ABSTRACT
This chapter provides some insights into socio-political aspects of the translation practised at that time of great social upheaval by examining how Meiji translators negotiated the foreign and the domestic, in the sense of building a nation in the international context when introducing unfamiliar concepts from the West. In an effort to import Western knowledge and technology after opening up the country, Japan dispatched delegations to Western nations and young Japanese were sent to study abroad. The influence of translation was widespread in terms of both accessibility and prevalence, although only a limited number of Japanese people actually went abroad and had contact with foreign people. Meiji translators’ conscious efforts to introduce unfamiliar ideas to Japan led to the development of the Japanese language. It is widely recognised that the translation of foreign texts in the Meiji period greatly contributed to the unification of the Japanese language.
