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literature

World Masterpiece Theater classic anime series gets lifestyle/fashion line in Japan

Anime versions of Anne of Green Gables, Dog of Flanders, and more inspire stylish and adorable designs.

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Famous Japanese writers get a new life as cats in weird gacha capsule toy range

Ever wondered what literary greats like Natsume Soseki and Osamu Dazai would look like as felines?

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Haruki Murakami denied Nobel Prize in Literature AGAIN, so summer is officially over

The Japanese author’s snub signals the arrival of cooler weather, according to Japanese netizens.

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Haruki Murakami never uses social media, bluntly explains why

World-famous Japanese author has no fear of missing out.

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Haruki Murakami, Uniqlo team up for T-shirt line saluting Japan’s most celebrated modern author

1Q84, jazz, and cats are all part of the collection.

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Embrace the literary and the historical with traditional Japanese artwork as your Zoom background

Gorgeous visuals from some of Japan’s most revered art pieces now available for download.

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Oldest manuscript of the world’s oldest novel, The Tale of Genji, found in Tokyo【Photos】

Hand-written by a master calligrapher, the manuscript is approximately 800 years old.

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Manga reimagines literature’s most famous detective as an android

You’ve seen Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective as a dog, a girl, and even Benedict Cumberbatch’s turn as the character as its own manga. A character of near infallible logic is transforming again, this time into an android.

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Universities plan to build android of Japanese literary great Soseki Natsume

Soseki Natsume: writer, a man long dead. We can rebuild him. We have the technology. We can make him better than he was: better, stronger, faster…

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Saikaku’s Edo-era tales of gay samurai love reimagined for a modern audience as Boys Love manga

Saucy Edo-period literature is being brought into the modern era as gay manga.

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Ancient Japanese literary works are now yours to download at the click of a button

Who doesn’t love getting a free book? Especially when that book is over 300 years old!

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Author Haruki Murakami’s Q&A blog closes, posts hint at his own incredibly sad marriage

Haruki Murakami has answered many questions from readers on his blog since it opened in January, ranging from the meaning of life to nuclear power to TV addiction, but now it has closed up shop. Murakami will be selecting the best questions and answers and publishing them plus some extras in a new book in the near future.

With the full corpus of questions and answers still available online though, some fans have gone through and discovered an interesting part of Murakami’s life that was unknown up until now: his sad marriage.

Murakami makes numerous comments directly and indirectly about his wife and their life together, and after reading all of them you really start to feel sorry for the guy.

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Haruki Murakami’s solution to the nuclear power debate in Japan: Actually call it “nuclear power”

You may have heard that legendary Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami runs a blog where he answers questions sent in by readers. He’s tackled subjects ranging from the meaning of life to how to become a writer to what animal ability he’d like to have.

In one of his most recent questions, Murakami gives his opinion on a very touchy subject in Japan: nuclear power. Instead of calling out for reform or regulations though, he suggests one very simple change: that Japanese people refer to what they currently call “atomic energy power plants” as “nuclear power plants” instead.

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Got a question for Haruki Murakami? Website lets you ask the author directly, and in English, too

Earlier this month, we talked about a piece of not-so-helpful advice celebrated author Haruki Murakami gave to a fan about what makes a great writer. Murakami just his write-in website this month, though, and given that he’s sort of new at dishing out direct advice to his admirers, maybe we should cut him a little slack while he’s still getting the hang of it.

Then again, we’re not sure even the most experienced advice columnists could come up with considerate and helpful responses to some of the oddball questions Murakami has been getting. Thankfully, even if he can’t always help out those who write to him, he can at least give a laugh to everyone else who reads his responses. Even better, if you act quickly, you could ask him a question of your own, even if you don’t speak Japanese.

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French literature classic ‘The Little Prince’ coming soon to cinemas as an animated film!

Calling all movie-goers, animation fans and literature enthusiasts! It’s not often that we get the chance to pique the interest of individuals from these three groups all at the same time, but the animated version of The Little Prince, one of the most famed pieces of French literature of our time, is set to hit the big screens in the later half of this year! If you haven’t already seen the trailer, read on and get ready to be mesmerized!

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Among contemporary writers, there’s no Japanese author with a bigger international following than Haruki Murakami. The novelist and translator is also highly respected within his home country, as Japan holds an especially deep respect for any of its citizens who succeed in making a name for themselves on the international stage.

As such, we imagine one young graduate student was hoping for some sage advice when she contacted Murakami and asked him for pointers on how to become a better writer. The response she got was as surprising, unique, and challenging as Murakami’s books themselves.

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How the Expired Copyright License of Old Literary Works Could Keep Japan’s Cultural Soil Fertile

When it comes to reading famous literary works whose copyright license has expired, there is one piece of software that is renowned for doing the job rather well. It goes by the name of “Aozora Bunko” and is a digital contents reader available on a wide variety of devices; there’s even a version available for smart phone users. It is currently host to a plethora of copyright-free material rich in Japanese history and culture. What’s particularly exciting is that the more time goes by, the more the library of works can be seen to grow.

Anyone with an interest in old Japanese masterpieces – and can read Japanese – will surely be lured in by what this software has to offer. In this connection, on January 1 this year, the legendary writer Eiji Yoshikawa’s work “Miyamoto Musashi” is also set to be added to the collection. Miyamoto Musashi is a bestselling novel depicting the life of legendary samurai Musashi Miyamoto, who actually existed during the Japanese Edo era.

Just what makes all this free content possible is the rule that governs copyright licensing laws: 50 years after an author has passed away, copyrighted works are released freely into the public domain.

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