Celebrity Translators and Beyond: An Interview with Motoko Akashi

Motoko Akashi has been a key member of the research team at Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation for the past three years. During this time, she has been based both at Trinity College Dublin and at Waseda University in Tokyo, where she spent months collecting and digitising translations published in the early twentieth century.

Much of Motoko's research to date has focused on the curious phenomenon of celebrity literary translators, although her career to date has been anything but conventional.

As Motoko prepares to move on to the next stage of her adventure, we take the opportunity to talk to her about her life so far, her research, and what the future holds for her. 

This event is free and all are welcome. 

Dr Motoko Akashi is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation, Trinity College Dublin. Her research focuses on the commercial aspects of literary translation and translator status. Her current project, IMPACTRANS, examines translators in Meiji Japan (1868–1912), exploring their social status and approaches to indirect translation. She is currently co-editing a volume on Haruki Murakami’s translators with Dr James Hadley, Dr Andrea Bergantino, and Cristina Barroso. She is due to embark on a new career at Kansai University, Osaka, in April 2026.