back and forthing (and proofs sent by post!). Later, Nina offered useful advice to me from time to time when she was at Japan UNI Agency. New authors, projects, pitching stuff back and forth. It was wonderful to have someone to correspond with who was so well connected, diligent, and insightful. People like Nina made our smallish profession what it is, and I hope that future editors and wordsmiths will continue to benefit from the standards, intelligence, and courtesy she always exhibited.   

Peter Goodman
Owner, Stone Bridge Press
November 3, 2025

Among the SWET community, my friendship with Nina Raj may be the longest. I was born and reared in Kyoto, and I met Nina at Canadian Academy in Kobe when we were in junior high school. Although she was a class ahead of me, the school was small, and we had joint classes for certain subjects. She was active in sports and a tiny dynamo on the 400-yard relay team. She was editor of the yearbook, and recruited me as a successor. When I think about it, I realize that was where both of us started our wordsmithing.

When I returned to Japan after college in the mid-1970s, we renewed our friendship, this time with our families involved. She was a knowledgeable and generous resource for me, as she had already made the transition from a Kansai native to Tokyoite. She did introduce me to a few part-time jobs, and we exchanged hand-me-downs, I think including our refrigerator, which we had painted yellow.

After I moved to California, whenever I went to Japan for visits and summer stays, we would get together. I recall one afternoon when she whisked my young son and me away from my in-laws’ house for a relaxing time at the pool in Musashino. The gamelan concerts in the candle-lit garden of a hundred kannon at Meiji-dera were an ethereal delight, and dedicated to charity for children world-wide. SWET meetings were also a chance to get together, and I appreciated her contributions to the newsletters, the Japan Style Sheet, and gatherings.  

Nina was reluctant to travel to the United States, but she attended some reunions of her Canadian Academy class held in California’s Marin County. Those of us who were at school together were also included. I can see her in deep discussions with friends who were now older, but still retained their character from school days. Nina and I made our last trip to the old campus of the school on Maya-san, before it moved to Rokko Island. We shared our sadness at the move as we walked down that steep hill.

Visits to her family cabin in Tateshina were special for fresh foods, soaks in onsen, and—knowing my interests—events at the Ozu memorial Mugeisō, searching for “onbashira” around Suwa Jinja, and the unique architecture of Fujimori Terunobu. She also visited me at Lake Nojiri, though she and her husband had avoided staying there during the rules-filled summer season. 

These memories and our more recent walks around Lake Tateshina will remain forever in my heart in remembrance of my dear, thoughtful, and kind friend.

Beth Cary, Translator, Interpreter, Editor
November 6, 2025