Editing Japanese literature (section)

===Postwar literature (1945–onwards)===
[[World War II]], and Japan's defeat, deeply influenced Japanese literature. Many authors wrote stories of disaffection, loss of purpose, and the coping with defeat. [[Haruo Umezaki]]'s short story {{transliteration|ja|[[Sakurajima (short story)|Sakurajima]]}} shows a disillusioned and skeptical Navy officer stationed in a base located on the [[Sakurajima]] volcanic island, close to [[Kagoshima]], on the southern tip of [[Kyushu]]. [[Osamu Dazai]]'s novel ''[[The Setting Sun]]'' tells of a soldier returning from [[Manchukuo]]. [[Shōhei Ōoka]] won the [[Yomiuri Prize|Yomiuri]] Prize for his novel ''[[Fires on the Plain (novel)|Fires on the Plain]]'' about a Japanese deserter going mad in the Philippine jungle. [[Yukio Mishima]], well known for both his [[nihilism|nihilistic]] writing and his controversial suicide by {{transliteration|ja|[[seppuku]]}}, began writing in the post-war period. [[Nobuo Kojima]]'s short story "The American School" portrays a group of Japanese teachers of English who, in the immediate aftermath of the war, deal with the American occupation in varying ways.

Prominent writers of the 1970s and 1980s were identified with intellectual and moral issues in their attempts to raise social and political consciousness. One of them, [[Kenzaburō Ōe]], who published one of his best-known works, ''[[A Personal Matter]]'' in 1964, became [[List of Japanese Nobel laureates|Japan's second winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature]].

[[Mitsuharu Inoue]] had long been concerned with the atomic bomb and continued in the 1980s to write on problems of the nuclear age, while [[Shūsaku Endō]] depicted the religious dilemma of the {{transliteration|ja|[[Kakure Kirishitan]]}}, Roman Catholics in feudal Japan, as a springboard to address spiritual problems. [[Yasushi Inoue]] also turned to the past in masterful historical novels of Inner Asia and ancient Japan, in order to portray present human fate.

Avant-garde writers, such as [[Kōbō Abe]], who wrote novels such as ''[[The Woman in the Dunes]]'' (1960), wanted to express the Japanese experience in modern terms without using either international styles or traditional conventions, developed new inner visions. [[Yoshikichi Furui]] related the lives of alienated urban dwellers coping with the minutiae of daily life, while the psychodramas within such daily life crises have been explored by a rising number of important women novelists. The 1988 [[Naoki Prize|Naoki]] Prize went to {{ill|Shizuko Todo|ja|藤堂志津子}} for ''[[Ripening Summer]]'', a story capturing the complex psychology of modern women. Other award-winning stories at the end of the decade dealt with current issues of the elderly in hospitals, the recent past (Pure-Hearted Shopping District in [[Kōenji]], Tokyo), and the life of a [[Meiji period]] [[ukiyo-e]] artist.

[[Haruki Murakami]] is one of the most popular and controversial of today's Japanese authors.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-12-08-tm-233-story.html| title = The Cool, Cynical Voice of Young Japan : In Haruki Murakami's Fiction, There Are No Kimonos, No Bonsai Trees, Just a Disdain for Japanese Tradition and an Obsession With American Pop Culture - Los Angeles Times| website = [[Los Angeles Times]]| date = 8 December 1991}}</ref> His genre-defying, humorous and surreal works have sparked fierce debates in Japan over whether they are true "literature" or simple pop-fiction: Kenzaburō Ōe has been one of his harshest critics. Some of Murakami's best-known works include ''[[Norwegian Wood (novel)|Norwegian Wood]]'' (1987) and ''[[The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle]]'' (1994–1995).

[[Banana Yoshimoto]], a best-selling contemporary author whose "manga-esque" style of writing sparked much controversy when she debuted in the late 1980s, has come to be recognized as a unique and talented author over the intervening years. Her writing style stresses dialogue over description, resembling the script of a [[manga]], and her works focus on love, friendship, and loss. Her breakout work was 1988's ''[[Kitchen (novel)|Kitchen]]''.

Although modern Japanese writers covered a wide variety of subjects, one particularly Japanese approach stressed their subjects' inner lives, widening the earlier novel's preoccupation with the narrator's consciousness. In Japanese fiction, plot development and action have often been of secondary interest to emotional issues. In keeping with the general trend toward reaffirming national characteristics, many old themes re-emerged, and some authors turned consciously to the past. Strikingly, [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] attitudes about the importance of knowing oneself and the poignant impermanence of things formed an undercurrent to sharp social criticism of this material age. There was a growing emphasis on women's roles, the Japanese persona in the modern world, and the malaise of common people lost in the complexities of urban culture.

Popular fiction, non-fiction, and children's literature all flourished in urban Japan in the 1980s. Many popular works fell between "pure literature" and pulp novels, including all sorts of historical serials, information-packed docudramas, science fiction, mysteries, [[Japanese detective fiction|detective fiction]], business stories, war journals, and animal stories. Non-fiction covered everything from crime to politics. Although factual journalism predominated, many of these works were interpretive, reflecting a high degree of individualism. Children's works re-emerged in the 1950s, and the newer entrants into this field, many of the younger women, brought new vitality to it in the 1980s.

[[Manga]] — Japanese [[comics]] — have penetrated almost every sector of the popular market. They include virtually every field of human interest, such as multivolume high-school histories of Japan and, additionally for the adult market, a manga introduction to economics, and pornography ([[hentai]]). Manga represented between 20 and 30 percent of annual publications at the end of the 1980s, in sales of some ¥400 billion per year. [[Light novel]]s, a Japanese type of [[young adult novel]], often feature plots and illustrations similar to those seen in manga. Many manga are fan-made ({{transliteration|ja|[[dōjinshi]]}}).

Literature utilizing [[new media]] began to appear at the end of the 20th century. [[Visual novel]]s, a type of [[interactive fiction]], were produced for [[personal computer]]s beginning in the 1980s. [[Cell phone novel]]s appeared in the early 21st century. Written by and for [[Japanese mobile phone culture|cell phone users]], the novels — typically romances read by young women — have become very popular both online and in print. Some, such as ''[[Koizora|Love Sky]]'', have sold millions of print copies, and at the end of 2007 cell phone novels comprised four of the top five fiction best sellers.<ref name= "goodyear20081222">{{cite news|last=Goodyear|first=Dana|title=I ♥ Novels|url=https://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/12/22/081222fa_fact_goodyear?currentPage=all|access-date=2010-12-06|newspaper=The New Yorker|date=2008-12-22|archive-date=2010-12-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101201111418/http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/12/22/081222fa_fact_goodyear?currentPage=all|url-status=dead}}</ref>