Hayakawa SF Contest
はやかわえすえふこんてすと
A publicly recruited newcomer prize for SF novels organized by Hayakawa Publishing Corporation. Open to broadly defined science fiction works in Japanese. Grand prize winners are published as books and e-books by Hayakawa Publishing.
- Established
- 1961
- Organizer
- Hayakawa Publishing Corporation
- Category
- Genre Fiction
- Selection Method
- Open call
- Target
- Newcomer
- Frequency
- 1 per year
- Application Deadline
- around March
- Announcement Period
- around August–September
- Status
- Active
Description
Launched in 1961 and held intermittently until the 18th edition in 1992, it was revived after an 18-year hiatus in 2012 as part of the "Hayakawa SF Project." Targets mid-length and full-length SF works, awarding the grand prize to the most outstanding entry. It is a newcomer award.
Prize
- Main Prize
- Grand prize work will be published as a book and receive a publishing contract
Related Awards
- S-F Magazine
- Sogen SF Short Story Award
- Japanese SF Criticism Award
- Kisoutengai SF Newcomer Award
- Japanese SF Newcomer Award
- Sakyo Komatsu Award
- Agatha Christie Award
- Hayakawa Mystery Contest
Past Winners
A scorched-Earth post-apocalyptic SF set centuries after severe global warming has nearly wiped out humanity. The story follows Elly, a technician surviving in sealed domes called Cocoons installed by alien saviors; Asahi, daughter of the Crystal People, a matriarchal clan that evolved to thrive in the extreme heat; and Yuzuri, who lost her family and vows to exterminate the remaining humans. A tale of sin and vengeance among those who endure in a ruthless world.
A post-apocalyptic SF set on a scorched Earth
In a future ravaged by climate change and war, the wealthy have uploaded their minds to virtual spaces to live forever, while others choose to donate all their assets to future generations and accept death. At the paradise facility "Heavens Garden," where the desired endings of its guests are arranged, Elm, a former refugee working as a coordinator, confronts people with differing views on life and death, and continues to question the mistakes of humanity and the meaning of living. Winner of the 13th Hayakawa SF Contest Special Award.
A quiet SF tale depicting people struggling to face the wounds left by humanity on an Earth irreparably damaged by global warming and war.
Civilization collapsed in the mid-21st century. The few survivors of the remote mountain village of Iris-zawa cling to life under primitive agriculture and a harsh feudal system. Even in such an era, a group of girls gather in a converted abandoned building called the "club room," elegantly enjoying dandelion "tea" while embracing friendship, club activities, and manga. Their next goal is "Comiket," a legendary manga paradise that once existed by the seaside of old Tokyo. A post-apocalyptic school-club SF depicting the twilight of civilization.
A post-apocalyptic school-club SF depicting the twilight of civilization.
An android named "I" (watakushi) serves a clan in which only males transform into "御羊" (holy sheep) at the moment of death, and whose duty is to butcher the flesh and feed it to the blood relatives. One morning, upon discovering that the current master has become a holy sheep, the android calmly prepares for the ritual — but the clan members each harbor complicated feelings about the transformation. An unconventional fantasy SF novel that questions life and death, submission and rebellion, and the nature of love.
This morning — yes, this very morning — the master has become a holy sheep.
Saeko, a struggling actress, is hired as a documentary reporter to investigate a string of bizarre phenomena plaguing a housing complex in Tokyo, thanks to a connection with a horror film screenwriter. Inside the complex, residents behave strangely, people go missing, and in a room rumored to be cursed since an old woman was killed there ten years ago, she discovers cryptic messages and black scales. As her investigation deepens, the plot draws in Greek mythological grudges, prewar military schemes, and the machinations of a secret society — ultimately expanding into a tale of transphenomal cosmology. This is the Excellence Award–winning work from the 12th Hayakawa SF Contest.
Housing complex horror meets Greek mythology in this ambitious SF epic where mythic forces invade contemporary reality.
A finalist for the 12th Hayakawa SF Contest. An SF work centering on the theme of music, submitted by Fujita Shohei, who had previously published a single-volume book with Hayakawa Shobo in 2018. Due to concerns about fairness in the judging process, the work was ultimately excluded from receiving an award. Detailed plot information has not been made public.
A finalist for the 12th Hayakawa SF Contest.
A finalist work for the 12th Hayakawa SF Contest. An SF novel by Yamada Noboru. Detailed synopsis is not publicly available as the work has not been published.
A finalist for the 12th Hayakawa SF Contest. A battle SF novel in three parts: Collapse Arc, Dawn Arc, and Flight Arc. The author Mizumachi So is known as an SF writer with expertise in action and battle sequences, with a punk sensibility. Detailed plot information has not been made public.
A finalist for the 12th Hayakawa SF Contest, structured in three arcs: Collapse, Dawn, and Flight.
An expansive SF adventure centered on a gate around a supermassive black hole.
The submitted title was later retitled “Horizon Gate: The Hunter of Phenomena.”
A quiet SF novel that revisits a family history in a future where aging no longer exists.
In the mountains of Kyushu, “I” begins writing a family history.
Finalist in the 11th Hayakawa SF Contest. Public information mainly consists of the finalist announcement, and no standalone book edition has been confirmed.
A finalist with a title evoking Apollo.
A finalist in the 11th Hayakawa SF Contest. No public standalone book edition has been confirmed.
An SF finalist centered on a hotel evoking the Arctic.
A finalist in the 11th Hayakawa SF Contest. Web serialization is confirmed, but no standalone book edition has been confirmed.
A future-facing story about restarting and moving forward.
A finalist in the 11th Hayakawa SF Contest. No public standalone book edition has been confirmed.
An SF finalist titled “Re-Engram.”
On a post-human Earth, classic literary figures revived as different species continue writing novels forever. A Hayakawa SF Contest grand-prize work that stretches the boundary between literature and science fiction.
The year is 802,700 CE, on an Earth after humanity’s extinction.
Set in the Brazilian jungle, an anthropologist, a doctor, and a Japanese-Brazilian young man pursue a Nazi biologist and step into a world where life and spirits overlap. Science fiction that fuses magical realism and biotechnology.
Biotechnology SF meets fantastical literature in a strange conspiracy story set in the Amazon.
A finalist in the 10th Hayakawa SF Contest. No standalone book publication could be confirmed, so the record remains limited to its status as a finalist.
Finalist in the 10th Hayakawa SF Contest.
A finalist in the 10th Hayakawa SF Contest. No standalone book publication could be confirmed, so the record stays limited to its status as a finalist.
Finalist in the 10th Hayakawa SF Contest.
A finalist in the 10th Hayakawa SF Contest. No standalone book publication could be confirmed, so the record stays limited to its status as a finalist.
Finalist in the 10th Hayakawa SF Contest.
A winner of the 9th Hayakawa SF Contest, this novel is set in a future society where teleportation is infrastructure; a young man who lost his ability and a runaway girl become entangled in a secret that expands to cosmic scale.
A hyper-inflated teleportation SF adventure.
A winner of the 9th Hayakawa SF Contest, this AI suspense novel is set in a near-future Japan of fully autonomous driving, where a company president is held captive inside a car and forced into a showdown with an attacker.
A tense suspense story that probes the traps of autonomous-driving society.
A finalist in the 9th Hayakawa SF Contest; no confirmed commercial book edition was found.
Public information is limited.
A finalist in the 9th Hayakawa SF Contest; no confirmed book edition could be found.
Only limited public information is available.
A finalist in the 9th Hayakawa SF Contest; no confirmed commercial book edition could be found.
Public information is limited.
A winner of the 8th Hayakawa SF Contest, this novel follows a young man who can only perceive moving things as he becomes entangled in an urban AI project in near-future China.
A near-future urban SF built around a condition that limits what can be seen.
A winner of the 8th Hayakawa SF Contest, this cyber-gang SF follows an AI engineer and a freelance criminal as they attempt to hijack an autonomous cash transport vehicle.
A near-future crime SF about cybercrime and a big score.
A finalist in the 8th Hayakawa SF Contest; no confirmed book edition was found.
Public information is limited.
A finalist in the 8th Hayakawa SF Contest; no commercial book edition could be confirmed.
Only limited public information is available.
A finalist in the 8th Hayakawa SF Contest; no confirmed book edition was found.
Public information is limited.
A winner of the 7th Hayakawa SF Contest, this is an outer-space hard-SF novel set in the far future that asks what intelligence really is. A later complete edition also added the short piece “Nijiiro no Hebi”.
An intelligence-hunting space SF set around a star system at the edge of the galaxy.
A finalist in the 7th Hayakawa SF Contest; no commercial book edition could be verified.
Public information is limited.
A finalist in the 7th Hayakawa SF Contest; no confirmed book edition was found.
Very little public synopsis is available.
A finalist in the 7th Hayakawa SF Contest; no commercial book edition could be confirmed.
Public information is limited.
A finalist in the 7th Hayakawa SF Contest; no confirmed book edition could be found.
Only limited public information is available.
A 6th Hayakawa SF Contest award winner, this linked short-story collection remakes fairy-tale forms as far-future SF and includes six stories based on Cinderella, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, and more.
Six fairy-tale variations layered with SF gadgetry.
A finalist in the 6th Hayakawa SF Contest. No confirmed hardcover, paperback, or ebook edition could be found.
No confirmed book edition.
A finalist in the 6th Hayakawa SF Contest; no commercial book edition could be confirmed.
Public information is limited.
A finalist in the 6th Hayakawa SF Contest; no confirmed book edition was found.
Only limited public information is available.
A finalist in the 6th Hayakawa SF Contest; no standalone commercial edition could be verified.
No reliable public synopsis was found.
A finalist in the 6th Hayakawa SF Contest; no confirmed book edition could be found.
Public information is limited.
Set in a near-future Tokyo where a technology called Flora applies plant physiology to computation, the novel unfolds in a city ringed by green belts and packed with computing resources. It is a mystery-flavored SF story about a new coexistence between plants and humanity.
A story of coexistence between people and nature in a Tokyo that turns plants into computing resources.
After the death of his unsuccessful SF-writer father Daniel, his son Edgar confronts the artificial intelligence Edgar 001 through the unfinished manuscript left behind. In a structure where stories generate more stories, the novel layers family memory over the lineage of modern science fiction.
An unfinished manuscript connects family memory with the history of SF.
When a weary programmer visits Shiretoko, a red aurora appears in the sky that night and marks the beginning of a worldwide blackout. It is a disaster SF novel depicting people confronting an unprecedented catastrophe.
A red aurora announces a blackout across the world.
A finalist in the 5th Hayakawa SF Contest, later published in 2018 as “Hoshi o Otosu Boku ni Furu, Mashiro no Ame” in the Hayakawa Bunko JA line. It is a SF love story about a girl who shoots down stars from an orbital garden.
A small love song for a girl who lives as a machine that shoots down stars.
A finalist in the 5th Hayakawa SF Contest; no confirmed commercial book edition was found.
Public information is limited.
A finalist in the 5th Hayakawa SF Contest; no confirmed book edition could be found.
Only limited public information is available.
Set in a walled city built in preparation for large-scale environmental change, the story follows a boy raised outside the walls and girls who seek the truth behind the inside. Centered on an AI named Corbo and the game Fragments, it is a coming-of-age SF novel about life inside and outside the wall.
A game and an AI lead the characters toward the truth inside the wall.
Set in a future where civilization has collapsed and humanity has become biological computers, the novel follows a boy and girl raised in an underground city as they begin searching for the real sea. Against a backdrop of Earth turned into a record medium, it is a post-cyberpunk SF story about longing for lost nature.
A post-cyberpunk SF tale of two young people searching for the lost sea.
Set in an idol warring-states era, the story follows Mika, who became an idol fanatic at six months old, as she meets fellow members in an idol club and strives to become her own version of the ultimate idol. It is a singular SF collection bursting with yuri, proletarian energy, and cosmic imagery.
A singular SF collection that pushes the idol genre to its extreme.
Recorded as a final nominee for the fourth Hayakawa SF Contest. No book-length edition could be confirmed and public information is limited, so it is currently treated primarily as a contest nominee.
One of the final nominees for the fourth Hayakawa SF Contest.
Recorded as a final nominee for the fourth Hayakawa SF Contest. No book-length edition could be confirmed and public information is limited, so it is currently treated primarily as a contest nominee.
One of the final nominees for the fourth Hayakawa SF Contest.
Set in the experimental city of Agastia Resort run by a giant information company, the novel depicts people who trade personal data for a comfortable life, along with those pushed outside that system. Told in linked-story form, it is a post-dystopian SF work that captures the future of a managed society.
It portrays the edge of a city where an ideal life is guaranteed in exchange for personal information.
Set in a near future where a giant extradimensional presence called HATE expands while consuming the Earth, the novel interweaves the perspectives of a boy and girl on a remote island, a 3D designer living in a ruined world, and the people who confront HATE itself. It is a science-fiction novel about memory, time, the end of the world, and what comes after.
A summer apocalypse SF story in which the extradimensional being HATE consumes the world.
Recorded as a final nominee for the third Hayakawa SF Contest. No book-length edition could be confirmed and public information is limited, so it is currently treated primarily as a contest nominee.
One of the final nominees for the third Hayakawa SF Contest.
Recorded as a final nominee for the third Hayakawa SF Contest. No book-length edition could be confirmed and public information is sparse, so it is summarized here mainly as a contest nominee.
One of the final nominees for the third Hayakawa SF Contest.
A final nominee for the third Hayakawa SF Contest that was later revised and released as Kalis in the Post-World. Through a world where creativity is outsourced to AI, it is a dystopian SF work that reexamines the meaning of art and creative expression.
A dystopian SF story that questions the meaning of art in a world where creation is handed over to AI.
Set in the South Seas of a future where the afterlife has been denied, the novel follows cultural anthropologist Ilias Novak as he is drawn into an investigation surrounding the legend of Nirya Island. It is a science-fiction novel where religion, recording technology, and communal memory intersect around ideas of life and death.
In a future that has lost the afterlife, the legend of Nirya Island begins to wobble in the South Seas.
Set in a Japan divided into east and west after Sekigahara, the novel follows the intersecting fates of Kotaro Takenaka, a medical student living in Kyoto, and Yukinari Sanada, a military officer on the imperial side. It is a sweeping steampunk adventure in which science and sorcery collide.
A late-Edo steampunk tale of a divided nation where science and sorcery clash.
Recorded as a final nominee for the second Hayakawa SF Contest. No book-length edition could be confirmed and public information is limited, so it is currently treated primarily as a contest nominee.
One of the final nominees for the second Hayakawa SF Contest.
Recorded as a final nominee for the second Hayakawa SF Contest. No book-length edition could be confirmed and public information is limited, so it is currently treated primarily as a contest nominee.
One of the final nominees for the second Hayakawa SF Contest.
Recorded as a final nominee for the second Hayakawa SF Contest. No book-length edition could be confirmed and public information is limited, so it is currently treated primarily as a contest nominee.
One of the final nominees for the second Hayakawa SF Contest.
The personality of a scientist transferred into an unmanned space probe collides with memories of his lover Mizuha left on Earth during a long journey across the galaxy. It is a speculative space-opera novel centered on loneliness and recollection.
A lover's memory unsettles a journey through space.
Triggered by an eerie hand clap, narrators who lose their heads and boys with strange holes in their hands are drawn into a mysterious space. It is a fantasy-leaning SF sequence in which multiple anomalies overlap.
A single hand clap begins to unravel the shape of the world.
A man who becomes a monitor for a memory-retention device confronts a reality that keeps changing around a substance called mana, which rewrites the past. It is a short story collection built around time alteration and unstable memory.
In a world that rewrites the past, memory is the only clue.
The journey of the elderly physicist Saroven and his student Karen begins with a summons from the powerful organization Musubime. It is an unclassifiable space opera that expands from the planet Yune to Earth and beyond.
A single summons sends the journey through the universe in an unexpected direction.
Recorded as a final nominee for the first Hayakawa SF Contest. No book-length edition could be confirmed and public information is limited, so it is currently treated primarily as a contest nominee.
One of the final nominees for the first Hayakawa SF Contest.
A science-fiction novel about an artificial language and the world built around it.
Morioka Hiroyuki’s debut novel asks what language really is.
A science-fiction mystery set in a near future where artificial wombs are common, following a murder in Balloon Town.
In a town where women choose natural birth, strange events begin to unfold one after another.
A short story collection anchored by the title piece, leaving a strong impression through its artificial future society and vivid characters. Noted in an SF Magazine selection, it is a debut work that strongly evokes the feel of Japanese cyberpunk.
A short story collection in which an artificial future society comes vividly to life.
A short story treated as a runner-up in the 33rd Hayakawa SF Contest and handled in the pages of SF Magazine in 1987. No standalone book edition has been confirmed, so it is best read as a magazine-published work.
A short story handled as a runner-up in the 33rd Hayakawa SF Contest.
A short story treated as a reference work in the 33rd Hayakawa SF Contest. No standalone book edition has been confirmed, so it is best organized as an early work that remains on the contest’s magazine page.
A reference work in the 33rd Hayakawa SF Contest.
Confirmed as an honorable mention published in the November 1986 issue of S-F Magazine, but no standalone book edition could be found after checking Amazon Japan, the NDL, and the publisher's official sources in that order. It is known as the prototype for Saki from the New World.
No book edition could be confirmed, but it is positioned as the origin of a later novel.
Confirmed as a reference work in the November 1986 issue of S-F Magazine, but no standalone book edition could be found after checking Amazon Japan, the NDL, and the publisher's official sources in that order.
No book edition could be confirmed.
This work was confirmed as a prize entry, but no standalone book edition could be verified.
No book edition could be confirmed via Amazon JP, NDL, or the publisher official site.
"惑星〈ジェネシス〉" is an early work published in connection with the 早川SFコンテスト. No standalone book edition or ISBN could be confirmed.
An early work published in connection with the 早川SFコンテスト.
An early award-winning piece by 川瀬義行, with no confirmed standalone book edition.
An early award-winning piece by 川瀬義行.
An early award-winning piece by 冬川正左, with no confirmed standalone book edition.
An early award-winning piece by 冬川正左.
Published as a runner-up in the Hayakawa Future Contest, it follows the lonely movement and whimsical freedom suggested by the title ‘The Cat That Walked Alone.’ It is a short piece that leaves a large, open sense of space.
The back of a cat walking alone grows quietly distant.
Set on the planet Midori, the story layers the society of the grass people, who have flower-like heads, with the viewpoint of a G-man investigating his younger brother's death. Its decadent prose and dense imagery define Asz Noa's first story collection.
A hunter of flowers steps into the truth hidden on Planet Midori.
"クロマキー・ブルー" is a prize-winning work first presented in this award context.
Tracing the work's publication history through "クロマキー・ブルー".
First prize honorable mention in the third Hayakawa SF Contest. Its space-centered idea and early-SF momentum stand out, but no standalone book edition could be confirmed.
A Hayakawa SF Contest-era piece distinguished by its space-themed imagination.
An early short story by Sakyo Komatsu that starts from an everyday meal and gradually reveals the uneasy atmosphere of postwar life. It carries the intensity typical of his early work, where humor and satire intersect.
From the ordinary image of ochazuke, the story brings the mood of postwar society into view.
An award-winning first-round Hayakawa SF Contest work later included in Nihon SF no Sekai. Its alien-life horror premise captures the rough, energetic appeal of early Japanese science fiction.
An early science-fiction piece that vividly depicts the terror of an alien life form infiltrating Earth.