A Window onto Japanese Society: Translating Hierarchy in Yokoyama Hideo’s The Third Deadline

Fiction translation from Japanese into English is a challenging enterprise, especially regarding the translation of socio-cultural features represented in the literary works. One such area deserving further attention due to its complexity is the issue of hierarchy in Japanese society, which is represented through socio-linguistic features in the character interactions. Through a case study of crime fiction translation, this thesis proposes a guideline to enable the transfer of hierarchical nuances prevalent in Japanese crime fiction into English in order to provide potential target readers a more complex understanding of how hierarchy functions in Japanese society.