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August 17, 2026
 

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SAM BETT

Osamu Dazai struggled with depression and addiction, themes that were also central to his writing.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 22, 2025
Why Â鶹´«Ã½ most melancholic writer speaks to today¡¯s youth
Osamu Dazai¡¯s works are enjoying a new boom of retranslations and readers 80 years after they were first published.
Akira Otani's genre-bending novel "The Night of Baba Yaga" takes place in Â鶹´«Ã½ 1970s yakuza underworld and centers on the daughter of a mob boss and a ruthless martial arts fighter who serves as her bodyguard.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jul 4, 2025
Queer-coded yakuza story wins prestigious U.K. crime writing award
With ¡°The Night of Baba Yaga,¡± Akira Otani is the first Japanese writer to win the Crime Writers¡¯ Association Dagger Award for crime fiction in translation.
June is Pride Month, which means it¡¯s the perfect time to get acquainted with how sexual minorities have been represented in Japanese fiction if you¡¯re not familiar with these narratives already.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 11, 2025
Pride and prose: Novels that illuminate queer lives in Japan
From Yukio Mishima and Haruki Murakami to Li Kotomi and Akira Otani, dive into Japanese fiction¡¯s LGBTQ+ narratives in honor of Pride Month.
Akira Otani's "The Night of Baba Yaga¡± explores the boundaries of finding one's place in society as it questions ideas of violence, love, family and honor.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 27, 2024
¡®The Night of Baba Yaga¡¯ weaves a yakuza thriller into a meditation on queerness
Translator Sam Bett gravitated to the Akira Otani novel for its refusal to adhere to established genre conventions.
While non-Japanese readers have in recent years been spoiled for choice when it comes to Japanese literature in translation, there is still a wealth of notable works that translators would love to see rendered into English.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 20, 2023
A wish list of hidden gems for Japanese literature lovers
Eight translators reveal their top Japanese books that English readers have yet to enjoy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 7, 2023
¡®Hit Parade of Tears¡¯: Izumi Suzuki attacks genre and gender with twisted precision
The cult literary figure¡¯s new collection of 11 stories unveil the chaos, conflict and pain of women rebelling against the desires of men and seeking messy self-actualization.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 19, 2023
¡®The Flowers of Buffoonery¡¯: Osamu Dazai¡¯s unexpected portrait of camaraderie
The novel adds new texture to the author¡¯s classic ¡®No Longer Human,¡¯ while bringing levity to a somewhat dire thesis: The world is full of inauthenticity.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 13, 2023
Osamu Dazai gets silly while facing fears in ¡®The Flowers of Buffoonery¡¯
Translator Sam Bett brings out the fragile personalities in the author¡¯s early novella, a predecessor to his modern classic novel ¡°No Longer Human.¡¯
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 23, 2022
Fuminori Nakamura: ¡®The darkness of fiction can be healing¡¯
The author delves deep into the mind of a murderer and the monstrous depths of humanity in his complex thriller ¡°My Annihilation,¡± his latest novel to be translated into English.
Slowly but surely, Tokyo is becoming a hot spot for chicken rice
One of Singapore's most iconic dishes, the humble chicken rice is given an upscale treatment at a new Marunouchi cafe.
South Korea fires warning shots after North Korean soldiers crossed DMZ
North Korea's propaganda village Gijungdong as seen from a South Korea's observation post inside the Joint Security Area on the Demilitarized Zone in March 2023
Takaichi drops ¡®remorse¡¯ in her first war memorial address
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi speaks onstage during a memorial service ceremony marking the 81st anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II, at Budokan Hall in Tokyo on Saturday.
U.S. to tell partners they must pick sides in AI race with China?
People march as they protest against Pax Silica, a U.S.-led initiative, in Manila on Thursday.
New shinkansen model delivered to Taiwan
A new Taiwan High Speed Rail train car is unloaded from a cargo ship at a port in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, on Saturday.
Unrelenting Russian anti-war protesters in Japan fight through inescapable doubt
Anti-war Russians protest Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward in February.
How U.S. bombing survey in Japan shed light on civilian sentiments of WWII
Residents are seen walking beside rubble in the city of Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture, in this undated photo taken soon after the end of World War II.
Forty-five meters down, a diver races to record a fleeting moment of WWII history
Kingo Wakasa photographs the kamikaze plane wing section he discovered at the USS Emmons wreck site.
Takaichi needs Aso on her side to solidify position in LDP
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi attends a Liberal Democratic Party meeting alongside LDP Secretary-General Shunichi Suzuki (left) and LDP Vice President Taro Aso in Tokyo earlier this month
Ikarigata closer to emulating older brother Fujinokawa than many think
The future Fujinokawa (third from left) and Ikarigata (right) compete against each other at ages 5 and 3, respectively.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo¡¯s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo¡¯s ¡®stadium of desire¡¯

Longform

Disaster relief workers Taichi Kato (left) and Seiji Yoshimura enter the collapsed living quarters at Kyuganji temple in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture.
What Kumamoto revealed about Â鶹´«Ã½ earthquake readiness
By Alex K.T. Martin

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