Motoko Rich, who began working for the New York Times in 2003, has been appointed as that paper’s publishing beat reporter.
And who is Motoko Rich?
I often wondered who she was, what her background was, but I could never seem to get through to her office at the Times. Now the Times itself notes:
Before arriving at the New YorkTimes, Motoko Rich was a reporter at The Wall Street Journal for six years, and also worked as a reporter at the Financial Times in London.
Motoko Rich was born in Los Angeles and raised mostly in Petaluma, Calif., but came east after high school to study history at Yale, from which she graduated in 1991. Motoko also received a Mellon Fellowship to study at Cambridge in the UK.
Ms. Rich has not written about Japanese or Japanese-American issues that often during her time at the New York Times, but I first became aware of her writing when she stepped into the critical brouhaha both pro and con over Sofia Coppola’s movie “Lost in Translation.” She wrote an insightful article on the movie for the Times then (see Google or NYTimes archives] and her POV got debated pro and con on hundreds of Internet blogs.
So I expect that as the new publishing and books reporter for the Times, while most of her reporting will be focused on the US and UK publishing industries, some of her reporting might venture into the Japanese publishing field, too, with articles and interviews perhaps with Haruki Murakami, Nobel winner Oe and the growing translation field from English to Japanese (and Japanese to English).
Michiko Kakutani, who also attended Yale, is the Times preeminent (spell-check) book critic for all seasons and has already made a big name for herself nationwide.
Anyways, good luck, Ms. Rich, and hope to see your article Times about the Murakami stolen (and secretly sold) manuscripts soon!
ARTS AND LEISURE DESK | January 4, 2004
New York Times
Land Of the Rising Cliché
By MOTOKO RICH [LUKAS SCHWARZACHER and FUMIE TOMITA, IN TOKYO, CONTRIBUTED REPORTING FOR THIS ARTICLE].
SUMMARY: Are Hollywood’ s depictions of Japan in ” Lost in Translation,” ” The Last Samurai” and ” Kill Bill” naïve, racist, well-intentioned, accurate — or all of the above?
Now That Japan Is Cool, Its Fiction Seeks U.S. Fans
March 15, 2004, Monday
By MOTOKO RICH (NYT)
The Arts/Cultural Desk
Text begins: In his small office on Park Avenue South, Ioannis Mentzas is surrounded by more than 1,000 books, nearly all in Japanese. Most, he said, aren’t worth translating for an American audience. It is his task — his obligation, his burden — to pick the few that are. Mr. Mentzas…….
I expect that now as the number one book reporter at the Times, Ms. Rich will be reporting on things like this more often.