About Us

Who we are

Trans Pacific Press (TPP) is a specialist academic publisher based in Tokyo, Japan, dedicated exclusively to publishing scholarly books in English. Founded in 2000, TPP has published more than 400 titles in the social sciences and humanities, with a particular focus on Japan and Asia.

TPP is unique as the only publishing house specializing in the translation and publication of academic books from Japanese into English for international audiences. While most Japanese academic publishers publish exclusively in Japanese and major international publishers primarily accept manuscripts written in English, important Japanese scholarship has often remained inaccessible to global academic discussions. TPP was established to bridge this gap and bring Japan’s intellectual achievements to readers worldwide.

Drawing on extensive expertise in academic translation, editorial development, and global distribution, TPP collaborates with leading university presses and academic institutions across Japan. Our partners include Kyoto University Press, the University of Tokyo Press, Keio University Press, and the National Museum of Ethnology, among others. Through co-publishing projects, editorial partnerships, and international distribution services, we support the worldwide dissemination of Japanese scholarship.

Today, TPP’s publications reach universities, libraries, researchers, and readers around the world through an extensive global distribution network.

Our History

Trans Pacific Press was founded in 2000 by Professor Yoshio Sugimoto of La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, with the mission of promoting Japanese scholarship in the social sciences and humanities to an international readership.

Over the following two decades, TPP established itself as a leading publisher of English-language works on Japan and Asia. In 2020, on the company’s twentieth anniversary, Professor Sugimoto retired from active publishing and relocated TPP’s operations from Melbourne to Tokyo. He continues to support the company as an advisor.
Since then, under the leadership of Managing Director Yuko Uematsu, TPP has expanded its publishing and distribution activities while strengthening its digital publishing program. Building on its established presence in North America, TPP continues to broaden its reach throughout Europe, Asia, and the Pacific.

TPP remains committed to publishing academically rigorous, internationally relevant scholarship and to ensuring that Japanese research and intellectual achievements are accessible to readers around the world.

Our Leaders

Director

UEMATSU Yuko

UEMATSU Yuko is Director of Trans Pacific Press. Yuko graduated from the University of Tsukuba, with a major in Anthropology. After working with mass-media companies, including a publisher and newspaper company, she joined the language solution provider Crimson Interactive Pvt. Ltd, based in Mumbai, India. She was appointed as the first CEO of its Japan subsidiary, a position she held for more than 13 years. During that time, she contributed to growing the company from 15 employees to more than 450. While managing the company, she continued her lifework of interviewing scholars in Japan to ask what difficulties they faced communicating in English language and what they do to try to overcome the English language barrier. Based on these interviews, she published “English, idiot!” (2009). The book has been widely read by Japanese audiences, from English learners to businessmen and teachers.

Adviser

SUGIMOTO Yoshio

SUGIMOTO Yoshio is a Japanese-Australian sociologist based in Melbourne. He is currently Professor Emeritus at La Trobe University.

After graduating from the Faculty of Law, Kyoto University, he worked for the Mainichi Shimbun Newspaper in Tokyo for three years before moving to the United States in 1967. Upon obtaining a Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Pittsburgh in 1973, he began teaching in the Department of Sociology at La Trobe University where he was appointed Professor of Sociology and Dean of Social Sciences in 1988. In the same year, he was elected to a Fellowship of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. He was Foundation Director of the Japanese Studies Centre in Melbourne, established in 1981. His book An Introduction to Japanese Society, published by Cambridge University Press, is widely read as an authoritative academic text on Japanese society and entered its fifth edition in 2021.

In 1999, he founded Trans Pacific Press and directed it for 20 years. Retiring in June 2020 at the age of 80, he invited Yuko to head the press and make a fresh start in Tokyo.

Our Partners

• Kyoto University Press
• University of Tokyo Press
• Keio University Press
• APU (Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University)
• Tohoku University
• Kwansei Gakuin University