On first publication, the mellow and delightful 1974 novel "A Rabbit's Eyes," out now in English for the first time, brought Kenjiro Haitani a great deal of fame and a wide following.
It also started, as novels still seem able to do in Japan, a vigorous debate in the culture about the real-world issues it engaged with -- including but not limited to, for example, the public school system, zoning laws for schools, irresponsible and incompetent teachers, neglected children, equal rights to education, the place of mentally disabled children in regular classrooms, plus racism, poverty, pollution and the politics of waste disposal.
The book sold millions of copies and became a kind of teenage vade mecum for the sensitive and nostalgic of both sexes. Thirty years later, one may find teenagers blogging about taking the book to bed for a cathartic cry after a hard day's cramming.