Meiji Period to the Present

In the Meiji era (1868-1912) unification of the written and spoken language was advocated, and Futabatei Shimei's Ukigumo (Drifting Clouds) [1887] won acclaim as a new form of novel. In poetry circles the influence of translated foreign poems led to a "new style" poetry movement, and the scope of literary forms continued to widen. Novelists Mori Ogai and Natsume Soseki studied in Germany and Britain, respectively, and their works reflect the influence of the literature of those countries. Soseki nurtured many talented literary figures. One of them, Akutagawa Ryunosuke, wrote many superb novelettes based on his detailed knowledge of the Japanese classics. His suicide in 1927 was seen as a symbol of the agony Japan was experiencing in the process of rapid modernization, a major theme of modern Japanese literature.

Naturalism as advocated by Emile Zola dominated Japan's literary world for the first decade of the twentieth century. This school of literature, as represented by Shimazaki Toson, is noted for the "I novel," a style of novel typical of Japan. A number of pre-World War II literary currents, such as proletarian literature and neo-sensualism, petered out during the war but later regained strength, generating a diverse range of works.

In 1968 Kawabata Yasunari became the first Japanese to win the Nobel Prize for literature, and Oe Kenzaburo won it in 1994. They and other contemporary writers, such as Tanizaki Jun'ichiro, Mishima Yukio, Abe Kobo, and Inoue Yasushi, have been translated into other languages. In the last few years works by the remarkably active postwar-generation writers Murakami Ryu (who won the Akutagawa Prize), Murakami Haruki, Yoshimoto Banana, and others have also been translated into many languages and have gained tremendous popularity.