i. Introduction

All of these stories are true.

Allegedly.

Japanese message boards are different to those you might have experience with. They’re almost always anonymous, with the OP (original poster) being identified only by the serial number of their post, or a response when a threaded conversation is taking place. If you’ve ever spent any time on a ‘chan’ type website, you’ll understand the dynamic; all of those imageboards run servers based off the software that ran the original Japanese 2-Channel (known generally as ‘2-Chan’).

The anonymity means that people feel free to be their worst selves. Or confess their darkest secrets. I was trawling around on some Japanese message boards looking for some information about some Japanese adult video actresses when I found the ‘taiken’ or ‘experience’ section of a particular forum.

What a rabbit hole that turned out to be.

People anonymously sharing their true stories, confessing their hookups with siblings, their escapades in the sports supply sheds after school with classmates, and their affairs with older neighbors or stepmothers. Allegedly ‘true’ stories, as I said.

I have professionally engaged with Japanese language and culture for almost twenty years as a translator, interpreter, teacher, and cultural liaison. This is my first real work as a fiction translator, and I thought I would explain a little so you don’t think that I just ran a bunch of Japanese sex stories through Google translate and released them with my name on the front.

In the Japanese language, the subject of a sentence doesn’t have to be stated repeatedly, so in longer texts with multiple speakers or people it can be difficult to follow who is actually doing what. Additionally, the authors of these original forum posts were literally sharing their experiences (or fantasies) and probably one-handed typing. They are not professional (or even amateur) writers by any means. They certainly weren’t going back to edit their stories for clarity. There is a theory of translation (particularly for fiction) which says that successfully communicating the underlying meaning and author’s intention should be the goal, more so than a fully accurate literal translation. I’ve gone with this philosophy, using the original Japanese source as the basis for some erotic tales for the discerning English-language reader. In some places I have elaborated, to make it work as erotic fiction in English.

Here’s some original source, translated faithfully from the Japanese with no localisation or editing:

While feeling the soft, manjuu-like buttocks through the thin cloth, quickly pulled up the cloth of the skirt and slipped the hand into the skirt and succeeded in touching of the buttocks directly. Certainly underwear wasn’t worn. Touching the soft skin directly had a springy feel, like a baby’s skin.

And here’s the translation:

I felt her buttocks through the thin cloth of her summer uniform skirt. The plump flesh was soft and yielding under my fingers, like two steamed pork buns. I quickly pushed the light fabric up and slipped my fingers under to run them directly over her naked skin. She certainly was not lying about not wearing any underwear. Her naked skin was soft like a baby’s, responding firmly to my touch as I palpitated her ass.

I’ve tried to maintain the ‘Japanese-ness’ of the source text wherever possible, but balanced this with the need to ensure it works as erotica in English.

Please have a look at the Translation Notes that provide a little cultural context for the situations and stories contained within. Rather than embed this in the translations (which would just become expository dumping and delay getting to the ‘good’ bits), I have collected this together.

Please enjoy.

Kim Little

Kobe, January 2023