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Librarian here.
The translator's name should appear on the Title page which is usually the first or a few pages in but not before the content of the book begin. We use the information on Title page for cataloguing the records. It should have the full title (eg: The Hobbit, or There and Back Again), author, translator, illustrator and publisher. In my professional eyes, this sufficiently highlights their contribution to the work.
Before a book get published, it went through the hands of agent, editor, spell checker, fact checker, layout.. None of those people get any credits except for the occasional mention in the Thank You section.
The author was the person who created the world within the book so they get the full credit. The translator might have worked really hard to bring the work to a new audience but their contribution is only one part of many.
My theory with translator's name appearing on the cover of books published in Japan has to do with the popularity of foreign language books in Japan. It's a potential selling point for this market, similar to how audiobook readers might pick up another book by the same narrator.
The average English speaking person who is not a manga reader probably read a translated book once every few years. So they are unlikely to go seek out other works by the same translator.
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