Read Japanese Literature

About Read Japanese Literature

A podcast about Japanese literature and some of its best works New episodes more-or-less monthly

Publisher

Alison Fincher

Category

arts · education · fiction

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

29 Sept 2021

Latest episode

29 Aug 2026

Latest episodes

72 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   29 Aug 2026

   Japanese Women Writers

   For decades, writing by women was treated as its own separate genre in Japan, joryu bungaku. In today's episode, we’ll start with an explanation of why joryu bungaku became its own separate genre. We’ll move on to the story of women’s writing between the Meiji Era and the Pacific War and then immediately after the Pacific War. We’ll zoom in on three writers who really changed the narrative for women’s writing in Japan—Taeko Kono, Takako Takahashi, and Yumiko Kurahashi—and then talk very...

2. 

   25 Jun 2026

   Aum Anxiety in Japanese Fiction

   In this episode, we examine the history of the Aum Affair and its lasting impact on Japanese fiction. We'll start out with the history of new religions in Japan, including Aum Shinrikyo. We'll take a look at Haruki Murakami's non-fiction book, Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche. We'll move on to an examination of four novels that respond directly to Aum or the Aum attacks—Keiichiro Hirano's Eclipse, Kenzaburo Oe's Somersault, Banana Yoshimoto's The Lake, and Haruki Mura...

3. 

   11 May 2026

   Yasunari Kawabata

   In this episode, we're taking a look at Yasunari Kawabata's life and work. As we tell his story, we'll ask ourselves two big questions. Is Kawabata really a traditionalist? And what is up with the way he writes about adolescent girls?cw: author suicide, problematic imagery about adolescent girls Buy The Dancing Girl of Izu and Other Stories (translated by J. Martin Holman) on Bookshop to support RJL. Join the RJL Patreon to support RJL and for nine minutes of bonus content— i...

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

5,451

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.7 / 5

33 ratings

Spotify

4.9 / 5

149 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 43 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

20

Social presence

0

YouTube

74

Engagement

92

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