Japanese Reception of Orwell?

[solomonski]

Hi all, this is my first post on this forum. I'm hoping some of you might have insights that can help me out. I'm currently working on an undergraduate thesis that is a sort of comparative analysis of Anglophone and Japanese dystopian literature. One element that I'm really missing out on right now is information about the Japanese reception of Orwell, in particular the novel 1984. I can read Japanese pretty well, but it is slow-going, such that with a more obscure topic like this, it's extremely time-consuming just trying to find proper sources, much less mine them for relevant information. This is especially true since the term "1984," when entered into a database search engine, often doesn't deliver relevant results.

So, basically, I was wondering if anyone knew about anything like notable reviews of 1984 by Japanese critics, Japanese Orwell scholarship, or even just sources for general information. Anything -- titles of articles, books, links to websites, names of databases or magazines -- would be helpful. In short, I need to discover how Orwell's novel was received by Japanese critics and readers.

If anyone has any information, no matter how tangential, I would very much appreciate your assistance. Thanks for taking the time to read this!

[bounty]

solomonski, have you looked to see if there is a Japanese equivalent to this site?

at the same time, my memory of collegiate library databases is that you can designate the language you want your results refined by. im a bit puzzled by your saying "1984" isn't giving you revelant results.

im wondering too---are you able to type Japanese?

just found this, kinda interesting: http://www.orwelltoday.com/readerjapan.shtml

came back with this interesting idea---I wonder if, working through the reference librarian at your school, you can set up temporary access to a database with a university in japan?