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July 25, 2026
 

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OSAMU DAZAI

Cafe Phosphorescence, owned by Osamu Dazai fan Miyuki Daba, is located about 15 minutes away from where the novelist used to live.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 15, 2026
In Tokyo¡¯s Mitaka, a search for traces of Osamu Dazai
The novelist¡¯s hometown honors his memory, but with many buildings demolished, a pilgrimage is an exercise in imagination.
Japanese literature in translation abroad has only grown in popularity with every year, resulting in a wide variety of titles available in English, from cozy fiction to crime and horror.
CULTURE / Books / 2025 IN REVIEW
Dec 14, 2025
In 2025, Japanese literature took a turn for the weird
As expected, women writers raked in successes and cozy cat fiction kept its popularity, with two big surprises from male authors ¡ª Uketsu and Osamu Dazai.
Osamu Dazai struggled with depression and addiction, themes that were also central to his writing.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 22, 2025
Why Japan¡¯s 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.
When describing meal times in his novel ¡°No Longer Human,¡± Osamu Dazai refers to his family as being "j¨±ikunin," which translates to "10 and change." By being vague, he diminishes the importance of the size of his family.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 21, 2024
Attempting the classics: Decoding Osamu Dazai¡¯s sinister diction
A gritty realism and gut-wrenching plots were the mark of the ¡°I-novel¡± push in the 20th century.
Japan Times
51³Ô¹ÏÍø / History / 51³Ô¹ÏÍø TIMES GONE BY
Jun 3, 2023
Japan Times 1923: This may be a true story, but again, it mayn¡¯t
Some mysterious behavior from a jar of ashes 100 years ago makes the front page of The Japan Times. Then, 25 years ago, a conference believes newsprint will win out over the internet.
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
Jul 21, 2022
Independent publisher gives short stories their due with ¡®Storybook ND¡¯ series
New Directions spotlights short fiction with a new translated series featuring Yoko Tawada and Osamu Dazai.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 1, 2020
¡®A Late Chrysanthemum¡¯: A short story collection full of pathos and maturity
This anthology of short stories may tend toward the morally dubious, but it¡¯s a solid introduction to literary masters of the 20th century.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 25, 2020
Is Japan enjoying a new literary golden age?
The case for Yes
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 28, 2019
¡®Human Lost¡¯: Osamu Dazai¡¯s classic novel gets lost in sci-fi technobabble
A futuristic update of ¡®No Longer Human,¡¯ the latest computer-animated film from Polygon Pictures takes liberties with the source material.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 18, 2019
¡®No Longer Human¡¯: A biopic with no decent biography
Mika Ninagawa¡¯s ¡®No Longer Human¡¯ tells the story of celebrated Japanese author Osamu Dazai, with a particular focus on his turbulent love life
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR 51³Ô¹ÏÍøOPHILES
Dec 22, 2018
Delve into a teenager¡¯s consciousness with Osamu Dazai¡¯s ¡®Schoolgirl¡¯
Concise enough to be read in one sitting, ¡®Schoolgirl¡¯ combines Osamu Dazai¡¯s familiar themes of melancholy, alienation and despair with levity and humor.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Nov 10, 2018
A journey to hell with Osamu Dazai, Japan¡¯s ultimate bad boy novelist
Dazai is the ultimate bad boy of Japanese literature and ¡®Ningen Shikkaku,¡¯ recently re-translated by Mark Gibeau as ¡®A Shameful Life,¡¯ is his supreme masterpiece, a novel that still shocks today with its brutal honesty and unflinching, strangely thrilling pessimism.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / WORKS BY 51³Ô¹ÏÍøESE WOMEN
Oct 20, 2018
Fierce and inventive, Yuko Tsushima¡¯s oeuvre goes beyond the ¡®I-novel¡¯ genre
Early on, Yuko Tsushima broke the boundaries of the traditional Japanese I-novel, giving voice to a voiceless minority by authentically depicting the struggles of single mothers in society as a single mother herself.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 19, 2018
Mount Fuji is the gift to writers that keeps on giving
¡®Mountain/Home: New Translations from Japan¡¯ shows Mount Fuji from a variety of literary angles in this comprehensive anthology of translations.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Mar 30, 2018
Thawing out on the stove train through Tsugaru
In his 1944 semi-autobiographical ¡°Return to Tsugaru,¡± Japanese author Osamu Dazai (1909-48) revisits his native Tsugaru, a peninsula in northernmost Aomori Prefecture and, apart from praising its people, has mostly unflattering things to say about the place. Forty years later, British writer Alan Booth...
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Nov 13, 2017
Blue Sky Books is a literary treasure trove
Aozora Bunko is an electric internet library that contains works of literature in the public domain.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR 51³Ô¹ÏÍøOPHILES
Nov 4, 2017
¡®Blue Bamboo: Japanese Tales of Fantasy¡¯: Between the fantasy and reality of Osamu Dazai
Osamu Dazai packs wry humor and warm humanity into seven short stories, as his collection, ¡°Blue Bamboo,¡± inventively blurs the line between fantasy and reality.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 15, 2017
Views both old and new of Aomori¡¯s Tsugaru
Cut off by the Ou Mountains to the south and far removed from any center of power, Aomori Prefecture¡¯s remote Tsugaru Peninsula was largely left to its own devices until the Azuchi-Momoyama Period (1573-1603).
Japan weighs regulating Pokemon cards amid trading mania
A Pokemon event is held in Jakarta on July 11
Japan to set up expert working group on accepting foreign nationals
Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara (second from left) addresses a meeting of ministers responsible for policies concerning foreign residents, held at the Prime Minister's Office on Friday.
Head of Swiss euthanasia firm dies after collapsing while ascending Mount Fuji
Around 200,000 people typically scale the 3,776 meter Mount Fuji each year.
Indian brothers make manga debut in Japan
Two Indian brothers made their manga debut in Japan with "Kung Fu Kung Fool" ¡ª an action-comedy series that follows the adventures of a notorious thief and a young boy.
Japan scientists identify clusters of protein believed to trigger Alzheimer¡¯s disease
A team of researchers said they found a ¡°seed¡± that accelerates the amyloid beta accumulation process in the brain, naming it ¡°Peak 1 amyloid beta,¡± as seen in a mouse's brain.
Japan to set up expert working group on accepting foreign nationals
Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara (second from left) addresses a meeting of ministers responsible for policies concerning foreign residents, held at the Prime Minister's Office on Friday.
Inside Toho Archive¡¯s mission to save Japan¡¯s cinematic memory
The goal of restoration is not to artificially upscale but to return the film to the condition it was in ¡°the very first day it appeared in the world,¡± says Nobushige Toshima, president and sales division manager of Toho Archive.
The sci-fi sensibilities of electronic trio Black Boboi
Black Boboi was formed in 2018 when solo artists Julia Shortreed, Utena Kobayashi and Ermhoi came together under Kobayashi¡¯s newly founded label, Bindividual.
A perfect storm: Kaze Fujii fans flock to Fuji Rock
Okayama-born singer-songwriter Kaze Fujii has carved out a distinctive place in Japanese pop since his major-label debut in 2019.

Podcast

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

Longform

For many people, utility poles and power lines have become such a familiar part of Japan¡¯s landscape that they often go unnoticed.
Why Japan¡¯s utility poles won¡¯t be disappearing anytime soon
By Alex K.T. Martin

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