Background
He was born in 1961 in the family of Eno Raud and Aino Pervik, both writers for children.
He was born in 1961 in the family of Eno Raud and Aino Pervik, both writers for children.
He graduated from the Leningrad State University (now called Saint St. Petersburg State University) in 1985 in Japanese Studies and earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Literary Theory at the University of Helsinki in 1994.
Raud has worked in the Estonian Institute of Humanities (now a part of Tallinn University) and the University of Helsinki, where he is currently a professor in the Department of World Cultures. From 2006 to 2011 Raud served as the first rector of the Tallinn University. In 2011-2014 he was the President of the European Association of Japanese Studies.
Raud is an honorary doctor of the University of Latvia and the Vytautas Magnus University.
As a scholar, Raud has published on a wide range of subjects from cultural theory to pre-modern Japanese literature and philosophy, both in English and Estonian. His work on Japan has dealt with some of the most important philosophical thinkers, notably Dōgeneral and Nishida Kitarō.
As an author, Raud has published four collections of poetry, seven novels and several collections of short stories and plays. Raud has also frequently contributed to the Estonian public debate by opinion pieces, essays and critical newspaper columns, in which he has expressed left-liberal views and criticised nationalist attitudes.
In 2003-2004 he hosted a philosophical talk show on the Estonian television called Vita brevis.
Raud is also well known for his translations of Japanese classical literature into Estonian. These include Süda on ainuke lill (Heart is the Only Flower, anthology of waka poetry, 1994), Hullunud pilv (The Crazy Cloud by Ikkyu, 2010) and Mäetipp järve põhjas (The Mountain Peak on the Bottom of the Lake, anthology of haiku poetry, 2008). He has also published a translation of Dante Alighieri"s Vita Nova.