Japanese Literature Through Our Bookstores
Abhijit Mukherjee (India)

Since my country, India, is too vast, situations are not uniform all over the country. Hence I have decided to write about the prevailing situation in my city Kolkata, traditionally one of the four major metropolitan cities of India. Residents of this city, till even a few decades back, used to believe that this city is the main hub of literary activities in this country and are still quite proud of the legacy of Bengali literature. Things have changed considerably over the last one or two decades, but still there is a sizable section of literature lovers who are equally interested in reading both world literature in translation, and literature in their vernacular language.

My concern is drawing the attention of this section to the modern Japanese literature and also to the invaluable past works of fiction that have been written since the introduction of novel writing in Japan early in the last century. A recent survey, conducted by the Booker Prize Foundation all over the UK, has come up with stunning revelations like the following :

1. a)14 of the top 30 most popular books of translated fiction were translated from Japanese, and.
2. b)Titles translated from Japanese into English sold over 490,000 copies, making it the number-one original language for translated sales in the UK.

But the literature lovers of my city are largely unaware of this present trend and myself being so fond of Japanese literature, I feel appropriate steps must be planned to give these people a taste of Japanese literature, and I have no doubt, in a short time here too a thriving market can be created. And only a thriving market ensures timely and regular supply of the remarkable works to the readers.

My regular visits to the spacious bookstores in the malls and occasional inquiries with the reputed bookshops at the prime locations of the city have made me painfully aware that the businessmen dealing in books are largely unaware of the Japanese works of fiction that have become immensely popular all over the world. The general scene is, availability of a few copies each of the well-known works of Murakami Haruki, and if I am lucky, one or two titles from the entire bunch of younger writers like Ogawa Yoko, Banana Yoshimoto, Murata Sayaka, Kawakami Mieko etc. Interestingly, the first one of Kawaguchi Toshikazu's series, ‘Before the Coffee Gets Cold’ has recently managed to somehow enter the stock with better regularity. Time and again my complaint as to why the Japanese writers are so poorly represented, has made the attendants assure me that there are quite a few books of Kazuo Ishiguro in the racks elsewhere within the shop! Time and again pointing it out that he writes English novels, has not really helped as yet.

In my city, which has a colonial past, awareness regarding the literary and other cultural aspects of the European nations is quite commonly identified. Over and above that, the consulates of those nations put much stress on introducing their literature, both present and past in interacting with the common citizens in general. I suppose, they have particular wings or cells to handle this aspect.

Availability of translated Japanese literature in my city is mainly through ‘on line’ ordering. The time it usually takes to deliver after an order is placed, is quite short and hence I suppose adequate stocks are usually kept ready. And this is in sharp contrast with the situation prevalent at the bookstores. Thus it is obvious that keeping and adequate stock and displaying it at the bookstores and demand of books of Japanese fictions among the common readership can help each other considerably to boost the awareness of the common people. I have developed a strong conviction in this regard from my experience of how my translations of Japanese fictions into Bengali could in a short duration succeeded in drawing the attention of the common readers even without any promotion by the local literary periodicals or in other print media. By the local yardsticks of sales, the way my translations have been received, can be considered almost beyond expectations!

Finally, I would have suggested certain steps that can be considered immediately.

1. a)Setting up some kind of a centre that tries to involve the common readers through participation while disseminating information on Japanese literature.
2. b)Coming in contact with a few publishing concerns and do the needful to encourage them publishing Bengali translations of reputed works of literature.
3. c)Persuade the well-known literary commentators of the city to write an article/review or two, at least once in a while, on books of Japanese fiction they choose to talk about.
4. d)Help the bookstores to gain awareness regarding the prospect of sales once the readers find the books readily available with their outlets.

For the time being, I feel these considerations may be where we can start from, to draw the local readership into the global mainstream of Japanese fiction reading.

(Former Dean, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Jadavpur University)