Translation Prize Shortlist Highlights the Year’s Best Japanese Books Published in English

Four Books and Translators Nominated

The shortlist for the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation Translation Prize was announced on December 1, including both fiction and nonfiction translated from Japanese into English. This year, the prize—run by the foundation in association with the Society of Authors—considers books published in Britain between April 1, 2024, and March 31, 2025. The results are due to be announced in February 2026; the translator of the winning title will receive £3,000 and the runner-up £1,000.

In the third year of the award, all four of the nominated translators appear for the first time on the shortlist. Hunchback is translated by Polly Barton from Ichikawa Saou’s 2023 novel about the sexual desires of a severely disabled woman. Ichikawa’s work won the Akutagawa Prize, and the translation was longlisted for the International Booker Prize. Mina’s Matchbox is Stephen Snyder’s sixth book-length translation of a work by Ogawa Yōko. The narrator Tomoko looks back on her childhood in the 1970s with her fragile, book-loving cousin Mīna.

The Little Sparrow Murders, translated by Bryan Karetnyk, is the sixth of Yokomizo Seishi’s classic mysteries featuring the detective Kindaichi Kōsuke to appear in English. This installment sees links between a children’s song and a series of murders. Mornings with My Cat Mii (Mornings Without Mii in some markets) is translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori from a 1999 memoir by the poet and writer Inaba Mayumi about the 20-year relationship with her cat.

The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation Translation Prize Shortlist (2025)

• Hunchback translated by Polly Barton from Hanchibakku (2023) by Ichikawa Saou
• Mina’s Matchbox translated by Stephen Snyder from Mīna no kōshin (2006) by Ogawa Yōko
• The Little Sparrow Murders translated by Bryan Karetnyk from Akuma no temari uta (1959) by Yokomizo Seishi
• Mornings with My Cat Mii translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori from Mī no inai asa (1999) by Inaba Mayumi

The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation Translation Prize is one of nine Society of Authors translation prizes for 2025.

(Originally published in English. Banner photo © Natalie Thorpe.)