This chapter examines Japanese popular fiction, providing an understanding of its importance during upheavals in Japanese media and popular culture, as well as within the context of major social changes. It uses as its main illustration Kirino Natsuo’s (2004) novel Auto (Out), which incorporates various social issues, including gender discrimination, an aging society, precarious employment, the (non-)belonging of minorities and violence. By examining the materiality of Kirino’s fiction itself, the chapter demonstrates how Japanese popular fiction works as a lens to observing these crucial social issues facing Japanese society.

Introduction

Japanese popular fiction is of immense economic as well as cultural importance. Yet, there have been few academic studies, particularly in the English language, assessing its significance and implications. This chapter surveys one of the most important popular fiction works in Japan in recent times, Kirino Natsuo’s (2004) prominent novel Auto (Out), first published in 1997, since it encompasses several of the most salient issues invoked in contemporary Japanese popular fiction reflecting changes in Japanese society, including gender discrimination, an aging society, a changing employment system, ethnic minorities, and violence. As well as examining the materiality of the fiction itself, this chapter demonstrates how Japanese popular fiction works as a lens to observing these paramount issues in Japanese society. By analyzing popular fiction in Japan from this multifaceted perspective it becomes possible to better understand the social issues it reflects, addresses and influences.

This chapter aims to provide readers with a broad understanding of Japanese popular fiction (taishū bungaku) and its relevance both within and beyond Japan. Academic scholarship on this area is neglected for a reason similar to why video games are not researched nearly as much as film, music, or other popular forms of culture. They are seen as less important cultural products, even within the already lower tier of popular culture, let alone when pitted against so-called “high culture” such as literary fiction (jun bungaku). Notwithstanding this, the argument that popular fiction and video games should be considered purely due to their current pre-eminent economic impact is insufficient, at least when approaching them from a cultural studies perspective as this chapter does.