Jay Rubin

Who is Jay Rubin?

Jay Rubin is an American academic and translator. He is most notable for being one of the main translators into English of the works of the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami. He has also written a guide to Japanese, Making Sense of Japanese, and a biographical literary analysis of Murakami.

He has a Ph.D. in Japanese literature from the University of Chicago. Currently a professor at Harvard, he taught at the University of Washington for eighteen years. In his early research career he focused on the Meiji state censorship system. More recently Rubin has concentrated his efforts on Murakami, and Noh drama. His most recent publications are Modern Japanese Writers, and Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words. His translation of 18 stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa appeared as a Penguin Classics in 2006.

Rubin also translated the "Thousand Years of Dreams" passages for use in the Japanese-produced Xbox 360 game Lost Odyssey.