WHALE TALK's Japanese cover. Mizuhito Kanehara

On Turning Japanese

     When traffic from a Japanese website started to hit www.chriscrutcher.com, we returned the favor.  At the other end of the link was Tokyo University Professor Mizuhito Kanehara's website -- in Japanese. Though most of the characters were beyond our comprehension, we did recognize scattered words in English -- Chris Crutcher's name and book titles, to be precise.    

     Curious, we wrote to the webmaster -- hoping his English was better than our Japanese -- and asked about the traffic and what seemed to be a new WHALE TALK book cover. To our great surprise and delight, he offered this response:

Hello,

Thank you for the e-mail. It is the Japanese cover of Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher. Of course! I hope you found seven whales. They are the seven boys in the novel.

I am a professor of a university in Tokyo and translator. I have translated over 180 books. Whale Talk is one of the best books of  them. I really cried two or three times, when translating it. It is so moving!

Have a wonderful day.

Mizuhito Kanehara

     Fascinated, we wanted to know more, and Mizuhito was kind enough to answer a few questions, as featured below. Thank you so much Mizuhito, for responding to our emails and for working so hard to bring this story to Japanese readers. Here's hoping you'll soon have other Chris Crutcher books to translate.

QUESTION: Had you read any other Chris Crutcher books before you translated
WHALE TALK?

Mizuhito Kanehara: Yes, STOTAN!, IRONMAN and his ILL-ADVISED AUTOBIOGRAPHY. I loved KING.

QUESTION: Do Chris's books translate well into Japanese?  Do Japanese readers like them?

Mizuhito Kanehara: WHALE TALK is the first translation of his. I have had very favorable comments from critics and readers. I hope it will be read as a modern classic in Japan.  By the way Spokane is a familiar name for me, because I translated some of Sherman Alexie's books.


QUESTION: Were there any special challenges in translating this book? Any elements that were harder to translate than others?  

Mizuhito Kanehara: In reality, it was very hard for me to translate the book. It is full of slang used by American young people and TJ's ironical comments are sometimes too clever to understand. MY co-translator Noboru Nishida roughly translated [the slang] and I checked the translation. Two more people checked it and Karen, one of my colleagues at the university, helped me so much!  Of course she loves the story, too.

QUESTION: Do you have any thoughts on the book cover differences?

Mitzuhito Kanehara: I noticed an interesting fact between Japanese books and American ones. As you know the jackets of several books by Chris Crutcher are photographs. I think American publishers like to use photographs for jackets of young adult books. That is rare in Japan.

QUESTION: You said in your note that the book moved you. What did you like about WHALE TALK? 

Mizuhito Kanehara: It is full of strength just like a tornado. It takes you up into the sky by force and spins you so hard. You can do nothing else once you begin reading it. I had the same feeling when I translated A DAY NO PIGS WOULD DIE by Richard Newton Peck, BLESS ME ULTIMA by Rudolfo Anaya and HEAVEN'S EYES by David Almond.

QUESTION: How are Japanese young people different from the teens in Chris's books?

Mizuhito Kanehara: The situation of Japanese young people and American ones is rather different but I think Japanese young people are essentially the same. I hope many of them will enjoy WHALE TALK.

Insights on Japanese Teens

We asked Mizuhito how teens in Japan compared to American teens. He not only gave us the feedback we'd hoped for, he reached out to his peers. We hope you'll really enjoy this remarkable information as much as we did.  And we thank Mizuhito and his associates featured here for their incredibly generous contributions.

From Tomoko Yamamura -- Editor

While Japanese teenagers are not allowed to drive a car (you have to wait until you hit eighteen to obtain your driver license.) and do not have much choice to hang around, American teens can go shopping or seeing movies whenever they like with their own car. They even can drive with their date! When I spent a year as a senior at a high school in a small town in Minnesota, I was jealous about that, comparing with my life in a suburb town in Japan.

For girls, wearing makeup is perhaps one of the most important things. Japanese teens never do that at school (most schools prohibit it, I assume.), but American teens wear makeup so perfectly no matter where they are at. I did not know how they learned the technique! They looked much more matured. Some Japanese girls try it AFTER school, wanting to look grownup and pretty a little bit.

To be forced to wear uniform might be a difference, too. But I saw a movie SCHOOL OF ROCK the other day and found that the kids at a the prep school wore their uniforms, just like Japanese students do.

Mayumi Otani -- Translator

I don't know well about the teenagers in America. I know them only in some novels, dramas, or in movies. But I think they are not so different from those in Japan. So I write some distinctive things about the background of Japanese teenagers.

[Home]
  The depression causes high unemployment. Divorce rate is rising from year to year. Some parents can't support their children materially and mentally well enough. There are many teenagers leaving their home and not going back for some days or months. They hang around the downtown or stay at their friend's house, and sometimes involved in a crime. But some of their parents don't care.

[School]
  Schools have also problems. The quality of curriculum and teachers' personality has become a social problem. The crime committed by teachers have increased in recent years. A group of students bully one target student. So there are many teenagers who don't go to school. They are not attracted by school and can't see the meaning of going to school. Some students can't adapt themselves to other students and teachers, and go to the infirmary instead of their classroom, or go to a free school.

[Friends]
  For teenagers, friends are the most important. They communicate by a cell phone almost all the day. They send many mails a day by a cell phone, and a (boy/girl) who received a mail must reply as soon as possible. They measure their friendship by how  quickly (he/she) send a reply mail. They want to always be connected with someone. They seem to have close friendship with each other, but, actually, they would not step in their friend's heart. Because they are so afraid to hurt their friend or get hurt by their friend. Their popular amusement are karaoke, instant photos, computer games.

[Society]
In Japan, the present situation is not good. And many people can't see the bright future. So some teenagers can't have any dream or goal. People say "Have a dream!" in a drama, in a CM, in a song, in a speech. So (boys/girls) who have a dream, (he/she) willingly strive to make their dreams come true. But some who don't have a dream tend not to think about their future, and try to enjoy only now. Unfortunately, they can get drugs, alcohol etc. easily like in America. And those teenagers can't find the reason why they live, and can't feel they are alive. This is one of the social problem.

Recently, a writer wrote a book for those teenagers to find a interesting job. He had inspected more than 500 kinds of jobs and explained honestly to teenager at a loss.

Noboru Nishida -- Co-Translator of WHALE TALK

I teach high school students English at a juku school (Japanese preparatory school for university entrance examination) in Tokyo. Last year, there was an interesting incident in our school. One of the instructors had affairs with about ten girl students. In our school, instructors and students are banned from giving each other personal information, much less having personal relationships. Their parents got angry and made their daughters quit our school. The instructor was not only fired but accused for doing financial damage to our school.

Even tough students are, in a way, our customers, it isn't they but their parents that pay fees to the company. Our boss says we instructors are 'trusted' students as a kind of goods from both parents and company. It means that we can't see students as hundred-percent individuals however attractive personally and sexually they are, and students can't be treated as such if they really want to.

As far as I see in American movies, TV programs, stories and novels, Americans are treated as parts of society at earlier age than Japanese are. American teenagers have to earn money to get things they want, and if they commit crimes, their faces and names appear on TV and newspapers.

But many of Japanese teenagers are given money, 40 to 80 dollars a month, by their parents. Some schools even prohibit their students from working part-time. The law protects criminals under twenty and doesn't punish them as severely as adults. For example, if a group of high school boys threatens one of their classmates and robs him of some money, it's not a robbery but only a part of bullying.

Those are the factors that make it hard for Japanese teenagers to understand what kind of influence their deeds give to the society they belong to. To them, their own world (friends, families, schools and so on) is hardly related to the society that consists of and is maintained by working adults.

It is like they're living in a cocoon, protected, almost owned, by their parents, schools and society. But at the same time, they are treated as immature 'half-individuals'. When they try to do what they want, their owners get together and stop them.

For all those protections and cares, they don't seem to be happy and feel really loved or needed by anyone.

Yumiko Takahashi -- Librarian

Hi.  I don't have enough knowledge about the US Teenager situations, so I'm going to describe Japanese teenager situations.  Hope the small notes below will help you, even a little bit.

Japanese have been believing that if you work for a big corporation, your life would be ensured the rest of your life.  However, the bubble economy burst and many empoyees, even elites have been fired and giant corporations have gone down the tubes.  It shows our common myth is disappearing.  I guess teenagers have noticed it too.  In addition to that, now there are many choices for teenagers when they think about their future.  However, parents still keep ordering their children' to enter an excellent university to get a job with a major corporation.  Maybe they haven't found other ways to be happy, to get a stable life.  It might look a bit strange to you, as happinness can be different from one person to another, though.  I think the gap confuses and disturbs teenagers.  Besides, companies are also eager to hire students who graduate from so called excellent universities and have a tendancy to hire only new graduates.  It makes us feel lost if we fail even only once.

Ritsuko Sambe -- Translator

I think mentally, American and Japanese teenagers are not so different since they both struggle to find their own value of life in this materially rich society.  But physically, I think there are certain differences.   Since Japan has a law to ban the use of gun, we are not exposed to the threats of guns as in the U.S. and though we are facing the increase of drug abuse among the juveniles, I believe it is not as widespread as in the U.S.  And we don't have the racial problems and the difference between rich and poor is not a big concern although we can't say we don't have any.

However, we have our own problems like Enjo-Kosai, which is a form of compensated dating; schoolgirls prostituting for financial support in order to obtain designer goods.  I think this is one of the phenomenons unique to Japan. And many Japanese teens face Juken, examination hell.  During this period, the students come across intense stress and pressure to be accepted into a top school. When teens come across these various adolescent problems, I think the teens in the U.S. widely talk to their therapists or see a psychologist.  In Japan, there is still a stigma in seeing a psychologist.  The society is not as open minded as it is in the U.S.

Kaori Nozawa -- Translator

Bukatsu (after-school club activities) 
Around 70-80% of Japanese middle school students belong to some kind of after-school clubs and stay on at school until 5 or 6 o'clock almost every day.  At high schools the percentage drops a little, but still more than half of the students belong to some kind of clubs. Most popular club activities include soccer, baseball, basket ball, tennis, and track and field.  There are also some non-sport clubs such as music, drama, and art. They practice quite hard and, especially in sports clubs, there is an evident hierarchy among the students.  (The junior students are supposed to speak with honorific words to their seniors.)  Belonging to some nice group is very important for Japanese teenagers, and club activities are one of the easiest ways.  It is also one of the easiest ways to kill time and emit a lot of energy, and parents feel safe when their children spend most of the after-school time in club activities, not in hanging around the downtown. The records of club activities are often highly evaluated in entrance exams to the upper schools and even in job hunting.

Juku (supplementary private school)
More than half of the Japanese middle/high school students in urban areas go to some kind of Juku after school.  The frequency varies, but average is twice or three times a week.  Many students go to Juku after club activities, and come home as late as at 10 o'clock.  At Juku they review what they learn at school and prepare for the entrance exams to upper schools.  Many of the students enjoy going to Juku, because the lessons are less dull than those at school, and they can drop in some first food shop and chat with their friends on their way home.

Helping housework
According to a friend of mine who has lived in California for 6 years, the teenagers in U.S. help their parents with the housework (washing-up, cleaning rooms, washing cars, etc.) more than their counterparts in Japan. Japanese teenagers are busy with Bukatsu and Juku.  Also Japanese husbands don't help their wives much with the housework very and this affects their children's attitude  in an unfavorable way.

Mobile phones
I don't have an statistic, but it seems  (at least in urban areas) more than 80% of 16-19 year old in Japan have their own mobile phones.  They communicate with their friends very often by email, as well as talking on the phnone.  Some of them are so dependent on their mobile phones that they get into a panic when their mobile phones are taken away for some reason. The bills from the telephone companies are often source of  a headache for their parents.  The parents tend to feel safe as they can communicate with their children whenever necessary, but they don't know where their children really are and what they are really doing.

Japanese teenagers abroad
Some Japanese teenagers live abroad, due to their parents' job.  In some countries and areas where there is no Japanese School, they have no choice than going to American International School.  If they are in 6th or 7th grade, they are going through a really hard time.  As they have no or very poor command of English, it is extremely difficult to catch up in the class, even with the help of ESL teachers. They try, fail, get lots of Cs on the report card, and try to prove themselves in some other way than study.  Lucky are those who are good at sports.  They can become heroes and heroines in gym classes and in activities.  But those who are not great athletes feel more and more frustrated.  Sometimes they have to go to Japanese Supplementary School on weekends or even after regular school, in order to prepare for the entrance exams which they are going to take after returning to Japan.  There are some schools (esp. in Tokyo) which accept returnees with relatively easy exams, like requiring just an essay and interview, but in many cases their experiences abroad don't work advantageously in terms of entrance exams. Also, when they return Japan on holidays and want to have a nice chat with one of  their old friends, they sometimes receive a reply; "I'm sorry, but I can't find a time because I'm so busy with Juku and Bukatsu."

Junichi Kakutani -- a film director to be, lives in San Francisco

People in the U.S. are different based on their ethnical or financial backgrounds. There isn't much background difference in Japan. American teens start living by themselves earlier than Japanese teens. A lot of college students live with their parents in Japan. Therefore, I feel American teen are more independent and more serious finding their ways. In Japan, especially in school, you are "safe" if you do what everyone does.

Shoko Toyokura -- Translator

Responding to your request, I scribbled my thoughts about the difference of environment surrounding teenagers Japan and the U.S. I am very happy if it might be helpful for you to get a picture of what Japanese society is like.

School & the Educational System (in regard to K-12)
Every school in Japan is under the supervision of The Ministry of Education and Science. Schools must follow the curriculum fixed by the Ministry and use the textbooks approved by them. It is not allowed for the students to skip a grade or be held back a grade i.e. delay the learning process depending on individual ability and development. There is little room for students, schools and educators to choose how or what to learn. There are expressions in our language, derived from English, such as an "education mama?h pejoratively used to describe a mother who will do anything to ensure that her child is on the academic path to success.

Examination Hell
It is one of the most symbolic expressions used to describe Japanese school life. Most Japanese school make enrollment decisions based solely on the outcome of students' entrance examination scores(Each school has its own entrance examination) and each student's past academic performance. So parents put pressure on their children to study hard beginning in their early childhood. Some of children starts going to cram schools when they turn 10 or 11 years old. Other parents may place children in these "juku" or cram schools as early as age 6, in order to give them a head start in such subjects as English or mathematics. So when they reach their teens, students don?ft enough time or energy to spend on other extra-curricular things such as sports, part-time jobs, volunteer work, or simple play activities, unlike most American kids do.

School Bullying
School bullying has been a controversial issue for at least 10 or more years. Its' characteristics are becoming more wicked and subtle. Some students even commit suicide because they are bullied so badly. Others refuse to go school ,which sometimes leads them to withdraw from society after they grow up.

Crime
You may already know that statistically the overall crime rate in Japan is much lower than that in the U.S. Kid have very few, if any chances to be directly exposed to the danger of firearms of any type. However the possibility that teenagers are involved in violent crimes as a victims as well as a criminal continue to increase. It was not long ago that a serial murder by 14-year old boy in Kobe in 1997 shook the world. The crime related to the use of illegal drugs, alcohol or the Japanese sex industry's "telephone clubs"/Internet chat sites are also increasing.

Parents
It is not unusual for Japanese to live at home with their parents until they reach twenty (quite normal, especially for the girls), or thirty(no problem) and even forty(a bit strange, but still OK). Adults past university age who remain single and live with their parents are called "Parasite Singles." In return, parents expect their children to take care of them when they  grow old. Japanese parents and children seem to be more co-dependent than their American counterparts, for better or worse.

Friends
Japanese teenagers seems to be less conscious about which clique they belong to than American teenagers when they make friends each other. Japanese society is more homogenized in many ways, when compared to the U.S. We do not have so many racial or inter-cultural problems(except Korean-Japanese). The difference between the rich and the poor is narrower and the class borders are very vague(Except possibly for the nearly "untouchable"?@status given the ancient lower caste of Buraku-min. Many of today?fs teenagers are largely unaware it.) Japanese basically have the same basic physical features such as black eyes and black hair(a funny twist on this has been that many young Japanese have, for the past several years, dyed their hair lighter or darker shades of brown, called "chapatsu", to be a bit independent. But ironically the fashion caught on with both genders and across the generation gap to such an extent that even those who originally looked "different", now look almost the same again.) So there are few chances for the teenagers to think seriously about their identity and individuality in Japan.

Domestic Violence
DV is a big issue in Japan too. Articles about the infant deaths as a result of negligence or actual violence and child abuse appear frequently on the front pages of newspapers. What makes it harder to tackle this problem in Japan is that Japanese families try to deal with their familial problems only by themselves and cover up them from the public. So it is difficult to grasp the actual situation and police or government authorities tend to hesitate to intervene in familial matters, unless they are requested to help the situation.

Sex
The situation of personal morals in Japan is in a state of crisis. Maybe it's worse than in the U.S.( People in all countries, especially adults beyond their college years , often feel that their generation is the last to hold any basic values sacred.)
For example, the problem of "Enjyokousai"(Enjyo referring to "financial aid" and Kousai referring to sexual intercourse in Japanese) has been the controversial issue for these last several years. Some young girls date or have sex with adult men, whom they meet through telephone or Internet encounter sites. They do this because they want to get luxurious brand-name handbags or clothes or money to spend just hanging out with their friends. Obviously the blame lies not only with the girls but also with the adult who pay them for sex, creating this "market" for young high school age girls. Conversely, boys can purchase the pornographic magazines on convenience store shelves. And explicit videos and DVDs are displayed on the shelf which every one can reach out in the rental video shops. But in spite of these realities, the students are not offered the education about sex, moral or human dignity enough at their school or at home either because teachers or parents are afraid to stimulate the children's curiosity about sex unnecessarily or just too embarrassed to discuss it with kids.

I am worryied that I emphasized only the tragic aspects of Japan too much. You might think what an awful country Japan is! But of course, there are many teenagers who try hard to overcome these difficulties and fight against the evil or the absurdity like the boys in "Whale Talk." I hope that you might have a chance to come here sometime and see Japan, with all its problems and wonders, for yourself.

[Webperson's Note: We hope Chris will have the chance to visit Japan soon.]

Lei Wang -- Law office in Tokyo

Hello, my name is Lei Wang. I am from China and have been living in Japan for six years.

I'm sorry to say I have never got acquainted with an American teenager. But fortunately, I have a Japanese friend who was living in U.S.A. from fourteen to twenty-four years old. I think it is rather different between American, Japanese and Chinese after hearing her introduce about American teenager.

For example, she says they have a large stock of knowledge of adult though the America's teenager, just like sex, conception, drug, gun, AIDS. They know how to use them to protect themselves.

On the other hand, Japanese teenager and Chinese teenager seem ignorant about this kind of knowledge. But there are some differences between Japanese teenager and Chinese teenager too. The Japanese society and the Japanese teenager's parents think it is unnecessary to tell the teenager about this kind of knowledge. As the Japanese society including laws are indulgent to them and always regard them as a children, a part of the Japanese teenagers cannot realize the exacting result of prostitution or drug abuse and are going to prostitute without constraint .The ignorance about sex, AIDS and drug in China is not only limited to the Chinese teenager but to the whole society. It results from poor information in China and traditional sense of Chinese. Especially to the realization about sex, for Chinese, it is shameful to talk about sexual things openly. So the Chinese teenager knows a few about sex, AIDS and drug. They are innocent about those things.

My friend also said the American teenager had a strong personality and always spoke his mind. I think this is rather different with the Japanese teenager and the Chinese teenager too.

In Japan, as the saying goes, a tall tree catches much wind. So not only the teenager but also the whole nation doesn't want to put himself forward. The members of the same group always gather and act together, and wear similar dresses. You can guess the group they belong from their dresses and behaviours easily.

In China, there is only child between couples. The only child is spoiled very much by his grandparents and parents. So many of them are very selfish and don't know how to go together well with others. So for the Chinese teenager, it is so important to learn how to keep company with others.

COMMENTS

August 11, 2004

Opening eyes of American librarians about teens in Japan is useful, I guess. I really
appreciated it.

But at the same time, I have a question why Americans don't accept translated books
from Japan. Why only Manga or Anime? I think we got too many translated books
from English to Japanese here in Japan. Then more Americans know about teens'
real life in Japan not about fantasic Manga life.

Prof. Kanehara translated too many.... I wonder why he doesn't trasnlate from
Japanese to English. I believe the book titled Waterboys which was written in Japanese in Japan is almost same story as Whaletalk. First time when I read Whaletalk, I thought the author read Waterboys and imitated the story.... Two movies also were made based on Waterboys. I don't think it was translated into English, but it was writeen and published before Whaletalk.

Yasuyo Inoue
Associate professor
Librarianship course
c/o Dokkyo University
Japan

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August 11, 2004