Rushdie attack recalls 1991 killing of his Japanese translator

The stabbing of the author is not the first time there has been violence against people associated with the publication of his novel The Satanic Verses.

Hikari Hida and Mike Ives

Aug 14, 2022 – 3.02pm

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The attack on Salman Rushdie in New York state on Friday prompted renewed interest in previous attacks on people connected to his 1988 novel, The Satanic Verses, including its Japanese translator, who was killed in 1991.

The translator, Hitoshi Igarashi, was stabbed to death that July at Tsukuba University, north-east of Tokyo, where he had been teaching comparative Islamic culture for five years. No arrests were ever made, and the crime remains unsolved. Rushdie said at the time that news of Igarashi’s death had left him feeling “extremely distressed”.