2020年9月に田村明著『都市ヨコハマをつくる』（中公新書1983）をNPOの事業として英訳刊行した。NPO会員や田村明につながる人々にお配りしたが、早速、世界の頂点から反応があった。英国の人文社会科学系専門の大手出版社であるルートレッジRoutledge社の「都市計画・歴史・環境シリーズ」“Planning, History and Environment Series”でその編集長のアン・ラドキンAnn Rudkin女史からである。彼女と9月中旬から二か月間に亘って、出版企画のやり取りをした。ことの発端は、英訳本を進呈した国際都市計画史学会IPHS会員で東京理科大学名誉教授の渡辺俊一先生より、ジョン・ゴールド教授Professor John Goldを紹介され、ゴールド教授が自分より優れた編集者としてラドキン氏を紹介してくれたことによる。ラドキン編集長は英訳本の内容を高く評価してくれたが、日本のことを全く知らない読者向けに高度な学術論文を紹介文Introductionと詳細な注釈をつけることを求められた。それに応えるには田口では「役不足（英語表現では「田村明に近すぎる」）」とされ、出版を断念された。残念ではあるが、2か月間に亘るやり取りで、ラドキン編集長の誠実な人柄を感じることができた。なお、当該シリーズは、世界の著名人が書く極めて質の高いもので、世界の出版界の「最高峰」ともいえる。このような破格の場を垣間見る機会を提供していただいた渡辺俊一先生とゴールド教授に感謝したい。これで、田村明が世界に通用することが分かり、かつ世界の出版界の一端を見ることができた。そして、他の可能性を模索するためにも、田村明を日本の都市計画史上で位置付ける学術論文を早急にまとめる必要がある、と感じている。益々頑張りたい、と思っている。なお、このシリーズのサイトは以下で見ることができる、
In September 2020, we completed an English translation version of Akira Tamura's book " Yokohama: The Making of a City" (Chukoh Shinsho, 1983) as a project of a non-profit organization and distributed it to NPO members and people connected to Akira Tamura. All of a sudden, we received a response from the top of the world, Ann Rudkin, editor-in-chief of the "Planning, History and Environment Series" of Routledge, a leading British publisher specializing in the humanities and social sciences. I, Toshio Taguchi as a representative of NPO, exchanged with her for two months from the middle of September to discuss the publication plan. This all started thanks to the initial advice given from Professor Shunichi Watanabe, a member of the International Planning History Society (IPHS) and professor emeritus of the Science University of Tokyo. He kindly introduced Professor John Gold, one of his friends of IPHS, to me and then Prof. Gold had a chance to talk about the book with Ann Rudkin who is an able editor. Rudkin highly appreciated the contents of the English version and saw a possibility to set it as a candidate of her publication projects. Therefore, she asked me to provide an extensive historical introduction and detailed notes necessary as a highly academic book for readers who were completely unfamiliar with Japan. I was deemed "not good enough" (or "too close to Akira Tamura" in English) to respond to the request, and thereafter the book was abandoned for publication. Nevertheless, I could feel the sincerity of the editor-in-chief's personality during the two months of correspondence. The series in question is of extremely high quality, written by world-renowned figures, and can be considered the "pinnacle" of the world's publishing industry. I would like to thank Prof. Watanabe and Prof. Gold for providing me with the opportunity to get a glimpse of the top of the world as an unparalleled opportunity. This has convinced me to see that Akira Tamura is world class and meaningful even in the world's publishing community. I also feel that I need to compile an academic paper on Tamura's place in the history of Japanese urban planning as soon as possible to explore the next publishing possibilities. I will work harder on this project. Lastly, the website of this series by Rudkin can be found at the URL as follows:
https://www.routledge.com/Planning-History-and-Environment-Series/book-series/PHE?pd=published,forthcoming&pg=1&pp=12&so=pub&view= list
