Tag - literature

 
Menu
Search
 
November 22, 2024
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

LITERATURE

Rie Qudan speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Wednesday after being awarded the Akutagawa Prize.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 19, 2024
Akutagawa Prize draws controversy after win for work that used ChatGPT
Rie Qudan won Japan’s most important prize for early career writers for “Tokyo-to Dojo-to,” a novel that “exposes the prophecy of the AI generation.”
Fiction such as Asako Yuzuki’s “Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder” and nonfiction like Robert Whiting’s "Gamblers, Fraudsters, Dreamers & Spies: The Outsiders who Shaped Modern Japan” are just a taste of 2024's exciting releases.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 11, 2024
Anticipated translations and books about Japan to brighten your 2024
From debut novels to classic crime thrillers, the year ahead promises a wealth of must-read titles to add to your reading list.
Books published by Tuttle Publishing on a bookshelf in Infinity Books in Tokyo's Sumida Ward on Saturday
CULTURE / Books
Jan 3, 2024
Asia publishing mainstay Tuttle rides new wave of interest in Japan
The back catalog of Tuttle, which traces its history in Japan to 1948, is in high demand, and it has even branched out to graphic novel versions of classic Asian literature.
Author Yasunari Kawabata’s “The Rainbow” seems to suggest it is never too late to heal, so long as we face our pain rather than run away.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 21, 2023
‘The Rainbow’: Artistic world underscores truths of the human heart
Despite resonant themes, this translation of Nobel Prize-winner Yasunari Kawabata’s novel about lingering grief and regrets feels strangely distant.
While non-Japanese readers have in recent years been spoiled for choice when it comes to Japanese literature in translation, there is still a wealth of notable works that translators would love to see rendered into English.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 20, 2023
A wish list of hidden gems for Japanese literature lovers
Eight translators reveal their top Japanese books that English readers have yet to enjoy.
There are no villains in Saikaku's stories … just people caught more or less helplessly in life's vortex.
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Dec 17, 2023
Tales of a Closed Country: Part 3
There are no truly evil villains in Ihara Saikaku's stories, just people caught helplessly in life's vortex.
Japan’s crime thriller genre owes a lot to Kido Okamoto and Taro Hirai, who is better known by his pen name of Edogawa Ranpo
CULTURE / Books
Oct 22, 2023
Japanese thrillers and crime mysteries to curl up with this fall
As the nights grow colder, pick up a recommended read in crime fiction and dive deep into this unique intersection of art and entertainment.
Writer Jon Fosse poses in Oslo in 2015. Since his debut novel was published in 1983, Fosse has written poems, essays, children’s books, plays and novels.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 5, 2023
Norwegian playwright and author Jon Fosse wins literature Nobel
The Swedish Academy cited Fosse's “innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable.”
History recorded the thoughts and actions of rulers and warlords, but what did the average folk think in that time? Were their days filled with angst, passion or poignancy?
JAPAN / History
Sep 17, 2023
Writers find a new muse in the 20th century: the ordinary person
The past at its very best spread its benefits thinly, leaving the masses to make the best of things beyond the reach of civilization’s light.
Saou Ichikawa won Japan's Akutagawa Prize for her novella "Hunchback," which takes place in a group home in present day and centers on a woman diagnosed with myotubular myopathy.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 2, 2023
Saou Ichikawa’s 'Hunchback': A darkly funny portrait of disability
The winner of the second 2023 Akutagawa Prize is a sardonic commentary on the utility of bodies, both abled and disabled.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 17, 2023
The quotidian madness of Mieko Kanai’s 'Mild Vertigo'
Originally published in 1997, “Mild Vertigo” is just as relevant today in its unpacking of meaning within the ennui of our often stultifying, consumer-driven modern age.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 14, 2023
Cormac McCarthy, novelist of a darker America, is dead at 89
His characters were outsiders, like him. He lived quietly and determinately outside the literary mainstream.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 10, 2023
Ao Omae confronts identities and alienation of modern youth
The author deftly explores the struggles Japan’s young people face today with subtlety and incisive criticism in his English-language debut, “People Who Talk to Stuffed Animals Are Nice.”
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 28, 2023
The curious case of Fuminori Nakamura's genre misalignment
Little do English-language readers know, the author of 'The Rope Artist' and other critically acclaimed books writes on much more than crime.
Japan Times
CULTURE
May 24, 2023
Haruki Murakami wins top books prize in Spain
The €50,000 ($55,000) award is one of eight prizes for the arts, sport and scientific research handed out yearly by a foundation named for Crown Princess Leonor.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
May 23, 2023
Hell is a crab cannery ship in industrial Japan. The way out? Russia.
Stories of brutality from the era of industrialization are testament to the sacrifice of former generations, sacrifices that resulted in what we take for granted today.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 5, 2023
Why bilingual literature is needed in a place like Japan
Only when Japan’s great stories are translated into other languages can we get a glimpse into the real lives of people living here.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 13, 2023
Haruki Murakami’s first novel in six years hits shelves in Japan
The bestselling author spent three years working nonstop on his new novel, 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls,' which reworks the story of the same title from 1980.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 19, 2023
'The Flowers of Buffoonery': Osamu Dazai's unexpected portrait of camaraderie
The novel adds new texture to the author's classic 'No Longer Human,' while bringing levity to a somewhat dire thesis: The world is full of inauthenticity.
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world
mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER