The Akutagawa Prize is probably Japan’s most celebrated literary award.

To better understand the Akutagawa Prize and its place in modern Japanese literature, we’ll start with an introduction to the history of “literary” fiction in Japan.

Then we’ll move on to the history of the Akutagawa Prize itself, from its creation in 1935 through its most recent winners.

And then we’ll finish with a look at the life and career of Kobo Abe including his most famous book, The Woman in the Dunes.

(CW: suicide, attempted rape in a novel)

Notes and sources at the podcast episode website.

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All content © 2026 Read Japanese Literature. 

Magical realism is a literary genre famous for unexplained fantastical encounters that pop-up in the otherwise everyday world.

Today, we’re going to take a look at magical realism in Japanese fiction.

We’ll start with defining magical realism, including a look at why that term is difficult and why some people think of it as controversial.

Then we’ll turn to the history of magical realism in Japan and take a closer look at the work of Tomihiko Morimi, especially The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl.

(CW: brief mention of fictional suicide attempt)

Notes and sources at the podcast episode website.

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A Reading List of Japanese Magical Realism

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Today, we’re going to look at cats in Japanese literature.

We’ll start with the history of cats in Japan.

We’ll move on to cats in Japanese folklore and fiction, including the work of Haruki Murakami.

And finally we’ll end with a discussion of our readers' choice, “The Town of Cats” by Sakutaro Hagiwara.

Transcript, notes and sources at the podcast episode website.

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Corrections:

This episode mistakenly says Emperor Uda wrote his diary in 1889. Emperor Uda (obviously) lived in 889.

Also, the number of cats books in translation has climbed significantly since this episode was released in 2022. RJL can now unequivocally state that cat books are overrepresented in translation—although we would standby the claims that cat fiction is not a new phenomenon in Japan and that many Japanese readers love to read books about cats.

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All content © 2026 Read Japanese Literature. 

In this episode…

Is she a man-eating crone?

Is she a lonely wanderer?

Or is she a sensual matriarch?

However you define her, she’s the yama-uba—Japan’s legendary mountain witch.

Notes and sources at the podcast episode website.

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All content © 2026 Read Japanese Literature. 

In this episode…

Post-bubble Japan.

The history of socially-conscious Japanese literature.

And Yu Miri’s Tokyo Ueno Station, a powerful examination of Tokyo by one of the most invisible people imaginable—the ghost of a homeless day laborer.

Transcript, notes and sources at the podcast episode website.

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All content © 2026 Read Japanese Literature. 

In all our episodes so far, we’ve talked almost exclusively about what Japanese literature looks like in Japan.

But we’re English-speakers and English-readers on an English-language podcast about Japanese literature in English.

In honor of Women in Translation Month, we’re talking about why there is such a wealth of contemporary books by Japanese women available in English.

We'll also take a look at Sayaka Murata and her novel Convenience Store Woman.

Transcript, notes and sources at the podcast episode website.

Buy on Convenience Store Woman on Bookshop to support RJL.

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All content © 2026 Read Japanese Literature. 

In this episode, we’re talking about Japan’s bubble economy of the 1980s and the work of Banana Yoshimoto.

Runaway consumer spending.

Everything kawaii.

A Nobel laureate’s contempt.

And a young author whose career challenged the publishing powers that be.

cw: transphobia, real life hate crime against Asian Americans, fictional hate crime against a trans woman

Transcript, notes and sources at the podcast episode website.

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All content © 2026 Read Japanese Literature. 

Today, we’re talking about the literature of change in the 1960s—how writers took on questions about what it meant to be Japanese in the post-war era and what was the continuing role of Japanese tradition.

We’re looking especially at Yukio Mishima and Kenzaburo Oe.

cw: fascism, suicide

Transcript, notes and sources at the podcast episode website.

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All content © 2026 Read Japanese Literature. 

Today we’re talking about the 1930s and 40s in Japan—fascism, World War II, and the American Occupation.

In particular, how did 20 years of censorship shape Japanese literature?

We're also taking a look at the life and work of Akiyuki Nosaka, whose novella, Grave of the Fireflies, inspired the classic anime film. We'll discuss his short story, "The Cake Tree in the Ruins".

Transcript, notes and sources at the podcast episode website.

Buy Cake Tree in the Ruins (translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori) on Bookshop to support RJL.

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All content © 2026 Read Japanese Literature. 

Today, we’re talking about the I-Novel—the highest form of literature in Japan in the 1910s and 20s.

It’s a genre one American scholar describes as “perhaps the most striking feature of modern Japanese literature.”

And it’s a genre Haruki Murakami claims to have an allergy to.

We’ll also be looking at the life and work of Osamu Dazai and asking, “What does it take to get disqualified as a human being?”

cw: addiction, suicide, rape, misogyny

Transcript, notes and sources at the podcast episode website.

Buy No Longer Human (translated by Donald Keene) from Bookshop to support RJL. (RJL now recommends Juliet Winters Carpenter's translation of No Longer Human, which debuted after this episode was released.)

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All content © 2026 Read Japanese Literature.