There are countless great books in Japanese that have never been read in English. Arigatai Books exists to shorten that list.
We publish books by Japanese authors, and by writers strongly shaped by Japanese culture. Most of the catalogue is work from the 1910s to the 1960s — detective fiction, the first wave of Japanese science fiction, fairy tales, women's writing — translated here for the first time.
The second half of the work is for people learning the language. Several of our books set the original Japanese beside the English, line by line, so you can read a real story with the original always within reach.
奥付
二人
Has been studying Japanese language and culture for more than twenty years. He has written the blog Self Taught Japanese since 2013, now past 900 articles, began literary translation in 2016, and published his first book in 2018. He lives in Portland, Oregon with his family.
A native Japanese speaker who loves books enough that, given a time machine, she would spend the trip in the Library of Alexandria.
Arigatai means thankful. Being thankful for what surrounds you is a deep habit in Japanese culture, and the everyday ありがとう comes from the same root. We want to make books readers are thankful for — not only because they exist in English at last, but because of the culture and history sitting inside them.