Have you ever seen the name of the translator on the cover of a book of translation?  Did you ever care?  In Japan, however, the translator’s name appears on the cover as large as the author’s, and readers do pay attention to who translated the book – and it’s not just star translators such as Haruki Murakami.  Whence the difference?  Motoyuki Shibata, a translator of American fiction and editor of the journal focused on contemporary Japanese literature Monkey Business, is going to discuss the role of translation in the nation’s century-long attempt to modernize itself.