I was in New York last week to host a launch event for the English translation of Haruki Murakami's latest novel, "Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage." My good friend and Murakami translator Ted Goossen, professor at York University in Toronto, joined me, as did pianist Eunbi Kim, whose multi-media project, "Murakami Music," I saw performed at Symphony Space in Manhattan last year.

With all the talk of the Cool Japan campaign, it's worth remembering that author Haruki Murakami reigns as the nation's most potent global cultural export.

I wasn't surprised to find the venue packed when I arrived. Kinokuniya bookstore's New York branch in midtown comprises two floors and a basement. Events and readings are staged in the center of the ground floor. Audience members filled the seats and spilled into adjacent aisles, many of them peering over bookshelves.