A series of translated Japanese plays that begins in the 1990s and moves back to the mid-20th century. The aim of the Japan Playwrights Association is to offer performable English translations of modern Japanese plays, to encourage the production of such plays out of Japan, and to extend possibilities for further international exchange.

Half a Century of Japanese Theater is a series of translated Japanese plays that begins from the contemporary theater scene of the 1990s and moves back through the decades of modern Japanese theater to the mid-twentieth century. The threefold aim of the Japan Playwrights Association in publishing this series is to offer performable English translations of modern Japanese plays, to encourage the production of such plays by foreign theatrical troupes, and to extend possibilities for further international exchange in theater.