The public is invited to the following lecture. A 1,000 yen donation from non-members would be appreciated, but is not required.
Place: Shibuya Kyoiku Gakuen (1-21-18 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku,
Tokyo150-0002)
About 10 minutes on foot from Shibuya Station (JR East
Exit; subway Miyamasu Exit 10 or 11; or 15 minutes from Omotesando
Station, Exit B2; or 15 minutes from Meiji-Jingumae Station,
Exit 4. The road forking right from Meiji-dori is quite obvious,
and the Gakuen is the first big building after a row of shops,
with a waterfall streaming down one wall.)
Information: ASJ Office
As the title of his talk suggests, Mr. Muramatsu has had a lifetime's experience of the art of translation and simultaneous interpretation; in addition, he is a practised public speaker with an inimitable style of his own, both stimulating and entertaining. He will speak first about his own experience in his field of expertise; in contrast to the received wisdom that that written translation should be carried out from the source language into one's native language, he can also make a case for the opposite process when it comes to interpretation. He will then present his views on the shape of things to come, against the background of the ongoing debate about language and cross-cultural education. One aspect of this is computer translation; will interpreters and translators lose their jobs to the machine? Those who have heard Mr. Muramatsu speak promise us that it will be a memorable evening.
As an enterprising teenager, four years after World War II Mr. Muramatsu became a "clerk-typist" (now an extinct profession) for the Occupation Forces, and making the most of his opportunities, gradually acquired proficiency as an interpreter. By 1956 he was in the US working as a simultaneous interpreter, one of the original eight recruited by the US State Department, to help numerous industrial "productivity" study teams being invited from Japan to tour and learn from all sectors of the American industry, agriculture, and society. Those "teams" were likened at the time to the kentôshi, the large Japanese missions composed of diplomats, scholars, priests, craftsmen and artists, that went to Tang Dynasty China in the 7th and 8th centuries to expand their knowledge). In 1960-65 he was a researcher at the US-Japan Trade Council, Washington, D.C. (today's Japan Economic Institute of America).
In 1965 he returned to Japan to establish Simul International, Japan's first professional organisation "of interpreters, by interpreters, and for interpreters," with former interpreter colleagues. He served it as president and then chairman; he was also president of the Simul Academy of International Communication. In 1998, he retired from the management when Simul was merged into the Benesse Corporation group of companies, but remained as senior advisor until September 2000.
Now he says "I fancy myself as an author/lecturer/occasional
teacher." Mr. Muramatsu has also written many books based
on his wide and long experience (and expects five more to be published
by the autumn)
Adapted from "The Asiatic Society of Japan Bulletin No. 3", March 2001, compiled by Prof. Hugh E. Wilkinson and Mrs. Doreen Simmons.
Return to the ASJ 2001 lecture schedule