Japanese Literary Awards

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Yoshikawa Eiji Literary Newcomer Award よしかわえいじぶんがくしんじんしょう

Edition 31 (2010)

Literary award

Winners

6 people
Jun Ikeido いけいど じゅん award

A corporate novel about a young employee at a mid-sized construction company confronting bid-rigging and organizational logic. It depicts justice and reality wavering in the workplace.

Is working for the company the same as doing what is right?

537 pages
corporate fictionbid-riggingorganizationjustice
Tow Ubukata うぶかた とう award

A historical novel about Shibukawa Harumi, a go player and astronomer in the early Edo period, who attempts to create a Japanese calendar. Scholarship, politics, and love are joined in lively prose.

Correcting the calendar meant reading the sky and moving an age.

480 pages
historical fictioncalendarastronomygrowth
Mizuki Tsujimura つじむら みづき nominee

A mystery novel about a woman tracing a former classmate who killed her mother, depicting mother-daughter ties and provincial claustrophobia. A childhood promise echoes with the present crime.

A childhood promise led to an inescapable knot between mother and daughter.

387 pages
mother and daughterprovincial lifecrimememory
Keita Nakaji なかじ けいた nominee

A historical novel set around a Sengoku castle, portraying pride, maneuvering, and illusion among warriors. It observes the moments when vanity moves fate.

A fortress is guarded not only by stone walls but by pride and illusion.

226 pages
historical fictionSengoku eracastlepride
Yumeaki Hirayama ひらやま ゆめあき nominee

A noir novel about a woman forced to work at a members-only diner for assassins. Violence, food, and desire intersect in excessive prose.

To survive, she had to smile at the assassins’ table.

445 pages
noirviolencefoodsurvival
Shusuke Michio みちお しゅうすけ nominee

A mystery centered on two sets of siblings, depicting a crime in the rain and a chain of guilt. Feelings for family and suspicion intertwine toward tragedy.

The falling rain exposes the guilt hidden inside the wish to protect family.

308 pages
familyrainguiltmystery