2015 ホビットの冒険 Hobitto no Bōken (Yuka Nagayoshi)

The Hobbit

Release Date: 2015.03.26
Reader: Yuka Nagayoshi
Language: Japanese
Translators: Teiji Seta
Publisher: Iwanami Shoten & Otobank
ISBN: –
Duration: 18 hours 16 minutes
Unabridged: Yes
Country: Japan
Licensed: Yes
Format: Digital

Yuka Nagayoshi is a professional Japanese narrator and voice actress known for her work in documentaries and educational programs. She voiced characters like Jara Greyjoy in the Japanese dub of Game of Thrones and Young Barnaby in Tiger & Bunny. This recording uses the Teiji Seta translation (first published in 1965). The production was a collaboration between Iwanami Shoten (the long-standing publisher of Tolkien in Japan) and Otobank Inc., released on their FeBe platform (now Audiobook.jp).

While it is a reading, Otobank marketed it as “Sound Entertainment” (Oto no Entāteinmento), using high-fidelity recording techniques to emphasize the atmosphere of Middle-earth. It includes supplementary materials (referred to in Japanese metadata as Tenpu Shiryō), which consist of digital maps of the Lonely Mountain and the Wild.

It is possible, tho unconfirmed, that in the 1970s there were a number of radio broadcasts by NHK (Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai) which featured Hobbit no Bōken (The Hobbit) on educational and cultural programs, but not a dedicated radio drama production. This could potentially could have included a serialised reading.