09 January 2008

Solicitor’s Japanese challenge

Solicitor Andrew Clare, a graduate of the University of Sheffield, has finally completed a five-year challenge to translate a Japanese novel into English.

Andrew Clare, head of the corporate department at Napthens, Blackburn, has translated ‘Kiri no Hata’, a detective novel by popular Japanese author Seicho Matsumoto. The book was published under the title ‘Pro Bono’ by Vertical Inc last month.

Mr Clare studied Japanese language at the University of Sheffield, graduating as a mature student in 1991. After that he gained a masters degree in the Faculty of Law of Kobe University in Japan.

He started translating the book in his spare time while he worked for US law firm Latham and Watkins in Tokyo.

He said: "I did not start off with the intention of translating the whole book, it was simply a way of keeping my language skills up to scratch. But I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and it became a hobby for me when I had some spare time, particularly while I was on my own in Japan when my family returned to England for holidays.

"The book has a fantastic story, about a miscarriage of justice and the struggles to find legal representation. Seicho Matsumoto is one of Japan's most successful and prolific authors. He wrote about 400 books in a 50-year period, which is astonishing."