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Juliet Carpenter
Presentations
About the Speaker
Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, I first came to Japan in spring 1960 when I accompanied my father on a trip around the world, starting in Asia. We arrived days after the birth of the present Crown Prince, a happy coincidence that helped spark a lifelong fascination with and sense of closeness to the country. (And, on the penultimate leg of our journey, we arrived in England just as the wedding of Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon was being celebrated!) Later I studied Japanese, first in high school in Illinois and then at the University of Michigan—primarily because of my admiration for Edward Seidensticker, who was then on the faculty there.
After college I spent a year at the Inter-University Center in Tokyo, where I learned to speak Japanese with confidence. Subsequently I got my start as a professional translator working for the wheel extended, an English-language quarterly put out by Toyota Motor Corp and dealing in technical and social issues relating to transportation.
After more graduate school, I came to Japan in 1975 with my husband Bruce, and we’ve lived in Nara ever since. I’ve taught at Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts, in Kyoto, since 1986. We raised three bilingual sons, and now we have two granddaughters in Japan. My published translations number around fifty, so far—and I mean to keep going as long as I can! To me, translating is a passion and a privilege.