For a while, Japanese cultural exports seemed to specialize in making people feel better. Marie Kondo taught us to ¡°spark joy¡± in our housekeeping. ¡°Terrace House¡± offered a softer, slower version of reality TV where drama often hinged on a glance across a kitchen. And Nintendo¡¯s Animal Crossing: New Horizons gave millions of gamers a quiet place to spend the pandemic.
Japanese popular literature was also, by and large, cozy and comforting. Toshikazu Kawaguchi¡¯s ¡°Before the Coffee Gets Cold¡± series, about a cafe where customers can briefly revisit the past, became an international bestseller by offering readers a chance to sit with regret, grief and the possibility of acceptance.
But lately, another side of Japanese culture has been attracting attention: stories designed to unsettle. While J-horror cinema and morbid manga have long had their adherents, this darker turn is now particularly prominent in the publishing industry.?
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