Those books simply popular because they have a translation and promotion/re-editions in foreign countries. There are a lot of amazing Japanese books which are not translated - obviously they are not popular in other countries. So it is not narrow-mindedness. Translated literature just limited. Btw those books in vid are great themselves, publishers choose them for a good reasons. I guess thing is that for such Japanese books was space on market. There was enough mystery/triller in English. That is why they choose to promote Japanese authors which were different, more unique for the market.
Yes Murakami is already quite popular in my country so they keep translating his work but you can't find famous writers like Soseki, Tanizaki, Dazai and etc. :|
This is true, but of course certain books get translated for a reason, and I think emi grace is probably onto something there... it's a combination of "quirky japan" and universal themes that make these books popular, and publishers are sort of looking for books with these ingredients. There is undoubtable a "type" of person in the west who is interested enough in Japan to read it's local authors (the "japanophiles" if you will), and they are probably "quirky" themselves, and liberal, and may be inclined to introversion. I dunno... would be interesting to study. Anyway... it's these peoples tastes that publishers are targeting when they get a book translated. The same could be said for what TV shows and movies get released in the West. I once asked a German whether he had seen Netflix's "Dark" show, and he said nobody in Germany would ever watch a show like that... way too weird, slow, and cerebral. Ha.
For me personally, I deal with a lot of anxiety and Japanese literature has always been a portal that helped me escape the noise. I really appreciate how so many Japanese authors celebrate the magic hidden within the mundane in a nuanced and atmospheric way. I found the bar scenes in Strange Weather in Tokyo so comforting + therapeutic! An anime film that captures this feeling beautifully as well is Flavors of Youth!
@@carolinepeters7215 Ouuu I want to re-read it soon! I would also recommend ‘Sweet Bean Paste’ by Durian Sukegawa and Sanshirō by Natsume Sōseki. The plot lines are unique to each other, but they all provided a similar cozy feeling while reading them. They all explore the slow, everyday details of Japan with characters who are learning more about themselves!
Your video was so good. It was the only one that felt like an authentic and genuine review and analysis of the books. Your analysis of Murakami and why he's so popular abroad was very interesting. Thank you and keep up the amazing work❤
i am only just getting into japanese literature but I really appreciate this video and perspective because I think it's always worth exploring why certain media of a country is boosted and other media (that may be more popular with the native population) isn't. i really enjoyed your thoughts on this!
Japanese mystery thriller authors are also popular here in Indonesia, two of them are Keigo Higashino and Akiyoshi Rikako. But in international community it doesn't seem to be as popular. I often wonder why? Anyway this is a really really interesting video and I think you'll do well on youtube! ❤️
I'm really confused as to why this channel doesn't have more sub,, each and every video is super good and I genuinely believe needs more attention... Well anyways I hope you gain more subs in the future! :)
I love this video haha you did a really good job on it. Personally, as a foreign reader these are just the books that are heavily listed and recommended everywhere. There are already very few books in translation and unless you dive deep, you don't really get to find many different authors. Over the past few years translation is getting better though (still not all encompassing but kindof). And after reading japanese literature here and there, I personally have come across others like Soseki, Dazai and modern writers who are on my reading list. Let's see what happens in the future 🙌
I had the same idea for a longest time because those reviews of Japanese books are almost always the same! This is actually why I started exploring and getting invested into Japanese literature. I am so glad I could find this video because I can get a much more interesting perspective from you than mine from a teen girl in Ukraine haha! Thnak you for the video c:
This was so interesting to watch! I really appreciate hearing your views on Japanese literature as someone who has an insider's gaze into the culture. I totally agree with your criticism about the way contemporary Japanese literature is read by foreigners as a way of anthropology and a gateway into the exotic, quirky, sometimes crazy and oh so different Japanese mind. That being said, I also think it's not just a question of what readers choose to read, but rather what is getting translated and published. I believe most of the popular Japanese writers among Japanese readers have not even been translated into English (let alone into other European languages like German), so it's also a question of what the gatekeepers of the media and publishing world deem to be worthy at all to be introduced to international readers. (Still, I totally agree that there is and probably always will be the exoticizing/othering Western gaze on Japan also coming from and perpetuated by readers.)
Because a lot of Japanese novel that are promotors abroad are quite short books - for me - that was the reason why I began picking them up - however speaking for the uk Japanese translated books get pushed a lot more than others from all over the world - have read almost all of these books and enjoyed them but the reason I had picked them was because of the one stated above and because they were pushed by noon chain stores - I have now read Japanese classics and less popular picks (all in translation obv) and found some books that i enjoy even more
Glad I came across your video!😆 I was thinking about purchasing Haruki Murakami’s books to see how I would feel about Japanese literature in general but after watching this, I think I rather try something else for that😂
Fabulous video. In third grade I did a report on Japanese architecture and that was it for me - I studied Japanese tea ceremonies and Japanese Ukiyo-e prints in college. Japanese books have either bin hit or miss because translations aren't always that great. Lol I would like to read more though.
Just recently started getting into translated Japanese lit and the first one I read was "Astral Season, Beastly Season" which is set in high school. It has that dark vibe that categorizes some part of Japanese entertainment (murder, suicide, etc) like foreigner-favorites Alice in Borderland and Girl from Nowhere. I actually found the message of the book really intriguing despite all that. Should mention the male gaze is *present* but intentional and written by a female author. I do recommend. Just thought to throw this in bc just hit the part of "there's few set in high school!".
I’m so glad you liked kitchen, I was sweating a bit because I loved it 😂 I felt exactly the same about Kafka on the shore, I loved some aspects of it but was like… why the oedipus retelling tho… why. Higashino Keigo’s books are not fast paced, btw. They are also quite slow paced even though they are mysteries. I definitely agree with your points though, I think all of those factors play into the popularity of Japanese authors in the west (I do agree with the other commenter about what gets picked to be translated being huge though)
I love that you’ve read so many Japanese books!! Ay I didn’t know that about Higashino Keigo, do you like his books? I really should read some of his works one of these days!:)
@@emigrace I enjoyed most of the ones I’ve read! My favorite was Newcomer, and I also liked the Devotion of Suspect X series. They’re not a favorite, but I listened to them as audiobooks which made them quick fun reads.
In addition, yes his books seem weird on the surface. I agree Kafka on the shore is weird but like most of his work, I don’t think it’s meant to be taken literally :) easy to read but hard to interpret
I've been a devoted fan of Japanese literature for decades, but I'm talking about Tanizaki, Kawabata, Mishima, and Abe. I've read Kitchen and Murakami, and I don't see very much connection between these generations, with the possible exception of Murakami's short story Toni Takitani. I find Ishiguro more Japanese than what I know of these contemporary Japanese writers. The one 21st century Japanese novel I feel is part of this tradition is Hitomi Kanehara's Snakes and Earrings.
The reason why there is a difference between books that Japanese people like in comparison to the rest of us could be that there is more choice for them. Only a limited amount of books get to be translated to English.
i've only read convenience store woman out of these four, but I def agree with your points on why they're popular (esp here in the us!) I did not really like murakami's wind-up bird chronicle, which is his most popular book here. I really, really loved a wild sheep chase though! I would recommend that one
Ooh, thanks for the recommendation! I think I’ll take a break from Murakami for a little bit hahaha but I’d like to read more in the future, so thank you!💞
I love your Daydream Believer tshirt 😍 Convenience Store Woman makes me think a lot about my place in the society. I miss Japan so much. I miss konbini food.
I definitely (possibly overly so) associate Japanese culture with creating works that put more focus on the slow, mundane parts of life. Mainly thinking about how frequently in media that takes place in summer always has some kind of scene just of the characters being silent and highlighting the din of the cicada midday. Like we have cicadas and the noise here in the US as well, but something like that is never shown in media. Most people in the city don’t even know what a cicada is tbh. 🤔 So I definitely think it’s funny that the exported media foreigners consume is more focused on that than what Japanese people consume in their day to day life.
interesting! that's so true, there's always a scene about the cicadas hahaha. I'm not sure about the states, but here in the summer the cicadas are damn loud where ever you go, and we heavily associate summer with them. so I think it's an effective way to indicate the season in a movie/anime. in real life we wouldn't be sitting silently to appreciate them tho hahaha
Hi!!! I'm so happy to have found your channel, I love the way you talk about those books and made me curious to read Strange weather in Tokyo, it sounds like my cup of tea :) I find so interesting even your categorisation of people that love Japanese culture, I am so passionate about Japan but still feel like I have a long way before I get to understand for real what the society is about, I am curious to know where would you place me in your categories ;) I travel for a month in Japan but my passion started before the trip and continued after, watching lots of videos, reading books, watching movies and recently I started to self study Japanese with the goal to have some basic conversation once I'll have the chance to travel back there. I would love to visit every single prefecture! I love the Japanese aesthetic but also the attachment to traditions and the importance given to small things in life, the appreciation of seasons, the zen culture, the way of taking care of material things, the food...and I could continue the list for a veeeeeery long time :D Can not deny that I also love the quirkiness of the country, all the people around me are really fascinated by how I can be so passionate about Japan, but how could one not?!
Hiii I just checked out your channel and you seem so sweet! I love that you have so much love for Japan🥰 The categorizing thing was something that I just kind of made up on the spot but I’m glad you liked it😂 you’re probably in the last category that I mentioned, the people who just love everything Japanese:) Hope you can visit here again once this whole pandemic mess is over! ☺️
@@emigrace Thank you so much! I love that you're so spontaneous and don't plan anything you say but still, everything makes perfect sense! Can't wait to come back to Japan and hopefully you'll get too to travel to some Spanish counties :) keep up the good work!
I'm not really a reader. But I've also read a book by Japanese author 村上春树 - What I Talk About When I Talk About Running （走ることについて语るときに仆の语ること）, that's because I'm a runner. Okay, I was a runner.
I think its kinda similar to film fans who like movies more as art. They might be into indie films, or ones that do something out of the ordinary not just what is popular. If you like art/indie films you usually have foreign films in there as well. For a while I just was hunting down books that were translated into English that sounded interesting. I read a few Murakami books I kept hearing people talk about. Then there is a blog/podcast called Three Percent that just covers books that have been translated to English which turned me on to some other books from around the world.
@@emigrace I am don't worry, as soon it open I am coming full speed! get ready to paaaartyyy!!! shoutout to my beautiful girlfriend Itsumi. Anyhow, I got the post notification on so expect me on every video! #cantgetridofme #1000
This is the first video of yours I'm watching, but I'm subscribing right away as it's my dream to learn both Japanese and Spanish :D I tend to love Japanese books, the depictions of loneliness definitely appeal to me. Also Mieko Kawakami's Heaven is one of my faves as it depicts the miserability of the school experience was very reletable. Murakami is the worst with his misogyny, I'm never reading the dude again lol
Hiiii hahahaha that’s amazing that you’re interested in both Japanese and Spanish!! So happy you found this lil channel of mine:) I’ve never heard about that book before! might try and pick it up in the future:)
One of the very good and famous and an example in the thriller genre is Mukashi boku ga shinda ie by Keigo Hishigano When you read thriller and you know are not japanese you know very well these japanese famous thriller authors otherwise not really
Speaking to Murakami’s constant references to western culture: Murakami suffers from this thing that seems to surface with other Japanese artists now and again. It’s almost like a sense of inferiority that demands they reference western culture at the expense of their own culture. I believe this sort of tendency would have surfaced during the Meiji period when western influence was becoming stronger and stronger. I think the government was encouraging the country to embrace the west. Later on, I feel like even Akira Kurosawa may have been criticized in some circles for making very Hollywood-feeling movies.
You’re really spot on about Murakami! He’s really popular abroad and his books translate really well because of the sentence structure that you mentioned. That also makes it read really well in Japanese. It’s funny because he’s not very popular in Japan and some people in the literary establishment even wanted to say that he is not a Japanese author because of all of the western references that he makes all of the time. I used to really like him, and I think that his short stories are really his best work, but I also really fell out of love with his work because of the constant misogyny. Kawabata and Tanizaki are probably my favorite Japanese authors, but I’m trying to read more contemporary works. I really loving Banana Yoshimoto and Yoko Ogawa.
Wow, I can tell your passion and respect for Japan just through this comment. Love that so much:) And wow, I didn’t know that some people in the industry literally don’t consider him a Japanese author! That’s so interesting!
Hey Emi, I really do like Murakami but the more I read his books, there are a lot of similarities between his characters from different books, sometimes I feel like its an extension of his previous character. Also yes his books are definitely heavily written from the male gaze, it makes me feel uncomfortable at times but overall i really do like his writing style. I haven't read the rest but have heard of these authors. Ps- I really think you'll grow a lot on RU-vid, you have a very likeable personality and seem like a really nice person! Wishing the best for you.
That’s an interesting point about his characters, I haven’t read enough of his works yet to see that🤔 And thanks so much for the sweet words, you’re so kind🥺🤍
Oh yes! i've seen this male gaze observation quite often. Generally from western media, to the point i'm refraining from reading any of his work. i'm from India and have never seen anyone talking about this, may be a cultural thing, we give a lot of slack to problematic male attention. Would you still recommend Murakami, i mean do the pros outway the cons or am i better off avoiding it?
@@work-in-progress Hey, I'm from India too. There are a lot of things that are wonderful about his writing as well, it will also depend on which book you are picking up. I think you should give it a try and decide for yourself. Most people who have read Murakami seem to love them.
@@212Tasneem oh hey, what a small world we live in! i hope you're doing okay. thank you for sharing your experience, i've decided to read the wind-up bird chronicles. 💛
Can you please recommend Japanese lit that depicts the real lives of people in their 20s or/with reflection on politics, philosophy, culture etc? I don't want to read "the west comforting stereotype" anymore. Is the makioka sisters a good example? It's on my tbr!
Oof, I wish that I could give you a recommendation, but I don’t read a lot of Japanese novels and I genuinely can’t think of one😭 But maybe books by Soseki Natsume?? It’s not contemporary, but it’s super interesting in the way it depicts the early Meiji period when Japan was going through a huge transformation after Western culture came in. I don’t know about Makioka Sisters, but reading the description of it, it looks like an interesting book about its time period:)
Bert interesting. They fit into the literary fiction type of books I’m currently reading. Thought provoking. The school concept would be fascinating. Modern pop culture books are all very predictable. A person is lowly, finds that they “do have value” then charge off and take on the world.
I read few novels by japanese authors, and of course it includes Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood😅 I definitely agree with you, coz I always tagged Japanese novels as melancholic and weird, melancholic is definitely ok with me but the weirdness is on the next level most of the time lol. Thinking of reading strange weather in tokyo, but after watching this I think I'm gonna buy kitchen instead. 💛
I'm from India and I'm also a huge fan of Japanese literature although I've read only the popular authors so far. And yes, the reasons are pretty close to what you said- the slowness and the loneliness. I feel most of the foreigners read these popular books because that's our introduction to Japanese literature. For example, I started with Haruki Murakami and I loved his writing so much, I went on to discover other Japanese authors as well. Btw loved the aesthetics of your video! Good work!
I've been getting into Japanese literature lately and I think I like the surrealism and comfort that comes from the books. A lot of times I've read highly recommended Western books and come out annoyed and frustrated at how oversaturated it is with YA, fantasy and full of 'edgy' themes like SA and such that I can't be bothered with anymore Now I'm nervous because I just bought a murakami book 😳
Encontré tu canal y quedé enamorada! Actualmente estoy aprendiendo japonés y es interesante saber que también hay japoneses interesados en aprender español, de alguna forma ya no me siento sola en este camino de aprendizaje de idiomas🥺 you deserve more subscribers and also we can practices our languages🥺❤
gosh, I can't think of a single book that might have an English translation, but for example, the book that I briefly mentioned in the video called もしドラ was super popular a while ago and I enjoyed it as well:) I hardly read any manga, but a lot of mangas are based in high school as well!
Interesting video. As a murakami fan, I noticed people complain that his books aren’t politically correct. However I feel that he’s free to express himself however he likes. I feel like authors are now pressured to fit into an expected “ social political narrative “ and if they don’t, they’re considered bad authors. This seems a bit unfair to me
I mean it's worth noting that if you're a woman it's not a question of politics, it's the question of how this author would treat YOU and how the world still largely treats you :/ It's basically books that disrespect directly half of the possible readers
@@kinrateia it doesn't matter how he would treat you,or any other woman. You have no idea how he would treat you or how he treats women in general, you are making assumptions because of his books. The job of an artist is not to be non offensive, or make people feel good or make the world a better kinder place, the only thing an artist should feel obligated to do, is to be true to themselves, and if that means presenting characters and expressing ideas that are offensive, bigoted or shows the depths of how evil humans can be, then so be it. And if the artist also turns out to be a terrible person,than who cares,as long as they are not victimizing other people or breaking the law. He's not asking for your daughter's hand in marriage, and he's not running for president, he's a writer. Art is A moral, that's the way it should be. BTW, I am not a fan of Haruki Murakami, I have read two of his books and hated both of them. Needless to say, that is all just my opinion.
@@davidsheriff9274 I understand your point, but I studied literature and more often than not beliefs displayed in books casually but not intentionally such as mysogyny are actually ones authors follow, so I would have to disagree. I also think that art is not amoral at all and is actually what raises our morals, but that is my opinion only too c:
