Malaysian Institute of Translation & Books (ITBM), Kinokuniya Co. Ltd, and the Japan-Malaysia Association (JMA) signed the Memorandum of Understanding on 5 March 2019 to promote understanding and awareness of two cultures through the publication.

The event, which was held at the office of the Minister of Education of Malaysia, Dr Maszlee Malik, was attended by Mr. Masashi Takai, the president of Kinokuniya, together with Mr. Takuji Arai from JMA and Mr. Sakri Abdullah from ITBM.

Based on this MoU, JMA will cooperate with ITBM, who also represented the Malaysian Scholarly Publishing Council (MAPIM) for this Memorandum, to translate Japanese books into the Malay language and Malaysian books into Japanese, while Kinokuniya will arrange the sale of such books in both countries.

While Malaysia and Japan strengthen their ties through tourism, trade and overall economic activities in recent years, there is still a room to learn from each other and deepen the understanding of cultures.  Information needed to that goal is still limited due to the language barrier, and parties involved agreed that there is a gap that needed to be filled.  The JMA has been translating books into Japanese since 2014, and this MoU will further strengthen that effort through the cooperation with Malaysian partners.

Information is also available in Malay on the ITBM’s Facebook page.