Juliet Winters Carpenter (May 10, 1948 – May 1, 2026) was an American translator of modern Japanese literature. Her translations of fiction and non-fiction have won many awards.
Early life and education Carpenter was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1948. She studied Japanese literature at the University of Michigan and the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies in Tokyo. After completing her graduate studies in 1973, she returned to Japan in 1975, where she became involved in translation efforts and teaching.
Academic career Carpenter was professor emerita at Doshisha Women's College of Liberal Arts in Kyoto and was involved in the Japanese Literature Publishing Project (JLPP), a government-supported project translating and publishing Japanese books overseas.
Translations Carpenter's translation of Kōbō Abe's novel Secret Rendezvous (密会, Mikkai) won the 1980 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature. Her translation of Minae Mizumura's novel A True Novel (本格小説, Honkaku Shōsetsu) won the same award for 2014-2015 and earned numerous other awards including the 2014 Lewis Galantière Award of the American Translators Association. Once Upon a Time in Japan, a book of folk tales which she co-translated with Roger Pulvers, received the 2015 Gelett Burgess Children's Book Award for Best Multicultural Book.
Carpenter won the 2021-2022 Lindsey and Masao Miyoshi Translation Prize for lifetime achievement as a translator of modern Japanese literature, with reference to her translation of Mizumura Minae's An I-Novel (Columbia University Press, 2021). An I-Novel also won the 2019-20 William F. Sibley Memorial Subvention Award for Japanese Translation.
Her translation of The Great Passage by Shion Miura, an audiobook read by Brian Nishii, won the 2017 Golden Earphones Award.
Music Carpenter was an enthusiast of traditional Japanese music and taught the koto and shamisen.
Personal life and death Carpenter retired to Whidbey Island in Washington State with her husband Bruce, professor emeritus of Tezukayama University. They had three children. She died on May 1, 2026.
Translations Title Author TypeThe Ark SakuraAbe KōbōNovelBeyond the CurveAbe KōbōShort storiesSecret RendezvousAbe KōbōNovelJapanese Women: Short StoriesYamamoto ShūgorōThe HunterNonami AsaNovelUncommon ClaySidney B. Cardozo and Masaaki HiranoEssayMasksEnchi FumikoNovelThe Quickening FieldHachikai MimiPoetryBirumaHiwa SatokoPoetryWaiting on the Weather: Making Movies with Akira KurosawaNogamiTeruyoMemoirShadow FamilyMiyabe MiyukiNovelMemories of Wind and Waves: A Self-Portrait of Lakeside JapanSaga Jun'ichiOral historyThe Last Shogun: The Life of Tokugawa YoshinobuShiba RyōtarōBiographyYou Were Born for a ReasonTakamori Kentetsu, Akehashi Daiji, and Itō KentarōBuddhist philosophySalad AnniversaryTawara MachiTankaAfterWagō RyōichiPoetryA Lost ParadiseWatanabe Jun'ichiNovelThe Sail of My SoulYamaguchi SeishiHaikuEat Sleep Sit: My Year at Japan's Most Rigorous Zen TempleNonomura KaoruMemoirA CappellaKoike MarikoNovelJasmineTsujihara NoboruNovelClouds above the HillShiba RyōtarōHistorical fictionA True NovelMinae MizumuraNovelOnce Upon a Time in JapanNHKFolk talesAn I-NovelMinae MizumuraNovelThe Fall of Language in the Age of EnglishMinae MizumuraEssayInheritance From MotherMinae MizumuraNovelThe Great PassageMiura ShionAudio BookGems of Japanese LiteratureEdited by Juliet Winters Carpenter and Yuko AotaniAnthologyPax Tokugawana: The Cultural Flowering of Japan, 1603-1853Haga TōruCultural History"Kanken,” the Petition of Yamamoto Kakuma: An Annotated TranslationYamamoto Kakuma TreatiseThe Kidai Shōran Scroll: Tokyo Street Life in the Edo EraOzawa Hiromu and Kobayashi TadashiArt HistoryHeritage Culture and Business, Kyoto Style: Craftsmanship and the Creative EconomyMurayama YuzoBusinessNo Longer HumanOsamu DazaiNovel
Other works Carpenter was also the author of the book Seeing Kyoto.
References
External links Televised nostalgia in Japan: Those were the days A translator's work from Abe to Zen/Professor continues wide-ranging literary pursuits with epic novel by Ryotaro Shiba The Asian Bookshelf by Donald Richie: Blood, sweat and tears of Zen Strange Moors: 'A True Novel,' by Minae Mizumura Interview with Juliet Carpenter: Translating "The Great Passage" by Eve Kushner The Easy Life in Kamusari and Kamusari Tales Told at Night: A Conversation with Translator Juliet Winters Carpenter