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Could somebody please help me to understand what にとり means in the following sentence (taken from a letter explaining the change to Reiwa era) :

「私達日本人{わたしたちにほんじん}にとり身近{みぢか}で重大{じゅうだい}な最新{さいしん}の話題{わだい}について、報告{ほうこく}申{もう}し上{あ}げます。」

My current translation attempt (having still basic japanese skills and not being either an english native speaker) is the following : "I (humbly) provide information about a recent and important subject close to us, japanese people." but I am struggling with (に)とり (obviously this doesn't mean 'bird' here, could it be a form of 取る ?)

Many thanks in advance for your help.

NOTE : Question edited in accordance to Ringil/Setris answers (initial question was about とり only)

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にとり means the same thing as にとって. にとって and にとり both come from に+取る and are two different ways to convert に+取る to 連用形. It's very common in Japanese to use the 連用形 to connect clauses. The only real difference between にとって and にとり is that にとり is more formal. There's also にとりまして, which is politer.

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    I do not see how にとり is any politer than にとって. "More formal", yes, but "politer", no.
    – user4032
    May 5, 2019 at 0:06
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Xにとり has the same meaning as Xにとって, though it sounds more formal/stiff by comparison. Depending on context, it can be translated like "as X", "for X", "from the perspective of X", "on behalf of X", etc. So 「私達日本人にとり」 in your sentence could be translated to "for us Japanese".

に‐とり【に取り】
[連語]「に取って」に同じ。「彼の成功は私に取りこの上もない喜びだ」

Source: デジタル大辞泉

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    「私達日本人にとり」 in your sentence could be translated to "on behalf of us Japanese" -- じゃあ、「[私たち日本人にとって身近で重大な]最新の話題」は、"latest topic[that's familiar and important on behalf of us Japanese ]" ?
    – Chocolate
    May 5, 2019 at 2:16
  • @Chocolate You're right, thanks for pointing it out! That was an incorrect translation on my part. "For X", i.e. "for us Japanese" would work better. I'll update my post to reflect this.
    – Setris
    May 5, 2019 at 6:39

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