Japan's Potter translator feuds with tax officials

Tokyo, July 26: Harry Potter's Japanese translator could use a little magic.

Yuko Matsuoka, who has translated and published the global best sellers, is feuding with Japanese tax officials over nearly 30 million dollars in income they say she failed to declare, media reports said today.

Matsuoka, 62, says she is a resident of Switzerland, but tax officials in Japan say she spent more of her time here for three years from 2001, and they want her to pay more than 700 million yen (6 million dollars) in back taxes, the reports said.

Matsuoka's Say-zan-sha Publications declined to comment.

But the media reports said she has appealed, asking Japanese and Swiss authorities to recognise her Swiss residency.

Matsuoka beat Japan's big publishing houses to win translation rights for the Harry Potter books after reading the first book through the night. Her feat transformed Say-zan-sha Publications, which her late husband founded, from a struggling publisher run out of her apartment into a full-fledged company.

Reuters