Juliet Winters Carpenter, an American translator of modern Japanese literature, died on May 1, 2026.
She was born in 1948 in the American Midwest and studied Japanese literature at the University of Michigan and the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies in Tokyo. After completing graduate studies in 1973, she returned to Japan in 1975 and worked in translation and teaching.
Carpenter was professor emerita at Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts in Kyoto and was involved in the Japanese Literature Publishing Project, a government-supported effort to translate and publish Japanese books overseas. She was also a licensed instructor of the koto and shamisen.
Juliet Winters Carpenter, 77-78, American translator.