Japanese Literary Awards

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Yamamoto Shugoro Award やまもとしゅうごろうしょう

Edition 31 (2018)

Popular literatureHistorical fiction

Winners

5 people
Satoshi Ogawa おがわ てつ award

A two-volume novel linking Cambodia under the Pol Pot regime with a near future, treating violence, intelligence, games, and politics on a broad scale. It follows people tossed about by systems and chance through a carefully built structure.

Game theory and historical violence ask what human freedom can mean.

448 pages
science fictionCambodiaPol Potgame theoryviolence
Go Katsuhiro ご かつひろ nominee

A police mystery about an officer transferred to a rural police box who investigates a colleague's disappearance and the secrets hidden in the town. It depicts the weight of a closed local community and tensions within the police organization.

In a closed town, the shadow of a missing officer draws out another case.

336 pages
police novelmysteryrural towndisappearancecommunity
Manabu Makime まんじょうめ まなぶ nominee

A linked novel in which a god charged with matchmaking becomes involved in human love and lives. Beneath its light tone lies a warm gaze toward human weakness and longing.

Fateful ties, almost like divine mischief, gradually move people's lives.

288 pages
linked storiesmatchmakinggodlovehumor
Ryoei Tsukimura つきむら りょうえい nominee

A full-length entry in a police action series built around special-unit equipment and international politics. Large-scale terrorism, internal friction, and personal histories intertwine as the series enters a new phase.

An investigation involving powered police armor expands into global politics and the shadows of the police organization.

496 pages
police novelactionterrorisminternational politicsseries
Maiko Seo せお まいこ nominee

A novel about Yuko, raised by parents not all related by blood, that explores forms of family and love passed from one person to another. It sees a complex family background not as tragedy but as a chain of warm relationships.

The baton of affection is quietly passed from parent to child and from person to person.

372 pages
familyparent and childcoming of ageBooksellers Awardaffection