As the first half of the 2020s comes to a close, one global literary trend shows no signs of abating: a hunger for the stories of Japanese writers. The past five years saw authors from Japan win prestigious literary prizes at home and abroad, while a growing interest in translated East Asian literature contributed to an uptick in the number of Japanese novels translated into English.
Over the past year, for example, Asako Yuzuki’s “Butter,” a thriller inspired by a real-life femme fatale and translated by Polly Barton, was named the Waterstones Book of the Year. Meanwhile, Haruki Murakami — who retains his own center of gravity in the literary landscape, perennially drawing Nobel speculation but no prize as of yet — saw two new releases arrive in 2024 with the publication of “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated by Philip Gabriel, and “End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland,” translated by Jay Rubin. The former is a translation of the author’s latest novel after a six-year hiatus, while the latter revisits Murakami’s earlier work, “Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World” (1991), previously translated by Alfred Birnbaum. Both titles tread familiar territory in fantastical worlds, iterating on previous works or themes from Murakami’s extensive oeuvre — a kind of literary deja vu that satisfies die-hard fans but hasn’t won over all critics.
Readers’ tastes, however, have not been restricted to scintillating crime stories or literary titans, and the thematic preoccupations of Japanese authors have ranged from the deadly serious and melancholic to the weird, the uncategorizable and the notably softer, fluffier works of the iyashi-kei (healing type) persuasion. Feline-focused fiction by the likes of Syou Ishida and Kiyoshi Shigematsu, translated by E. Madison Shimoda (“We’ll Prescribe You a Cat”) and Jesse Kirkwood (“The Blanket Cats”), are among this year’s releases, as well as the memoir “Mornings With My Cat Mii” by Mayumi Inaba, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori.
In Japan, iyashi-kei cultural products have long been popular among those who yearn for equilibrium amid the dizzying pace of the modern world, or simply take comfort in light escapism. For an English readership, the current boom in healing fiction — whether centered on cats, cafes or other thematic tropes — could be interpreted as an aftereffect of the pandemic that defined the early years of this decade, or a response to the layered political and ideological crises that continue to unfold.
Of course, this growing demand throughout the 2020s for Japanese stories owes much to dedicated translators who have played an indispensable role in introducing these and other Japanese writers to global audiences. Morgan Giles’ translation of “Tokyo Ueno Station” (2019) by Yu Miri brought critical attention to the Zainichi Korean novelist and her focus on marginalized communities when it won the 2020 National Book Award for translated literature. Similarly, Yoko Ogawa’s “The Memory Police” (2019), translated by Stephen Snyder, was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2020 and reintroduced the author — already the recipient of many of Japan’s most prestigious literary awards — to an anglophone readership after nearly 10 years since her previous English publication. Snyder followed up with a translation of “Mina’s Matchbox” (2024) by Ogawa, a story with a limited setting that nonetheless showcases the writer’s fertile imagination.
As interest in Japanese literature becomes more widespread, another trend has been taking shape: Women writers are receiving more recognition for their work. Take Mieko Kawakami, for example. Three novels vaulted the Osaka-born writer from relative obscurity abroad to critical acclaim: “Breasts and Eggs” (2020), “Heaven” (2021) and “All the Lovers in the Night” (2022), each translated into English by Sam Bett and David Boyd. Kawakami’s unflinching takes on womanhood and alienation in contemporary Japanese society have earned her legions of admirers, with English readers among them hotly anticipating the 2025 release of her latest translation by Bett and Boyd, “Sisters in Yellow.”
Sayaka Murata has also become a literary star after her acclaimed English-language debut with “Convenience Store Woman” in 2018. Since then, the author’s reputation has been burnished by the outlandish and captivating novel “Earthlings” (2020) and the short-form grotesqueries of “Life Ceremony” (2022) through engrossing translations by Takemori. Murata’s diction is deceptively light while drawing the reader into fictional landscapes that are harrowing, hilarious or bizarre — but always memorable.
Other releases of note in the 2020s by Japanese women include Kyoko Nakajima’s story collection “Things Remembered and Things Forgotten” (2021), the writer’s first work to appear in English, translated by Ian MacDonald and Takemori; four new translations of Hiromi Kawakami — “People from My Neighbourhood” (2020), “Dragon Palace” (2023) and “The Third Love” (2024), all by Ted Goossen, and “Under the Eye of the Big Bird” (2024) by Asa Yoneda — and Yoko Tawada’s “Paul Celan and the Trans-Tibetan Angel” (2024), translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky. Nakajima’s narratives are intimate and at times startling, mundane lives of families suffused with a whiff of the ghostly.
It’s clear that Japanese literature in the 2020s has been a booming and eclectic realm. And looking ahead to the latter half of the 2020s, with more thrillers, cozy stories and literary prizewinners in the pipeline, there is no doubt Japanese fiction will deliver a bounty that will further delight readers and critics worldwide.
Where does a bibliophile begin to explore the zeitgeist of Japanese literature in translation? Check out our year-by-year round-up of prizewinning books and personal favorites.
2020
Buzzworthy book: “Tokyo Ueno Station” by Yu Miri
Writer’s choice: “Earthlings” by Sayaka Murata
“Tokyo Ueno Station” won the National Book Award for Translated Literature and sparked a discussion about the displacement of Tokyo’s unhoused people in the run-up to the Olympics. For a grim narrative of a different nature, try the sensational “Earthlings.”
2021
Buzziest release: “First Person Singular” by Haruki Murakami
Writer’s choice: “Things Remembered and Things Forgotten” by Kyoko Nakajima
Haruki Murakami was back in the spotlight with the publication of “First Person Singular” and the release of “Drive My Car,” the Ryusuke Hamaguchi-directed, Oscar-winning film based on a 2014 short story by the author. Elsewhere in the literary realm, the beautifully understated short story collection “Things Remembered and Things Forgotten” marked the English-language debut of Kyoko Nakajima, a Naoki Prize-winning author.
2022
Buzziest release: “All the Lovers in the Night” by Mieko Kawakami
Writer’s choice: “Solo Dance” by Kotomi Li
“All the Lovers in the Night” by Mieko Kawakami was published to wide acclaim and shortlisted by the International Booker Prize. Taiwan native Kotomi Li’s “Solo Dance” offered an alternative take on social alienation through a queer, transnational coming-of-age story set in Taiwan and Japan.
2023
Buzziest release: “Before We Say Goodbye” by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Writer’s choice: “Hit Parade of Tears” by Izumi Suzuki
The fourth book in Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s time-travel cafe series, “Before We Say Goodbye,” proved that the author’s works have enduring commercial appeal. Readers looking for more intense themes can turn to Izumi Suzuki’s “Hit Parade of Tears,” a short story collection by a cult literary icon of the late Showa Period (1925-89).
2024
Buzziest release: “Butter” by Asako Yuzuki
Writer’s choice: “Paul Celan and the Trans-Tibetan Angel” by Yoko Tawada
“Butter” by Asako Yuzuki made a big splash as the English-language debut of an established author. Meanwhile, “Paul Celan and the Trans-Tibetan Angel” by the Berlin-based Yoko Tawada, who writes in both German and Japanese, represents the latest in the oeuvre of a singular writer whose work defies genre and expectations.”
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