Japanese author, translator, and fan Takumi Shibano died of pneumonia on 16 January 2010. Born 27 October 1926 in the central Japanese prefecture of Ishikawa, he co-founded and edited Uchuujin (Cosmic Dust or Space Dust), Japan’s first science-fiction fan magazine, in 1957. It slipped from monthly to irregular in the early 1970s, and published its 202nd issue last Spring. Shibano also taught high school math at Tokyo Municipal Koyamadai High School from 1951 to 1977, when he quit due to chronic asthma.
His first short story was published in 1951, and he also wrote three children’s novels: Superhuman ‘Plus X’ (1969), Operation Moonjet (1969), and Revolt in North Pole City (1977). In 1977, he left teaching, for a full-time career as a translator, working under the pen name of Kozumi Rei (which was a bit of wordplay on “Cosmic Ray”). Among the novels he translated were E.E. “Doc” Smith’s Lensman series, Hal Clement’s Needle, and Larry Niven’s Ringworld.
Later, he branched out into anime work, and consulted with Tatsunoko Productions on a number of science fiction classics, including Tekkaman, Gatchaman F, and Casshan.
Shibano chaired the first Japanese National SF Convention, in 1962, and was a Guest of Honor at the 1996 World Science Fiction Convention, LAcon III, in Los Angeles, California, and at the 2007 WorldCon, in Tokyo, Japan.
Shibano married Sachiko Takahashi in 1954, and the couple had two daughters, Miho and Minae.