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.

Notes and sources at the podcast episode website.

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All content © 2025 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.

Notes and sources at the podcast episode website.

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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 publishings powers that be.

Content warning: This episode addresses transphobia as well as hate crimes against Asian Americans and trans women.

Notes and sources at the podcast episode website.

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All content © 2025 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.

*This episode incorrectly states that Kenzaburo Oe was born in 1925. He was born in 1935.

Content warning: This episode addresses fascism and suicide.

Notes and sources at the podcast episode page.

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All content © 2025 Read Japanese Literature.

Today we’re talking about the 1930s and 40s in Japan—fascism, World War Two, 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".

Notes and sources at the podcast episode website.

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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?”

Content warning: This episode addresses addiction, rape, suicide, and misogyny.

Notes and sources at the podcast episode website.

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All content © 2025 Read Japanese Literature.

The father of the Japanese short story shares his dark vision about what it means to be an artist.

We’re taking a look at Japan in the 1910s and 1920s, the era of the Taishō Democracy and the heyday of Japan’s literary magazines and serial novels.

Content warning: This episode addresses addiction, suicide, and sexual assault.

Notes and sources at the podcast episode website.

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All content © 2025 Read Japanese Literature.

Last episode, we talked about the coming of the West and the way it impacted Japanese literature.

This time we’re talking about women as they take up a prominent position in the story of Japanese literature for the first time in almost 1000 years.

Special focus on Ichiyō Higuchi and her best-beloved story "Takekurabe".

Please note that this episode mistakenly attributes quotes from Higuchi’s diary to translator Melek Ortabasi. The translations are by Kyoko Omori.

Notes and sources are available on the podcast episode webpage.

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All content © 2025 Read Japanese Literature.

In this episode, we’re looking at the Meiji Era of Japanese history and its literature.

• The shogunate is replaced.
• Japan looks outward to the West and inward toward itself.
• And a man named Natsume Sōseki chronicles it all from the perspective of a stray cat.

Notes and sources are available on the podcast episode webpage.

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All content © 2025 Read Japanese Literature.

In this episode, we’ll be talking about Ueda Akinari and his Tales of Moonlight and Rain, some of the most influential Japanese ghost stories ever written.
- A raging intellectual debate
- A supernatural party game
- And a friend just dying to keep his promises

For notes, links to the suggested reading, and an illustration of Okiku, please visit the episode's webpage.

Let RJL know what you think! (Contact us through the website if you want a response.)

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Get in touch at www.readjapaneseliterature.com.
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All content © 2025 Read Japanese Literature.