Read Japanese Literature
Episodes
Japanese Monster Stories on the Big Screen
10 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we look at the writers behind two of Japan's greatest movie monsters—Godzilla and Mothra.We'll start out by looking at Go...
The Japanese Cell Phone Novel
14 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we take a look at the Japanese cell phone novel and the classic story of Train Man.We’re going to start today by explaining the Jap...
Lafcadio Hearn—The Master of the Japanese Ghost Story
29 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we explore the enduring legacy of Greek/English/Irish/American/Japanese author Lafcadio Hearn and the ghost story The Peony Lantern.W...
Bullying in Japanese Literature
20 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we look at bullying in Japanese literature.We'll start out by defining bullying and looking at bullying in Japanese schools as w...
Christianity in Japanese Literature
05 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we look into the history of Christianity in Japan—especially the role Christianity has played in Japanese literature. Our focus tex...
Japanese Writers Standing Up to the State
18 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we take a look at the Japanese proletarian writers’ movement of the 1920s and early 1930s. We also take a deep dive into the life o...
Keiichiro Hirano
05 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For the first time ever, RJL brings you information from an interview with a Japanese author—Akutagawa-winner Keiichiro Hirano. This episode takes u...
Christmas in Japanese Literature
14 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Happy holidays! And, in the interest of today’s episode, merri kurisumasu!Today we’re going to start with the origins of Christmas, especially why...
LGBTQ+ Stories from Japan, Part 2
01 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
RJL is excited to bring you this two-parter about LGBTQ+ stories from Japan. Part two covers Taisho Japan (when women finally enter the stage) through...
LGBTQ+ Stories from Japan, Part 1
30 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
RJL is excited to bring you this two-parter about LGBTQ+ stories from Japan. Part one covers some of the earliest writing in Japanese through the end ...
Japanese Crime and Mystery Writing
13 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today, we’re talking about crime and mystery novels from Japan. We’ll start with the development of the crime and mystery genre in the English-spe...
Atomic Bomb Literature
17 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This episode is marked mature.In this episode, we take a look at Japanese writing about the American bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that killed as...
Zainichi Literature—Koreans Writing in Japan
03 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we take a look at the history of Koreans writing in Japan. We’ll start with the history of Koreans in Japan, including anti-Korean ...
The End of the World! Japanese Apocalypse, Part 3
29 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In part three of this episode, we’ll finish our story of Japanese apocalyptic and dystopian fiction. First, stories from the mid-90s and 20-aughts. ...
The End of the World! Japanese Apocalypse, Part 2
15 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In part two of this three part episode, we're looking at the apocalyptic and dystopian fiction of Japan. We'll begin with the evolution of t...
The End of the World! Japanese Apocalypse, Part 1
01 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In part one of this three part episode, we're looking at apocalyptic and dystopian fiction as genres. Their origins in Western and Central Asia. ...
Misogyny and Yukio Mishima, Part 2
23 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In part two of this two-part episode on misogyny in Japanese literature, we're talking about the life and work of Yukio Mishima, especially by wa...
Misogyny and Yukio Mishima, Part 1
16 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In part one of this two-part episode, we're talking about misogyny in Japanese literature. 400 years of attitudes about women in JapanWoman in m...
Kenji Miyazawa
17 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There is no one quite like Kenji Miyazawa. Born into wealth, he longed to be “a real peasant”. One of Japan’s most influential children’s writ...
The Stories of Studio Ghibli
21 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
To celebrate the overseas release of The Boy and the Heron (aka How Do You Live?) RJL delves into the stories that inspire animator Hayao Miyazaki and...
Haruki Murakami
16 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we're talking about one of the most important voices in modern Japanese literature, Haruki Murakami.His biographyWhy so many peo...
Japanese Children's Literature
05 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we're talking about Japanese children's literature.The history of children’s literature in generalThe history of children...
Translating Japanese to English, Part 2
08 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How does a book make it from the mind of a Japanese author into the hands of an English-language reader?In part 2 of this 2-part episode, we'll t...
Translating Japanese to English, Part 1
29 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How does a book make it from the mind of a Japanese author into the hands of an English-language reader?In part 1 of this 2-part episode, we'll t...
SF! Japanese Science Fiction
25 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we’re talking about Japanese science fiction.The history of the genre. SF in Japan. Breakthrough feminist sci-fi writer Izumi Suzuk...
Writing from Okinawa
14 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This episode is marked mature.In this episode, we're talking about writing from Okinawa. The history of the Ryukyu Islands, especially the Battle...
Fukushima Fiction
06 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On March 11, 2011, at 2:46pm, one tectonic plate forced its way on top of another 45 miles (or 72 km) off the Eastern coast of Japan. It caused a 9.0 ...
Sexlessness in Japanese Fiction
13 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This episode is marked mature.Today we'll explore two trends in contemporary Japanese fiction:Protagonists who don’t want to have sexAnd women ...
The Akutagawa Prize and Kobo Abe
27 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Akutagawa Prize is probably Japan’s most celebrated literary award.To better understand the Akutagawa Prize and its place in modern Japanese lit...
Japanese Magical Realism
06 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Magical realism is a literary genre famous for unexplained fantastical encounters that pop-up in the otherwise everyday world.Today, we’re going to ...
Cats in Japanese Literature
28 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 folklo...
The Smile of the Mountain Witch
25 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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—Japa...
Writing about Japan's "Have-Nots"
22 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode…Post-bubble Japan.The history of socially-conscious Japanese literature.And Yu Miri’s Tokyo Ueno Station, a powerful examination o...
Translating Japanese Women
01 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 Engl...
Banana and the Bubble
23 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we’re talking about Japan’s bubble economy of the 1980s and the work of Banana Yoshimoto.Runaway consumer spending.Everything kaw...
Literature of Change in the 1960s—Mishima and Oe
14 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Japanese Literature in WWII
12 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 censor...
The I-Novel, Osamu Dazai, and No Longer Human
23 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Taisho Magazines and Akutagawa’s Vision of Hell
31 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 1920...
The Women Writers of Meiji Japan
06 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Meiji Literature and Japan’s Most Famous Literary Cat
13 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Kaidan—Japan’s Ghost Stories
26 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 w...
High and Low Literature in Edo Japan
08 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How does “this fleeting world” transform from a Buddhist precept to a name for the red-light district?What did reading look like in early Modern J...
Setsuwa and Medieval Japanese Buddhism
13 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Enjoy the story of a vengeful would-be lover who turns into a 40-foot snake, a sharp-witted woman with criticisms of her husband’s equipment, and a ...
Yoshitsune Ballads and Tomoe Drama
21 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We're talking about two central genres of Medieval Japanese literature—the warrior ballad and Noh drama. We’ll see two characters from The Ta...
The Tale of the Heike
04 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The great samurai epic and the rise of the samurai class.Visit this episode's webpage for information on buying the book and resources for furthe...
The Tale of Genji
06 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The world's oldest novel. A hero who is a paragon of beauty with an extreme Oedipus complex.(CW: sex, rape, incest, pedophilia.)Let RJL know what...
The Kojiki
29 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Gods having sex, founding of the imperial dynasty, and some of the origins of WWII. Plus thoughts on the role of women in early Japanese history.Let R...