Editorial

16:00 JST, May 14, 2025

Contemporary Japanese literature is gaining popularity overseas. To ensure that this does not end up as a passing fad, it is necessary to map out a long-term overseas strategy and also to help cultivate new readers in Japan.

Hiromi Kawakami’s novel “Under the Eye of the Big Bird” was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, the translation category of a prestigious British literary award. The novel depicts humanity on the verge of extinction and its fusion with artificial intelligence, among other themes.

The winner will be announced on May 20. A work by Han Kang of South Korea, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature last year, was previously selected for the International Booker Prize. If Kawakami wins it this........

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