Dazai Osamu Award
だざいおさむしょう
Open newcomer literary award jointly hosted by Mitaka City and Chikuma Shobo
- Established
- 1965
- Organizer
- Mitaka City and Chikuma Shobo
- Category
- Pure Literature
- Selection Method
- Open call
- Target
- Newcomer
- Frequency
- 1 per year
- Application Deadline
- around December
- Announcement Period
- around June–August
- Status
- Active
Description
The Dazai Osamu Award is an open newcomer literary award jointly hosted by Mitaka City and Chikuma Shobo. From the 1st to 14th editions, it was hosted solely by Chikuma Shobo, but was suspended due to deteriorating business performance and resumed in 1999 (the 50th anniversary of Dazai Osamu's death) under joint hosting by Mitaka City and Chikuma Shobo. It is announced once a year, with the winning work determined by deliberation among the judges. The winner receives a commemorative item as the principal award and 1 million yen as the special award. Past winning works are published in Chikuma Shobo's magazine "Tenbō" or the company's mook books.
Prize
- Main Prize
- Commemorative item and 1 million yen in prize money
- Cash Prize
- 1,000,000 JPY
- Winning work published in Chikuma Shobo mook book
- Finalist works published in full
Selection
Selection Process
| Stage | Judges | Pass Rate | Announcement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Final selection | Kikuko Tsumura, Yoji Arakawa, Hikaru Okizumi, Kyoko Nakajima | — | Announced in Chikuma Shobo's mook book |
Related Awards
- Bungeikai Newcomer Award
- Gunzo New Literature Award
- Shincho Newcomer Award
- Subaru Literary Award
- Bungei Award
Official Resources
https://www.chikumashobo.co.jp/dazai/Past Winners
A part-time housewife in her forties, struggling with her son's school refusal, discovers she can summon her late grandmother's spirit after using a facial cleanser sample at a beauty shop. As she immerses herself in cleaning routines, the silent presence of her grandmother accompanies her through a quiet reckoning with family wounds and buried memories. A story of everyday hardship wrapped in whimsy and gentle pathos.
Armed with baking soda, facial cleanser, and memories of her childhood home, a part-time housewife endures the winter.
Tadaoka, a man in his twenties living in Shinjuku, navigates life through multiple personas. By day he works as a regular employee at an IT firm; by night he performs as "Utacho" at a cross-dressing café in Shinjuku, while running an anonymous account on a dating app as "Taicho," drawing in straight men. Written in the vernacular of the internet, the novel follows one month leading up to the end of the rainy season as an elusive "I" relentlessly searches for identity in Reiwa-era Tokyo. Winner of the 40th Dazai Osamu Award.
The author's relentless precision in illuminating a formless 'I' through language is enough to make the reader feel unhinged. Nothing happens and yet the birth of this novel is itself an event.
Yanagida, a 44-year-old single man working at a massage parlor, finds himself cornered in a dead end despite having tried to live a decent life. In the stifling atmosphere of COVID-19-era Japan, worn down by unreasonable customers, vulgar coworkers, and conflicts with his aging mother, his pent-up rage finally erupts. This novel depicts with visceral immediacy the wanderings of a pure but awkward soul caught between life and death, feeling that everyone around him is a stranger. Winner of the 39th Dazai Osamu Award.
A middle-aged man who thought he was living right suddenly finds himself trapped — and his rage erupts in a society locked down by COVID-19.