Gen Watanabe is Mr. Hosokawa's translator and assistant. He is a quiet, sensitive and gifted young man who speaks several languages. As the translator, he is usually at the center of the action of the novel, although he is the only hostage, besides a priest, who is not fabulously wealthy and powerful. He begins tutoring Carmen when she asks him to teach her how to read and write in Spanish and English, and they begin meeting each night in the china closet to study and eventually make love.
