Jay Rubin

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title: "Jay Rubin" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1941-births", "living-people", "20th-century-american-translators", "21st-century-american-translators", "japanese–english-translators", "american-japanologists", "scholars-of-japanese-literature", "university-of-chicago-alumni", "university-of-washington-faculty", "harvard-university-faculty"] description: "American translator and Japanologist (born 1941)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Rubin" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American translator and Japanologist (born 1941) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

Field	Value
name	Jay Rubin
birth_date
birth_place	Washington, D.C., U.S.
alma_mater	University of Chicago
occupation	Translator, scholar
::

|name=Jay Rubin |birth_name= |birth_date= |birth_place=Washington, D.C., U.S. |death_date= |death_place= |alma_mater=University of Chicago |occupation=Translator, scholar Jay Rubin (born 1941) is an American translator, writer, scholar and Japanologist. He is one of the main translators of the works of the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami into English. He has also written a guide to Japanese, Making Sense of Japanese (originally titled Gone Fishin'), and a biographical literary analysis of Murakami.

Rubin was born in Washington, D.C., in 1941. Rubin has a PhD in Japanese literature from the University of Chicago. He taught at the University of Washington for eighteen years, and then moved on to Harvard University, which he left in 2008. In his early research career he focused on the Meiji state censorship system. More recently Rubin has concentrated his efforts on Murakami and Noh drama. His publications include Modern Japanese Writers (Scribners, 2001) and Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words (Harvill, 2002; Vintage, 2005). His translation of 18 stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa appeared as a Penguin Classics in 2006. His debut novel, The Sun Gods, was released in May 2015 (Chin Music Press) and explores the relationship between a Japanese mother, Mitsuko, and her adopted, American son, Billy, as they face American internment during World War II.

Rubin also translated the "Thousand Years of Dreams" passages by Kiyoshi Shigematsu for use in the Japanese-produced Xbox 360 game Lost Odyssey. In 2018, he edited The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories.

Rubin's translation of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami won the 2003 Noma Award for the Translation of Japanese Literature and was also awarded the Japan–U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature in 1999.

Translations

Published works

• Tansman, Alan and Dennis Washburn. (1997). Studies in Modern Japanese Literature: Essays and Translations in Honor of Edwin McClellan. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan. (cloth)
• Making Sense of Japanese: What the Textbooks Don't Tell You (Power Japanese Series, Kodansha's Children's Classics), Kodansha International (March 1, 2002), paperback, 144 pp., – first published as Gone Fishin' (1992)

Notes

References

References

1. (1989). "Directory of Japan Specialists and Japanese Studies Institutions in the United States and Canada". Japan Foundation.
2. (17 March 2008). "Harvard's Rubin on translating 360 epic Lost Odyssey into English".
3. Rollmann, Rhea. (November 15, 2018). "'The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories' Is a Perfect Balance of Classic and Modern".
4. (2005). "Japan Info". Japan Informational Center, Consolate General of Japan..

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