Japanese Literary Awards

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Akutagawa Prize あくたがわりゅうのすけしょう

Edition 160 (2018, held 2 times in year)

Pure literatureNew talent awardShort story / Medium-length story

Winners

2 people
Takahiro Ueda うえだ たけひろ award

Satoshi Nakamoto works for a cryptocurrency mining company and, through his ties with his colleague Nimuro Jin, who has given up becoming a novelist, and his lover Noriko Takubo, examines what it means to remain an individual in an informational world. It is a philosophical novel about Bitcoin, life, language, and the absence of God.

In an age when everything turns into information, the outline of individuality quietly begins to waver.

136 pages
cryptocurrencyinformation societyindividual and wholefailed artistic ambitionmodern unease
Ryohei Machiya まちや りょうへい award

After a brilliant debut win, a young professional boxer referred to as “I” keeps losing and begins to lose sight of why he boxes at all. Abandoned by his longtime trainer, he starts to change his relation to weakness, body, and the world through training with an eccentric new coach.

The body and mind of a boxer who cannot win are gradually rearranged as his next match approaches.

140 pages
boxingyouthembodied perceptiondefeat and recoverymentor relationship