Monkey tour complet, 4/26 - 5/8 2015

MONKEY BUSINESS US MIDWEST AND NEW YORK 2015 SPRING TOUR  

MIDWEST
With:
Aoko Matsuda
Satoshi Kitamura
Susan Harris (4/28)

April 27 (Mon.) – Chicago, IL: Columbia College-Chicago, 1:00 – 5:00 pm

April 28 (Tue.) – Chicago, IL: University of Chicago, 4:30 – 8:00 pm

April 29 (Wed.) – Kalamazoo, MI: Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo), 4:30pm~

April 30 (Thur.) – Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin (Madison), 5:00 – 7:00pm

NEW YORK
With:
Aoko Matsuda
Satoshi Kitamura
Ben Katchor (5/3 – 5/6)
Kelly Link (5/4 & 5/6)
Jay Rubin (5/7)

May 3 (Sun.) – Brooklyn, NY: BookCourt, 4:00pm~

May 4 (Mon.) – New York, NY: Asia Society, 6:30pm~

May 6 (Wed.) – New York, NY: McNally Jackson, 8:00pm~

May 7 (Thur.) – New York, NY: Japan Society, 6:30pm~

Meet us in Michigan, 4/29

From Timbuktu to Kalamazoo -- Monkey Business at Western Michigan University, April 29th.

Japan's anime biz screams for streaming, for The Japan Times

At last, Japan gets it

by Roland Kelts

The Japanese entertainment industry is finally growing up, says Shin Unozawa, and he should know. Unozawa joined Bandai Entertainment back in 1981, and serves as chair of the Computer Entertainment Supplier’s Association (CESA), co-hosts of the Tokyo Game Show.

Now he is CEO of the recently formed Anime Consortium Japan (ACJ) — a multipartner corporation launched last November, with the goal of localizing and consolidating the digital streaming of official Japanese content.

The ACJ’s lineup is top shelf: Production and advertising giants Toei, Sunrise, TMS, Aniplex, Asatsu-DK, Nihon Ad Systems and Dentsu have teamed up with major shareholders Bandai Namco Holdings and the government-sponsored Cool Japan Fund. Their primary aim is to tackle piracy and develop the first Japan-centered streaming entertainment and e-commerce platform called Daisuki. It’s as impressive as it is long overdue.

What the West can learn from Japan, for New Statesman

What the west can learn from Japan’s “lost decades”

Roland Kelts wonders whether Japan-style stagnation would really be so bad in the west.

by Roland Kelts

I travel back and forth between Japan and the United States, mostly Tokyo and New York and a few other American cities, several times a year. The contrast is jarring. Arriving in the US can feel like rolling back a decade or more, returning to a time when information was scarce, infrastructure was creaky and basic services such as ground transportation were chaotic and unreliable.

I steel myself before landing, my mind tallying variables and unknowns: will my luggage land with me and emerge on the dingy carousel? Will the taxi that I booked online arrive on time, at the right terminal, or at all? Will traffic impede me on my journey?

And then there’s the view. Whether it’s the outskirts of Queens on the way from New York’s JFK International Airport or the fringes of the Los Angeles highway off-ramps by LAX, everything seems a bit run down and decrepit.

Landing in Tokyo, though, is a breeze.  All the travelators and escalators glide silently; the wall-mounted clocks, digital and analogue, tell the right time. When I reach the baggage carousel, my suitcase is already circling. Trains and buses depart punctually. I don’t have to pre-book because they’re scheduled minutes apart. I don’t have to think of anything beyond the last book I was reading during touchdown, fishing out my passport at immigration and what I might order for dinner that evening once I reach my apartment. Everything seems to be taken care of and nothing is broken. As I ease into town, usually on the limousine bus service, the streets outside are teeming with well-dressed urbanites heading home from work or out to restaurants, everyone in motion with purpose and meaning.

The MONKEY meets MURKAMI at The Japan Society New York, 5/7

The Magical Art of Translation: From Haruki Murakami to Japan's Latest Storytellers

Thursday, May 7, 6:30 PM
Buy Tickets
Jay Rubin, Ted Goossen, Aoko Matsuda, Satoshi Kitamura, Motoyuki Shibata, Roland Kelts.

Since 1989, Jay Rubin has translated many of Haruki Murakami's most successful and prize-winning novels, including The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Norwegian Wood and 1Q84. In this program, he is joined by Ted Goossen, translator of Murakami's most recent U.S. publications, The Strange Library (Knopf, December 2014) and Wind/Pinball: Two Early Novels (Knopf, August 2015), and co-editor of Monkey Business literary magazine, which showcases the best of contemporary Japanese literature for an international audience. They will discuss the unique challenges of translating modern Japanese literary works into American English, and vice versa. Rubin will also talk about his transition from translator to novelist vis-à-vis his debut novel The Sun Gods.

Joining the discussion from Tokyo will be authors Aoko Matsuda and Satoshi Kitamura, and Motoyuki Shibata, friend and translating partner of Murakami, former University of Tokyo professor, and the Japanese translator of such American literary luminaries as Paul Auster and Thomas Pynchon. Author Roland Kelts, co-editor of Monkey Business, moderates the discussion. Followed by a reception.

Tickets: $12/$8 Japan Society members, students & seniors

This program is funded, in part, by a generous grant from The Japan Foundation, New York.

Meet me in Madison, 4/30

With Satoshi Kitamura, Aoko Matsuda, Motoyuki Shibata, Adam L. Kern and Glynne Walley. Hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

On the road again: Chicago appearance, 4/28

With Satoshi Kitamura, Aoko Matsuda, Motoyuki Shibata, Susan Harris and Michael Bourdaghs. Hosted by the University of Chicago. Specs here.