A volunteer translation project sprang up and translated all of Mochio Umeda's book “Watching Shogi from Silicon Valley – Habu Yoshiharu and Modern Times” (シリコンバレーから将棋を観る-羽生善治と現代) into English in under a week.

‘Shogi Game’ by Flickr user thrig

Yoshiharu Habu is a highly-respected professional shogi (also known as Japanese chess) player. Easily the most recognizable figure in all things shogi, he is regarded by some as the ultimate strategist of our time. Mochio Umeda is a Silicon Valley-based VC, whom Asiajin calls Japan's leading web visionary. He is the author of the bestselling book ‘Web Shinkaron’ (Theory of Web Evolution), covered by GV here in 2007.

Umeda is a big shogi fan, although he doesn't play himself – a distinction that he stresses numerous times in his book. A few days before it was published, Umeda announced on his blog that the content was available for open sourced translation in any language. The timing couldn't have been better as it coincided with Golden Week and 10+ people answered the call for volunteers by Shota Yakushiji for an English translation project.

Using Google Groups and the project collaboration tool Hatena::groups, the group worked around the clock for six days on the initial translation, which was then released on PBworks. The members are mostly in their 20s and have minimal translation experience.

• Discussion site: Let's Brushup 『シリコンバレーから将棋を観る』 English version!
• Full text: Yoshiharu Habu and Modern Shogi

In the past two weeks, tensions have been running high in the Hatena community over the candid comments by Chika Watanabe – an IT consultant based in San Francisco – regarding the future of Japan:

これまでずっとなるべく言わないようにしていたのだが、もう平たく／明快に言うことにしました。
１）日本はもう立ち直れないと思う。
だから、
２）海外で勉強してそのまま海外で働く道を真剣に考えてみて欲しい。

Watanabe's blog ‘On/Off and Beyond‘ is widely-read among the Japanese tech crowd and the uproar over these comments is a story in itself.

Shota Yakushiji, the driving force behind the translation project, refers to her statement and talks about hope as his motivation for the project:

十数名のメンバーではできることに限界がある。でも、１億２千万人のメンバーができることには希望がある」

> 日本はもう立ち直れないと思う。

なんて言われて悔しいじゃないですか。僕はまだ立ち直れないなんて信じたくない。Wisdom of Crowdsの風が吹き荒れてが日本を救う、そんな日が来ることを信じたい。

Professional shogi player Endo Yusuke, who participated in the project, commented:

このプロジェクトで良いと思うのは、終着点が見えていないところ、だと思います。
ああすればこうなる、じゃあ面白くありません。この後何が起こるのか、それが分からないからこそがむしゃらになれるのです。
このエネルギーがどこへ向かい何を起こすのか、間近で見られる事になったわけですし、ますますワクワクします。

The translation is a work in progress and anybody is welcome to help improve the quality or create related content based on the text. There's also a French translation in the works, run by Yoshihisa Yamada.

Elsewhere on the web: Michi Kaifu, of Tech Mom from Silicon Valley fame, gives an overview of the project. Takuya Honnma writes about the project in the context of spreading Japanese culture. Yoko Ishikura's Blog links to an impressive series of YouTube clips on the rules of shogi.