Panel presentation :

This panel explores various aspects of translation and the use of loanwords in contemporary Japanese society as well as its implication for national identity. The first three papers (Guarné, Hosokawa, and Koyama) focus on the use of angular syllabaries, katakana. Katakana is mainly used for Western loanwords (and some mimetic words), while hiragana (cursive syllabaries) and kanji (Chinese characters) are used for Japanese native words and long-standing highly assimilated Sino-Japanese loans. The use of katakana thus makes a visual differentiation based on the etymological origin of the Japanese vocabulary. However, the use of katakana also represents the perception of objects, concepts, events, and names expressed by the word. There are thus cases in which words in katakana are preferred to the hiragana or kanji equivalents, and vice-versa. There are also cases in which Japanese words or names are intentionally written in katakana for a specific reason. The three papers will analyse how the use of katakana manifests or influences the cultural and linguistic identity of Japan. The final paper (Raju) will then discuss the practice of cultural translation in a more general sense, by examining the case study of Bangali textualisation of Japan. This panel is thus expected to shed light on the inextricable intertwinement between orthography, language, culture, and national identity.