Based in Tokyo, BBT specializes in the world of words:
narrations, translations, interpreting, and writing and editing of all kinds...
in almost any language!

Here are the main pillars of our business.

BBT is currently engaged in the production of many international versions of TV documentaries. Last year, the following productions received awards.

At the 28th Asian Television Awards,
NHK received the Best Documentary Series with these two programmes!
● Digital Eye Ukraine III: OSINT Unveiling the Fog of War (May 28, 2023)
● Digital Eye Ukraine II: Tracking the Ravages of War (November 19, 2022)

 

1. TV & Internet

Two of the many TV documentary programmes we have worked on recently have received awards:

2022	Isamu Noguchi’s Unfinished A-Bomb Cenotaph (TBS Sparkle NHK) - Galaxy Honors (Incentive Award) (Japan Council for Better Radio and Television in Japan.)
2023	Digital Eye Ukraine: The New Satellite War (NHK BS1 Special, NHK-World Japan TV) Intermedia-globe SILVER Award on News Reports and Features/Investigative Report (World Media Festivals Hamburg 2023 Television and Corporate Media Awards)

Other Digital Eye episodes:
Disappearing Forests (2024)
Archaeology: Making the Invisible Visible! (2024)
North Korea: The Dictatorship's Hidden Realities (2023)
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/shows/digitaleye/

Web Japan　Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan

Japan Video Topics
https://web-japan.org/jvt/

For many years, Stuart has been the narrator for “Japan Video Topics” on Web Japan of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, an ongoing series of short videos which offer a comprehensive view of Japanese culture, nature, science and technology, tourism, etc. You can enjoy streaming content from the archive that includes hundreds of topics. The videos can also be heard in other languages. Here are some recent themes:

2023:
Soma Nomaoi Horse Festival
The Beauty of Moss
Sustainable Oyster Farming
Anime Voice Actors
The Deer of Nara Park
World’s First Pro Dance League

2022:
The Japanese Way of Baseball
Okinawa Looks to the Future
Teenage Creators – The Future of Gaming
Japanese Space Food – “Delicious!”

The Asahi Glass Foundation Blue Planet Prize

https://www.af-info.or.jp/en/blueplanet/broadcasting.html
(BBT translation and Stuart's narration since 2016)

2. Latest books!

15 Tales from Shakespeare (IBC, 2024)

This is Stuart's version of 15 of the prose versions of Shakespeare's plays produced by Charles and Mary Lamb two centuries ago, with their English modernized for easier understanding today. Stuart also added some famous lines excluded by the Lambs. Yoko translated the Foreword and Notes. Stuart's narration of the complete text is available via QR codes in the text.

Stories from The Tale of Genji (Bilingual English/Japanese; IBC, 2023)

This is Stuart's version of the events in the first dozen chapters of Murasaki Shikibu's Genji Monogatari, including her imagined thoughts as she wrote her great book one millennium ago. Yoko translated the whole text, and Stuart's narration can be heard via the QR codes in the book. From the Foreword:
My aim in producing this condensed version of the first parts of Murasaki’s fascinating work has been to provide an introduction that maintains something of the essence of the original. A great deal of her subtle writing is inevitably lost in a book like this. However, Shakespeare’s plays still mean a great deal when translated into other languages, and I believe the images she created retain their power in whatever form they appear. I hope you will enjoy this brief taste of the fascinating Genji world and will feel energized to read the entire tale.

Sherlock Holmes: The Four Novels (IBC, 2023)

Stuart wrote, and Yoko translated, the Foreword titled “Whodunit, Howdunit, Whydunit..." for the collection of the four Sherlock Holmes novels in IBC’s Ladder Series. The Foreword ends with these words:
I hope you will enjoy these novels as much as I continue to do, and that you will then feel energized to read all 60 original versions of the Holmes stories. I wish you happy reading and careful observations and deductions regarding the WHO, the HOW and the WHY!

Sherlock Holmes: A Collection of 20 Short Stories (IBC, 2023)

Stuart wrote, and Yoko translated, the Foreword for the collection of Sherlock Holmes stories in IBC’s Ladder Series. The cover jacket includes this quotation from the Foreword:
— But perhaps the most important reason of all for Sherlock’s continuing popularity is that avid fans still read the stories, and this book is a great introduction to the Holmes ‘canon’. It features twenty of the most thrilling Holmes adventures and cases for you to dive into and try to solve the mysteries along with Holmes and Watson. Some of them feature murders, other involve Holmes preventing murders from occurring. They all include the fine arts of observation and deduction. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I continue to do and that you will then feel eager to read all sixty of the original stories. —

Eiraku’s 100 English Rakugo Scripts Vol.2 (Kanariya Eiraku, 2023)

Kanariya Eiraku, the distinguished performer of rakugo stories in English, continues with his mission of publishing 100 translated scripts. Stuart was invited to write the Preface for Volume 2, which contains 35 stories. Here is an extract:
As the British missionary Arthur Lloyd wrote, describing a visit to a small yose in the late Meiji period, rakugo stories send us home ‘with laughing hearts’, which we especially treasure in dark times. Now, here we are in the Twenty Twenties, with ever more international interest in rakugo, and an increasing number of both Japanese and foreign performers in English. Eiraku’s volumes are just what the English rakugo world needs to move forward at full steam, sending us all home with laughing hearts!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eirakus-100-English-Rakugo-Scripts/dp/1088184618/

Tanzanite Sunrise, poetry by Amatsu Aki (Kodansha Editorial, 2022)

Co-translations of some of the poems by Yoko and Stuart and English proofreading.

https://k-editorial.jp/cp_selfpublish/tanzanite-sunrise/?info=book

3. Other publications

CHIHAYAFURU Vol. III (Kodansha Bilingual Comics, 2018)
Translated by Yoko Toyozaki & Stuart Varnam-Atkin

CHIHAYAFURU is a popular manga series about playing competitive karuta that has been made into successful TV series and movies. We previously translated the first three Japanese volumes, and they were published in two bilingual paperback volumes. Volume III is a bilingual version of Japanese Vol. 4 and part of Vol. 5. The appendix includes Stuart's translations of all the Hyakunin Isshu poems that appear in this volume.

http://bookclub.kodansha.co.jp/product?item=0000313475

The Little Mermaid and Other Stories
by Hans Andersen, retold by Stuart Varnam-Atkin, with illustrations by Yukiko Miki
(Kodansha, Tokyo, 2018; full colour illustrations)

This new and expanded version of the book first published in the 1990s includes Japanese notes for students of English.

http://bookclub.kodansha.co.jp/product?item=0000310604

NEW TASTES IN GREEN TEA: A Novel Flavor for Familiar Drinks, Dishes, and Desserts
(Kodansha USA, 2016)
by Mutsuko Tokunaga, translated by Yoko Toyozaki and Stuart Varnam-Atkin

This prize-winning guide to all kinds of green tea, their history and their many uses has now being republished in a paperback edition. Featuring many ideas for refreshing beverages, recipes, and tea brewing secrets, it is lavishly illustrated with colour photographs.

http://www.kodanshausa.com/books/9781568365718/

GREAT DIALOGUES FROM THE WORLD OF SHAKESPEARE (The Japan Times)
by Stuart Varnam-Atkin, translation by Yoko Toyozaki

To make Shakespeare easier to understand, Stuart adapted and modernised 96 famous dialogues from As You Like It, Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, and Romeo and Juliet. The book also explains 57 well-known quotations from the plays to show their relevance and use today. Yoko translated everything, including the footnotes and synopses of the plays. The attached CD-ROM includes all the dialogues read by Stuart.

http://bookclub.japantimes.co.jp/

THREE TOUCHING TALES FOR CHRISTMAS (IBC Publishing)

The major part of this bilingual book is Stuart’s adaptation of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Stuart’s introduction was translated by Yoko.

http://www.ibcpub.co.jp/eigogakushu/9784794603142.html

THE BEST OF JAPANESE CULTURE: A Photographic Overview (IBC Publishing)
by Stuart Varnam-Atkin, translation by Yoko Toyozaki

This bilingual book presents an explanation of a broad selection of over 80 colourful aspects of Japanese culture to answer the many questions that foreigners tend to ask about Japan. The colour photographs, some taken by Stuart, were carefully selected to give a vivid visual idea of Japanese life. The book is perfect for anyone who needs to explain Japanese culture in English or as a beautiful reminder of Japan for visitors.

http://www.ibcpub.co.jp/eigogakushu/9784794602862.html

TRAD JAPAN SNAPSHOTS (NHK Publishing)
by Stuart Varnam-Atkin, translation by Yoko Toyozaki

This is the second volume of Stuart’s mini-essays on a variety of cross-cultural experiences and thoughts on life in Japan based on the Stuart’s Titbits column in the textbook for the Trad Japan TV series (NHK Educational). It includes more of Stuart’s photos taken in the 1970s.

https://www.nhk-book.co.jp/shop/main.jsp?trxID=C5010101&webCode=00351062012

CHIHAYAFURU Vols. I & II (Kodansha Bilingual Comics)
Translated by Yoko Toyozaki & Stuart Varnam-Atkin

TRAD JAPAN, MOD NIPPON (NHK Publishing)
by Stuart Varnam-Atkin, translation by Yoko Toyozaki

Some of Stuart’s cross-cultural experiences and thoughts on life in Japan are expressed in 30 bilingual essays based on the Stuart’s Titbits series of mini-essays that appeared in the textbook for the NHK TV series Trad Japan. Also included are 40 of Stuart’s black-and-white analogue photos taken back in the good old days of the 1970s!

https://www.nhk-book.co.jp/shop/main.jsp?trxID=C5010101&webCode=00350982011