Issue 111 (December 2025, Volume 20, Number 4)

This final issue of The Japan Society Review for 2025 turns its focus to the richness of contemporary Japanese fiction. From quiet psychological portraits to noir tinged thrillers, this selection of novels and short story collections reflects the diversity of voices and imaginative worlds shaping Japan’s literary present.

We begin with Sisters in Yellow by Kawakami Mieko, a dark, propulsive novel exploring the lingering impact of past relationships and the emotional wounds that resurface over time. Set against the pressures of a changing Tokyo, it follows young women navigating hardship, power imbalances, and the long shadows cast by formative experiences.

Matsuie Masashi’s Summer at Mount Asama is a contemplative debut set in a village beneath the volcano, where a young architect spends the summer with his firm. The novel foregrounds atmosphere over plot, blending reflections on art, nature, and architectural practice.

Matsuda Aoko’s The Woman Dies offers a bold, razor‑sharp collection of fifty‑two short stories that expose the everyday sexism embedded in contemporary Japanese society. With humour, bite, and a flair for the surreal, Matsuda gives voice to overlooked perspectives, from the casual glamorisation of women’s suffering to the subtle and not‑so‑subtle ways women are silenced or diminished.

A different kind of tension animates Tokyo Swindlers by Shinjo Ko, a gripping novel that plunges readers into the intricacies of deception, ambition, and survival in the capital’s underworld. With its fast pace and noir‑inflected atmosphere, the book offers a stylish portrait of the city’s hidden corners.

Hirano Keiichiro’s At the End of the Matinee brings an elegant and introspective counterpoint, following the intertwined lives of a classical guitarist and a journalist whose connection unfolds across continents. Through its reflective tone and emotional precision, the novel examines love, timing, and the choices that shape a life.

We close the issue with Miyamoto Teru’s Phantom Lights, a collection of eight stories linked by themes of personal hardship and told through shifting, nonlinear perspectives. Drawing on elements of the author’s own life, the pieces explore poverty, illness, loss, and the quiet endurance found in ordinary lives.