Judit Vihar (Hungarian style Vihar Judit; born August 28, 1944, Budapest, Hungary), professor emerita of Eötvös Loránd University Budapest and Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church, Japanologist, literary translator, haiku poet and organizer. She founded the Hungarian Haiku Club in 2000 and served as president and of the Hungary–Japan Friendship Society 2001–2023 and of the Association of Japanese Studies since 2001. She organized the World Haiku Festival in Pécs, Hungary, in 2010 and inaugurated the annual Hungarian Haiku Day celebrations in 2013. Vihar’s major publications are A japán irodalom rövid története (A Brief History of Japanese Literature; 1994); Ezer magyar haiku (A Thousand Hungarian Haiku; 2010); and Örömutazás • Joy Journey • 喜びの旅 (3 vols., 2021–2023). She won First Prize in the competition at the 2002 World Haiku Festival in Akita, Japan. In 2009 she was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, 3rd Class, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon from the Japanese government, and in 2019 she won the Janus Pannonius Translation Prize of the Hungarian PEN Club. Judit Vihar prepared the Haikupedia article “Haiku in Hungary.” She resides in Budapest.
Note: This is an abstract of a longer biographical article to come.