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Jungo Aoki

あおき じゅんご

Aoki Jungo

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1979-05-09 （Sayama, Saitama, Japan）
Nationality
Japan
Languages
Japanese

Career

Occupations
Writer, Novelist
Active Years
2003-
Influenced By
Thomas Pynchon
Nominations
Mishima Yukio Prize nominee (2005) — 'Kureetaa no Hotori de' ('At the Edge of the Crater'), Mishima Yukio Prize nominee (2009) — 'Kono Aida Tokyo de ne' ('The Other Day in Tokyo')

Education

Waseda University, Second Faculty of Letters
Second Faculty of Letters — Expression & Arts Program / Expression & Arts
Degree: 学士
Country: Japan

Awards

Shincho Newcomer Award
2003
Work: Forty Days and Forty Nights' Märchen
Organization: Shinchosha
Result: 受賞
Noma Literary Newcomer Award
2005
Work: Forty Days and Forty Nights' Märchen
Organization: Noma Cultural Foundation
Result: 受賞
Mishima Yukio Prize
2012
Work: The High School Without Me
Organization: Mishima Yukio Prize Selection Committee
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Forty Days and Forty Nights' Märchen

2005 Fiction

His debut work, noted for a complex circular temporal structure. The magazine version was significantly revised for the trade and later paperback editions.

circular timefairy-tale motifsmemoryidentity

Good Kids Stay at Home

2007 Fiction (short story collection)

A collection of short stories originally published in magazines such as Shincho and Gunzo, characterized by perspectives on home and hometown.

homehometownhuman relationships

The Other Day in Tokyo

2009 Fiction (short story collection)

A collection that draws on contemporary information environments such as internet bulletin boards, depicting urban life and anonymity.

urban lifeanonymityinternet bulletin boards

The High School Without Me

2011 Fiction

A novel that draws on material resembling a teacher's diary to explore loss and memory within the setting of a high school; it won the Mishima Yukio Prize.

high schoollossmemory

A Man's Generation Reform

2014 Fiction

A collection of mid-length and short works that engage with society, family, and generational themes.

familysocietygeneration

Anonymous Artist

2015 Fiction

A volume containing short and mid-length works; includes original magazine appearances of certain pieces and draws attention to differences across publication formats.

artanonymitythe creative process

The House Near the School

2015 Fiction

A collection of short stories centered on school life and grade levels, focusing on everyday disjunctions and characters' psychology.

schoolgrowing upeveryday disjunctions

The World of Longing — Writing Adapted Novels

2024 Essay / Adaptation

An essayistic work discussing adapted novels, addressing techniques of writing that use existing narratives and media as source material.

adaptationtheory of creationintermedia referencing

Bibliography

  • Forty Days and Forty Nights' Märchen (2005)
  • Good Kids Stay at Home (2007)
  • The Other Day in Tokyo (2009)
  • The High School Without Me (2011)
  • A Man's Generation Reform (2014)
  • Anonymous Artist (2015)
  • The House Near the School (2015)
  • The World of Longing — Writing Adapted Novels (2024)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
complex temporal structures and circular narrativesmetafictional elementsuse of adaptation and appropriation of existing materialsattention to contemporary subjects (bulletin boards, diaries)
Recurring Motifs
high schoolhomememory and lossinternet bulletin boardsadaptation

Legacy

As a writer emerging in the 2000s, he has been recognized for experimental temporal structures and adaptation-based methods. He has won several major newcomer and literary prizes and attracts critical attention in contemporary Japanese literature.

Archives

  • National Diet Library — catalogue records related to Jungo Aoki

Quotes

  • This is Pynchon.
    Source: Kazushi Hosaka (Shincho Newcomer Award selection committee) (2003)
  • The Pynchon-like elements were gone; it became Jungo Aoki.
    Source: Kazushi Hosaka (afterword for the paperback edition of 'Forty Days and Forty Nights' Märchen') (2005)

Trivia

  • Debuted in 2003 while a student at Waseda University after winning the 35th Shincho Newcomer Award for 'Forty Days and Forty Nights' Märchen'.
  • 'Forty Days and Forty Nights' Märchen' was substantially revised from its magazine appearance to the trade and paperback editions.
  • Born in Sayama, Saitama Prefecture.
  • 'The Other Day in Tokyo' was written after reading apartment-related internet bulletin boards for about half a year.
  • 'The High School Without Me' was inspired in part by a teacher's diary-like book found in a secondhand bookstore.
  • Authority identifiers such as ISNI, VIAF, and NDL are associated with him in bibliographic databases.