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April 18, 2024
 

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RYU MURAKAMI

Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 24, 2016
Tales from the cracks: 10 of the best books about Japan released in 2016
It's been a difficult year — one that felt like humanity was living on a fracturing ice shelf. That uncertainty came from our exposure to wars and natural disasters, and even our struggles with "truth" itself. The best Japan-related books released in 2016 seemed to channel this feeling of instability by looking inside the growing cultural cracks. Here are 10 that went beyond old narratives about Japan and its people and delved deeper into Japan's fragmented past, present and future: from alternative views of the Pearl Harbor attack to Japanese prostitutes in the American West and from radical 1960s anarchists to the story of an inspector trapped in a bureaucratic nightmare.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 5, 2016
Ryu Murakami turns on another light in Tokyo's lurid basement
This collection of short stories arrived with a warning from the publisher: "Graphic sexual content." Perhaps it was worried that reviewers would blush to the tips of their toes upon reading it. However, anyone who has encountered Murakami's excruciating 1992 sadomasochistic film "Topazu" ("Tokyo Decadence") — depicting the comings and goings of call girls and their depraved businessmen clients in suites of Tokyo's Hotel New Otani — might fear for another yawn-inducing marathon of kinky sex.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
May 31, 2014
Almost Transparent Blue
Life around a U.S. base camp in Kanagawa in the 1970s may have mirrored certain aspects of American life, but they were often the most self-destructive elements. Set along the urban border between a military camp and Japan proper, the violent milieu of Ryu Murukami's short novel "Almost Transparent Blue" is a place where servicemen shoot up on Philopon and morphine, where cheap rented rooms reek of unwashed dishes, overripe fruit, cigarettes and casual sex. In the service bars near the base, quarrels erupt, brawls lead to stabbings.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 23, 2013
North Korea occupies Fukuoka in Murakami's alternate world
Not to be confused with another famous Japanese novelist who has the same surname, Ryu Murakami is known for being an overtly political, even subversive, writer. "From the Fatherland, With Love," his latest novel to be translated into English, cements that reputation. Taking place in an alternate world in 2011, the plot centers on a North Korean invasion of Japan.
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Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday.
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A U.S. Army Mid-Range Capability (MRC) Launcher arrives as part of the capability’s first deployment into theater on Northern Luzon, Philippines, April 8.
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Unpacking the chaotic by-election in a scandal-hit Tokyo district
People listen to a campaign speech in Tokyo's Koto Ward on Tuesday.
Kyoto’s demon night parade lives to haunt another day
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Adal’s Look into Nature brand, on show at Salon del Mobile 2024, rethinks "igusa" (Japanese rush grass), traditionally used for tatami, as a sustainable material for furniture.
U.S. deploys midrange missile system in Indo-Pacific for first time
A U.S. Army Mid-Range Capability (MRC) Launcher arrives as part of the capability’s first deployment into theater on Northern Luzon, Philippines, April 8.
Unpacking the chaotic by-election in a scandal-hit Tokyo district
People listen to a campaign speech in Tokyo's Koto Ward on Tuesday.
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Podcast

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