Ghodratollah Zakeri, translator of Murakami's works from original Japanese, believes that he is not a favorite writer among Japanese readers.

IBNA: Born January 12, 1949, Murakami is a Japanese writer and translator. His works of fiction and non-fiction have garnered him critical acclaim and numerous awards, including the Franz Kafka Prize and Jerusalem Prize among others; however, he has been surprisingly removed from the Man Booker 2012 shortlist. 

Murakami's fiction, often criticized by Japan's literary establishment, is humorous and surreal, and at the same time focuses on themes of alienation and loneliness. His writing criticizes the decline in human values and a loss of connection among people in Japan's society. He is considered an important figure in postmodern literature and praised as "among the world's greatest living novelists" for his works and achievements. 

Murakami published his first work in 1980 and the first Persian translation of him appeared in 2008 with "Where I'm Likely to Find It"; this was just the beginning of Murakami's fame in Iran and consequent flow of Murakami translations in Iran. 

Most of these translations have been made by Mahdi Ghabraee who translates from Enbglish to Persian. 

Ghodratollah Zakeri graduated in Japanese Language and Literature from the University of Tehran and is the only one who translates Murakami from original Japanese. 

"Although Murakami's works have been converted to over 40 languages in the world, he has not yet been able to win the Akutagawa Award – the most significant Japanese literary ward," said Zakeri. 

He divides Japanese writers into three categories: first, those writers that are still loyal for the Japanese style of writing with highly local themes centering on Japanese culture. The second category involves those who produce local Japanese literature under the western influence. And the last category includes writers like Murakami whose works are not Japanese and are formed under the western influence. These stories may have taken place anywhere in the world and they lack Japanese elements. That is why his works are not welcome in Japan as much as they are popular in other countries. 

He continued: "Murakami's audiences in Japan seem to form two groups: those who impatiently expect new releases and those who find him westoxized and hate him. Mukarami's literature is easy to read and so it opposes the difficult style of classic Japanese literature. Japanese classics have special audiences and this feature is missing in Murakami. That is why university professors and critics don't receive him well." 

According to him, the time of writing in Murakami's stories can be divided into different phases: in the first phase, Murakami showed contemplation over the world around him but gradually he lost interest in his environment and separated himself from the society and focused on himself. The third phase of his writings begins with a terrorist attack to a subway station in Tokyo and subsequent events. After these Murakami felt more responsibility for the society and focused on social subject matters. 

"How the World Reads Haruki Murakami is a book published in Japan that analyzes the reasons for his global success", added Zakeri. "In these articles, Japanese critics find out that Murakami's writings are interpreted in the light of Japanese rituals, whereas according to the public and to critics these works have nothing to do with Japanese traditional culture." 

Referring to the problems of translating Murakami in Iran, he said: "One of these problems is publishing Murakami selections – stories taken from various sources and patched together in a volume, whereas each volume of Murakami's stories revolve around a central concept and the categories should not change." 

Mahdi Ghabraee, Mojtaba Veysi, Mahmoud Moradi, Guita Gorgani, Farnaz Haeri, and Asieh and Parvaneh Azizi are some of Murakami translators in Iran.

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