This collection focuses on metaphorical as well as temporal and physical border-crossing in writing from and about Japan. With a strong consciousness of gender and socio-historic contexts, contributors to the book adopt an intercultural and interdisciplinary approach to examine the writing of authors whose works break free from the confines of hegemonic Japanese literary endeavour. By demonstrating how the texts analysed step outside the space of ‘Japan’, they accordingly foreground the volatility of textual expression related to that space. The authors discussed include Takahashi Mutsuo and Nagai Kafū, both of whom take literary inspiration from geographical sites outside Japan. Several chapters examine the work of exemplary border-crossing poet, novelist and essayist, Itō Hiromi. There are discussions of the work of Tawada Yōko whose ability to publish in German and Japanese marks her also as a representative writer of border-crossing texts. Two chapters address works by Murakami Haruki who, although clearly affiliating with western cultural form, is rarely discussed in specific border-crossing terms. The chapter on Ainu narratives invokes topics such as translation, indigeneity and myth, while an analysis of Japanese prisoner-of-war narratives notes the language and border-crossing nexus. A vital collection for scholars and students of Japanese literature.

This edited volume showcases essays revolving around diverse translation discourses and practices in China, Korea and Japan. Knowledge transfer and cultural exchanges have historically flourished in East Asia and translation functions as an important social, cultural and political tool to this day. The essays in this volume discuss a wide range of historical and contemporary subjects, each examining distinctive translational activities and foregrounding their cultural significance in their respective time and place. They give a voice to various translational traditions in East Asia, where regional particularities and interlinkages are in effect. The contributors bring together different areas of expertise, such as the history of translation, political activism and translation, literary translation, transcreation and the translation profession.