Read Japanese Literature – Details, episodes & analysis

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Read Japanese Literature

Alison Fincher

Fiction

Arts

Education

Frequency: 1 episode/35d. Total Eps: 50

A podcast about Japanese literature and some of its best works

New episodes more-or-less monthly

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RSS

Apple

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Apple Podcasts

🇫🇷 France - fiction
17/08/2026
#93
🇫🇷 France - fiction
02/08/2026
#59
🇫🇷 France - fiction
01/08/2026
#86
🇩🇪 Germany - fiction
01/03/2025
#66
🇩🇪 Germany - fiction
24/12/2024
#69
🇩🇪 Germany - fiction
23/12/2024
#100
🇬🇧 Great Britain - fiction
06/12/2024
#93
🇬🇧 Great Britain - fiction
30/11/2024
#86
🇬🇧 Great Britain - fiction
29/11/2024
#74
🇬🇧 Great Britain - fiction
28/11/2024
#72

Spotify

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Score global : 68%

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Atomic Bomb Literature—Kyoko Hayashi and "Masks of Whatchamacallit"

Season 4 · Episode 1

Saturday, August 17, 2024 • Duration 59:28

This episode is marked mature.

In this episode, we take a look at Japanese writing about the American bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that killed as many as 215,000 people in August 1945. We’ll start with the history of the atomic bomb, its use, and its effects on the hibakusha who survived. Then we’ll take a look at atomic bomb literature itself. Our focus text is "Masks of Whatchamacallit" by Kyoko Hayashi, translated by Kyoko Selden.

CW: war, illness (historical and fictional), suicide (historical), forced abortion (fictional), emotional abuse (fictional)

Transcript, notes and sources at the podcast episode website.

Support RJL on Patreon for about 19 minutes of bonus content on this episode.

Read "Masks of Whatchamacalit" for free online.

Let RJL know what you think! (Contact us through the website if you want a response.)

Get in touch at www.readjapaneseliterature.com.
Support RJL on Patreon.com.
Buy your books from Bookshop.org.
All content © 2026 Read Japanese Literature.

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Zainichi Literature—Koreans Writing in Japan

Season 3 · Episode 9

Monday, June 3, 2024 • Duration 55:16

In this episode, we take a look at the history of Koreans writing in Japan. We’ll start with the history of Koreans in Japan, including anti-Korean prejudice before and after WWII. We’ll move on to Zainichi Korean writing. And we’ll finish with a look at Kazuki Kaneshiro’s Go, translated into English by Takami Nieda.

Notes and sources on the episode page. Transcript available.

Correction: This episode claims Yi Kwang-su's book Ai Ka ("Is It Love?") does not appear in English translation. Ai Ka is actually a short story and Janet Poole's translation of "Is This Love?" appears in in Queer Subjects in Modern Japanese Literature: Male Love, Intimacy, and Erotics, 1886-2014, edited by Stephen D. Miller.

Please note that this is the final episode of season 3. RJL will be back in August 2024.

Let RJL know what you think! (Contact us through the website if you want a response.)

Get in touch at www.readjapaneseliterature.com.
Support RJL on Patreon.com.
Buy your books from Bookshop.org.
All content © 2026 Read Japanese Literature.

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Japanese Children's Literature

Season 3 · Episode 1

Tuesday, September 5, 2023 • Duration 45:00

In this episode, we're talking about Japanese children's literature.

The history of children’s literature in general
The history of children’s literature in Japan
And Sachiko Kashiwaba and Temple Alley Summer—a story that is about Japanese children’s literature (at least a little bit!)

Notes and sources on the episode page.

Let RJL know what you think! (Contact us through the website if you want a response.)

Get in touch at www.readjapaneseliterature.com.
Support RJL on Patreon.com.
Buy your books from Bookshop.org.
All content © 2026 Read Japanese Literature.

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Translating Japanese to English, Part 2

Season 2 · Episode 12

Tuesday, August 8, 2023 • Duration 54:06

How does a book make it from the mind of a Japanese author into the hands of an English-language reader?

In part 2 of this 2-part episode, we'll tackle the question, “How do Japanese books get translated into English?" What kinds of choices do translators make when they present a Japanese-language text to English-language readers?

We're still looking at at Minae Mizumura's An I-Novel, translated into English by Juliet Winters Carpenter, and we'll end with some philosophical and ethical questions about translation.

Notes and sources on the episode page.

Let RJL know what you think! (Contact us through the website if you want a response.)

Get in touch at www.readjapaneseliterature.com.
Support RJL on Patreon.com.
Buy your books from Bookshop.org.
All content © 2026 Read Japanese Literature.

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Translating Japanese to English, Part 1

Season 2 · Episode 11

Thursday, June 29, 2023 • Duration 42:56

How does a book make it from the mind of a Japanese author into the hands of an English-language reader?

In part 1 of this 2-part episode, we'll tackle the question, “Why do some Japanese books get translated into English?" How do publishers decide what gets translated? How do they decide what doesn’t get translated. And we'll take a look at Minae Mizumura's An I-Novel, translated into English by Juliet Winters Carpenter.

Please note two errors in part 1.

1. Noriko Mizuta Lippit translated "The Smile of the Mountain Witch", assisted by Mariko Ochi. The translation appears in Yamamba: In Search of the Japanese Mountain Witch, which is edited by Rebecca Copeland and Linda C. Ehrlich.

2. Author Astrid Lindgren and her Pippi Longstocking series are Swedish—not Norwegian.

Transcript, notes and sources at the podcast episode page.

Let RJL know what you think! (Contact us through the website if you want a response.)

Get in touch at www.readjapaneseliterature.com.
Support RJL on Patreon.com.
Buy your books from Bookshop.org.
All content © 2026 Read Japanese Literature.

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SF! Japanese Science Fiction

Season 2 · Episode 10

Tuesday, April 25, 2023 • Duration 45:26

In this episode, we’re talking about Japanese science fiction.

The history of the genre. SF in Japan. Breakthrough feminist sci-fi writer Izumi Suzuki.

Plus loads of SF stories, including Suzuki’s “Night Picnic”.

CW: suicide

Transcript, notes and sources at the podcast episode page.

Let RJL know what you think! (Contact us through the website if you want a response.)

Get in touch at www.readjapaneseliterature.com.
Support RJL on Patreon.com.
Buy your books from Bookshop.org.
All content © 2026 Read Japanese Literature.

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Writing from Okinawa

Season 2 · Episode 9

Friday, April 14, 2023 • Duration 45:00

This episode is marked mature.

In this episode, we're talking about writing from Okinawa. The history of the Ryukyu Islands, especially the Battle of Okinawa. The evolution of writing from Okinawa. And the life life and work of author and activist Shun Medoruma, especially his Akutagawa-winning story "Droplets".

CW: war, forced suicide (historical), violence (historical and fictional), historical rape

Correction: This episode claims Hokkaido is Japan's largest island. I know better and misspoke. My apologies.Honshu is Japan's largest island.

Transcript, notes and sources at the podcast episode page.

Let RJL know what you think! (Contact us through the website if you want a response.)

Get in touch at www.readjapaneseliterature.com.
Support RJL on Patreon.com.
Buy your books from Bookshop.org.
All content © 2026 Read Japanese Literature.

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Fukushima Fiction

Season 2 · Episode 8

Monday, March 6, 2023 • Duration 43:54

On March 11, 2011, at 2:46pm, one tectonic plate forced its way on top of another 45 miles (or 72 km) off the Eastern coast of Japan. It caused a 9.0 magnitude megathrust earthquake that lasted about six minutes.

The Great East Japan Earthquake triggered a tsunami—a great wave—that may have reached heights up to 133 feet (more than 40 meters).

The earthquake and tsunami also disabled the reactor cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, causing several reactors to meltdown.

The government of Tokyo released official death numbers around the tenth anniversary of 3/11 in 2021. It reported 19,759 deaths. 6,242 injuries. And 2,553 missing. Most of the missing are presumed dead.

Hundreds of thousands of people who evacuated the area still haven’t returned home—many never will.

In this episode:

Tohoku and its place in Japan's history and culture
The response by Japanese writers to the 3/11 disaster
Hiromi Kawakami's life and work—especially her stories "God Bless You" and "God Bless You, 2011"

Transcript, notes and sources at the podcast episode website.

Donate to support Tohoku:

Soso Volunteer (Japanese)
Support Our Kids (Japanese)
The Taylor Anderson Memorial Fund (English)

Become an RJL supporter for ten minutes of bonus content.

Sexlessness in Japanese Fiction

Season 2 · Episode 7

Monday, February 13, 2023 • Duration 45:57

This episode is marked mature.

Today we'll explore two trends in contemporary Japanese fiction:

Protagonists who don’t want to have sex
And women who want to have babies anyway.

To take a closer look at these trends, we’re going to ask a couple of questions about contemporary Japan:

What is “celibacy syndrome”? Does it even exist?
What role does motherhood play in a shrinking society?
And how do sexlessness and motherhood play out in 21st-century Japanese fiction?

We’ll end with a closer look at Mieko Kawakami’s best-selling novel, Breasts and Eggs.

Transcript, notes and sources at the podcast episode website.

Become an RJL supporter for ten minutes of bonus content.

Support this podcast by buying from Bookshop.org

Let RJL know what you think! (Contact us through the website if you want a response.)

Get in touch at www.readjapaneseliterature.com.
Support RJL on Patreon.com.
Buy your books from Bookshop.org.
All content © 2026 Read Japanese Literature.

The Akutagawa Prize and Kobo Abe

Season 2 · Episode 6

Friday, January 27, 2023 • Duration 43:17

The Akutagawa Prize is probably Japan’s most celebrated literary award.

To better understand the Akutagawa Prize and its place in modern Japanese literature, we’ll start with an introduction to the history of “literary” fiction in Japan.

Then we’ll move on to the history of the Akutagawa Prize itself, from its creation in 1935 through its most recent winners.

And then we’ll finish with a look at the life and career of Kobo Abe including his most famous book, The Woman in the Dunes.

(CW: suicide, attempted rape in a novel)

Notes and sources at the podcast episode website.

Become an RJL supporter for ten minutes of bonus content.

Support this podcast by buying from Bookshop.org

Let RJL know what you think! (Contact us through the website if you want a response.)

Get in touch at www.readjapaneseliterature.com.
Support RJL on Patreon.com.
Buy your books from Bookshop.org.
All content © 2026 Read Japanese Literature.

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Read Japanese Literature – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Read Japanese Literature – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Patreon3

Other99+

Buzzsprout2

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Patreon3

Other99+

Buzzsprout2