Central and Eastern European Editors’ Visit Report 2024

Though Japanese literature is published in translation around the world, we see in the track record of our Support Program for Translation and Publication that demand for translated works of Japanese is enjoying particularly rapid growth in central and eastern Europe. In February 2024, the Japan Foundation invited eleven editors from Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia for a ten-day visit to Japan. Our aim was to give participants the opportunity to gather information about books in Japan and to network with Japan-based professionals, in hope that a more diverse range of contemporary literature and other books from Japan will be translated and published for central and eastern European readers in the future.

During their time in Japan, these editors expanded their knowledge of Japan’s literary and publishing worlds, visited Japanese bookstores, and networked with fellow professionals in publishing. Here in our #CentralAndEasternEuropeanEditors2024 series we share their impressions of Japan and Japanese literature, their commentary on the status of translated Japanese literature in their home countries, and their views on what has changed for them since.