Japanese Book News - Summer 2011 - The Third Phase of Japanese Literature: Human Relationships in a Networked Society

Aug 20, 2026

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The Summer 2011 issue presents “The Third Phase of Japanese Literature,” arguing that Japanese literature has entered a new third phase over the past decade. The essay traces how modern Japanese literature developed alongside Japan’s social and institutional transformations from 1990 to 2010, and compares works from the 1990s with those from the new millennium’s first decade. It proposes three writer groupings, highlighting shifts shaped by state language education, mass media, political movements, postwar reconstruction, and contemporary networks.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages16

Reading Time25 min

AccessFree to download

The Third Phase of Japanese Literature

Looking back: 1990–2010 and the constructed nature of “Japanese literature”

Literature and society: mass media, politics, and postwar change

Comparing decades: late 20th vs early 21st century works

Three groups of contemporary writers

Japanese Book News is published quarterly by the Japan Foundation mainly to provide publishers, editors, translators, scholars, and librarians with up-to-date information about publishing trends in Japan and brief descriptions of the content of selected new books. The opinions and views expressed in the essays and new title summaries are not necessarily those of the Japan Foundation or the Advisory Board. Romanization follows the Hepburn style with minor modifications; macrons indicate long vowels. Japanese names follow the practice of surname first. Reproduction in whole or in part of Japanese Book News articles is prohibited without permission of the author. After permission has been received, articles may be reproduced providing the credit line reads: “Reprinted from Japanese Book News, No. xx, published by the Japan Foundation.”Three copies should be sent to the editor-in-chief. [http://www.jpf.go.jp/e/publish/jbn/](http://www.jpf.go.jp/e/publish/jbn/)[ ](http://www.jpf.go.jp/e/publish/jbn/)index.html © The Japan Foundation 2011 68 SUMMER 2011 The Third Phase of Japanese Literature Human Relationships in a Networked Society Ichikawa Makoto Looking back on contemporary Japanese literature produced during the two decades on either side of the new millennium (in other words, between 1990 and 2010), Iam struck again by the highly constructed, artificial nature of “Japanese literature” since the late nineteenth century. From its earliest beginnings in the works of writers recently returned from Europe, such as Natsume Sōseki and Mori Ōgai, the history of modern Japanese literature has been intimately linked to the way in which the national language was taught in schools, based largely on inculcating a “correct” appreciation of literary works. Literature functioned as one of the means by which a small, backward country in East Asia sought to develop itself at accelerated speed into a modern, Western-style state (hence the emphasis placed on its status as modern Japanese literature). The reading of literary works written under the rubric of a given political, economic, or linguistic aim imparted a sense of homogeneity to (groups of) readers. The act of reading itself was incorporated into the infrastructure of state, part of a cycle that reinforced the political, economical, and linguistic pillars (Japanese as the national language) of the state apparatus. In itself, of course, this is not unique to modern Japan. But one of the distinctive things about Japanese modern literature is the close overlap between developments and trends in literature as it has been practiced in this country and the development of Japanese society itself. From its probing exploration of the meaning of the self in the bright, hopeful days of a new age, modern Japanese literature has twice been caught up in the turbulence of the times as state and society underwent major changes—expanding first as a mass phenomenon with the development of mass media technology, and then through its links with the political movement. The first of these trends lasted from the formation of the modern subject in the Meiji era (1868–1912), through the “culturalist” and “proletarian”literary movements of the Taishō era (1912–26), to the period of the Pacific War. The second encompassed the“postwar” writers of the reconstruction period, the collusions between literature and journalism typified by the work of writers like Ishihara Shintarō, and the student movement, continuing to take in the wide-sweeping changes to the structure of society that took place from the end of the twentieth to the beginning of the twentyfirst century. That these changes had a profound effect on the Japanese literature of the 20-year period outlined at the start of this essay becomes clear as soon as we compare works written during the last decade of the twentieth century with those written during the first decade of the new mil- lennium. To state my conclusion upfront: I believ

FAQs

What does the essay claim about Japanese literature’s recent development?

The essay argues that Japanese literature has entered a new third phase during the past 10 years.

How does the essay connect literature with Japanese society and the state?

It describes literature as overlapping with developments in society, with reading practices reinforced through institutions tied to the state’s political, economic, and linguistic pillars.

How are contemporary Japanese writers categorized in the essay?

They are divided broadly into three main groups: writers continuing an extreme form of modern literature, and two additional groups shaped by later developments and changing social contexts.

Aug 20, 2026

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