2004 was a prosperous year for the Japanese book trade with revenues exceeding the previous year's figures for the first time in seven years. Despite many small bookstores going out of business, innovative marketing from publishers and book retailers produced several million-sellers.
The year started auspiciously with a media storm over the youngest ever winners of the prestigious biannual Akutagawa Literary Prize, two photogenic young women, Risa Wataya (19) and Hitomi Kanehara (20). Wataya's "Keritai Senaka (The Back One Wants To Kick)" sold a million copies and Kanehara's "Hebi ni Piasu (Snake with a Piercing)" half a million. The winter winner of the Akutagawa Prize, Norio Mobu, also generated a big PR buzz with his controversial "Kaigo Nyumon (Introduction to Caregiving)" which is written in the style of an angry rapper.
By far the year's biggest book phenomenon, however, was "Sekai no Chushin de, Ai o Sakebu (Crying Love At The Center Of The World)" by Kyoichi Katayama. First published in 2001, this tearjerker in which the hero loses his girlfriend to leukemia has now become the highest-selling Japanese novel ever, with total sales of 3.2 million, surpassed the previous record set by Haruki Murakami's "Norwegian Wood". So popular it has earned the shortened name "Sekachu", sales of the novel were fuelled by a movie adaption, TV serialization and best-selling manga version.