Go to a random bookstore in Japan and you’ll quickly find the section with travel guides. Domestic travel guides. From the southern islands of Okinawa to the northern Hokkaido, every area in Japan is covered. Because domestic tourism in Japan is big. Really big. Not so surprising, really, as there are big geographical and cultural…
I’ll admit it right away: I don’t read Dutch crime fiction. But that’s certainly not because there is none to be found. In fact, as evidenced by Leslie Elman’s “A Touch of Dutch” article, there is quite a bit. It’s just that I try to focus mainly on Japanese crime fiction. However, I had to…
It is commonly said that truth is stranger than fiction, and while I won’t go quite that far, I have to admit that the truth can be quite strange at times. Criminals can be extremely creative, with the most creative often being the most successful. As G.K. Chesterton wrote in his Father Brown story “The…
I had only been in Japan for a couple of days, but I had already perfected my answer to the constant question: why are you studying Japanese? My answer: because I like Japanese detective fiction. Which always leads to discussions about how I got to know about Japanese detective fiction, etc. But one day, I…
Languages can be fun, but they usually take a lot of time and effort to learn. Even if you put in the hours, some seem impossible to master. I for one can’t even make it past basic-level Korean, it seems, and my efforts to try to teach foreign friends to pronounce the Dutch ‘G’ have…
I am not making a habit of discussing books that aren’t available outside of Japan. Really. I myself am very aware that it is frustrating to read articles on oh-so-interesting books that aren’t available in a language you can read. But some books need the promotion. Some books must be made known to the outside…
We all have to start somewhere. My first encounter with Japanese detective fiction was through the Japanese animated movie Detective Conan: The Fourteenth Target. It changed my life. I started to read through all of the Detective Conan comics. Through the comics, I started to learn about other Japanese writers and series. I changed my…
Crime novel critic Kiyoshi Kasai focuses in his books on “orthodox” detective novels, which refer to the Golden Age detective novels in the Christie-Queen-Carr tradition. He identifies three distinct “waves” in the development of the orthodox detective novels in Japan , the first (1920-1940s) being the one represented by Edogawa Rampo, while the second is…
Discussions of Japanese detective fiction, especially those concerning the pre-World War II period, will inevitably mention the name Edogawa Rampo. Essayists will mention how he was the first full-time modern crime writer in Japan, and how he’s considered the father of the Japanese detective story. They will also mention how Hirai Tarō’spen name, Edogawa Rampo,…
Why should you care about the Japanese detective story? Well, Japan has a long and rich tradition in the genre, and even today, the detective novel holds a vital place in Japanese fiction. From light-hearted travel-mysteries to Golden Age–styled novels, from the ‘social detective’ with his cultural commentary to the grotesque mystery, the Japanese detective…
