Japanese science fiction

Science fiction in Japan is an important subgenre of modern Japanese literature that has strongly influenced aspects of contemporary Japanese pop culture, including anime, manga, video games and tokusatsu.

History

Origins

Both Japan's history of technology and mythology play a role in the development of its science fiction. However, science fiction in the standard sense did not begin until the Meiji Restoration and the importation of Western ideas.

The first science fiction of any influence to be translated into Japanese were the novels of Jules Verne. Shunro Oshikawa's "Kaitei Gunkan" ("Undersea warship"), published in 1900, described submarines and predicted a coming Russo-Japanese war.

During the period between the world wars, Japanese science fiction was more influenced by American science fiction. A popular writer of the era was Unno Juza, sometimes called "the father of Japanese science fiction." The literary standards of this era, and the previous, tended to be low. Prior to World War II, Japanese rarely if ever saw science fiction as worthwhile literature. Instead, it was considered a form of trivial literature for children.

After World War II

The era of modern Japanese science fiction began with the influence of paperbacks that the US occupation army brought to Japan after World War II. The first science fiction magazine in Japan, "Seiun" (星雲), was created in 1954 but was discontinued after only one issue. Several short-lived magazines followed "Seiun" in the Japanese market, but none experienced great success.

Science fiction in Japan gained popularity in the early 1960s. Both the "SF Magazine" (SFマガジン) and the now defunct science fiction coterie magazine "Uchujin" (宇宙塵) began publication in this decade. The first Nihon SF Taikai (日本SF大会) convention was in 1962.

Notable authors like Sakyo Komatsu, Yasutaka Tsutsui, Ryo Hanmura, Ryu Mitsuse, Kazumasa Hirai and Aritsune Toyota debuted at the "Hayakawa" SF contest. Other authors, such as Taku Mayumura, Shinichi Hoshi and Aran Kyodomari, were also published. Though influenced by the West, their work was distinctively Japanese. For example, Kazumasa Hirai, Aritsune Toyota and Takumi Shibano wrote novels as well as plots for SF-anime and SF-manga, which are some of the most prominent examples of Japanese contributions to the genre of science fiction.

The contributions of excellent translators such as Tetsu Yano, Masahiro Noda, Hisashi Asakura and Norio Ito introduced English science fiction to readers in Japan, and greatly influenced public opinion of science fiction. "SF Magazine"'s first editor, Masami Fukushima was also an excellent novelist and translator.

Infiltration and diffusion

Public interest in science fiction had risen notably in Japan by Expo '70. Komatsu's "Nihon Chinbotsu" (aka Japan Sinks, 1973) was a best-seller. "Uchu Senkan Yamato" (aka Space Battleship Yamato), a work of anime placed in a science fiction setting, was aired, and "Star Wars" was screened in Japan in the late 1970s. The change in the nature of the science fiction genre in Japan that resulted from these events is often called "Infiltration and Diffusion" (浸透と拡散 "Shinto to Kakusan").

At this time, Hanmura's series and Hirai's "Woulf Guy" series became prototypes of later Japanese light novels through the works of Hideyuki Kikuchi, Baku Yumemakura, and Haruka Takachiho. In addition, new science fiction magazines such as "Kisou-Tengai" (奇想天外), "SF Adventure" (SFアドベンチャー) and "SF Hoseki" (SF宝石) were founded. A number of notable authors debuted in either "SF Magazine" or one of these new publications: Akira Hori, Junya Yokota, Koji Tanaka, Masaki Yamada, Musashi Kanbe, Azusa Noa, Chouhei Kanbayashi, Mariko Ohara, Ko Hiura, Hitoshi Kusakami, Motoko Arai, Baku Yumemakura, Yoshiki Tanaka and Hiroe Suga.

In the 1980s, the audio-visual side of the Japanese science fiction genre continued to develop. Hayao Miyazaki's "Kaze no Tani no Naushika" (a.k.a. "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind") and Mamoru Oshi's "Urusei Yatsura II: Beautiful Dreamer" were first screened. On TV, robot anime series, starting with "Mobile Suit Gundam", were aired, and the science fiction artist group Studio Nue joined the staff of "The Super Dimension Fortress Macross". Animators Hideaki Anno, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Takami Akai, and Shinji Higuchi, who had attracted attention by creating anime that had been exhibited at Daicon III and Daicon IV, established Studio Gainax.

Wintery age

Literary science fiction magazines started to disappear in the late 1980s when public attention increasingly switched to audio-visual media. The Hayakawa science fiction contest was also discontinued, removing a major outlet for the work of many writers. A number of science fiction and space opera writers, including Hosuke Nojiri, Hiroshi Yamamoto, Ryuji Kasamine, and Yuichi Sasamoto, began writing "light novel" genre paperback science fiction and fantasy novels, which are primarily marketed to teenagers. This period, during which literary science fiction declined, has been labeled "the Wintery Age" (冬の時代 "Fuyu no Jidai"). In the mainstream of science fiction, Yoshiki Tanaka published "Ginga Eiyu Densetsu" (a.k.a. Legend of the Galactic Heroes) series.

The boundary between science fiction novels and light novels was blurred in the 1990s. Although Morioka Hiroyuki's "Seikai no Monshou" series is considered to be in the vein of the light novel, the series was published by Hayakawa Shobo as part of the mainstream science fiction world. On the other hand, light novel writers like Sasamoto and Nojiri have also published hard SF novels.

Literature

Artists

* Hiroshi Manabe
* Studio Nue
* Eiji Yokoyama

Awards

* Hayakawa Award
* Nihon SF Taisho Award
* Seiun Award

Publishers

* Hayakawa Shobo
* Tokyo Sogensha
* Tokuma Shoten
* Kadokawa Shoten

Fandom

Conventions

* Nihon SF Taikai

ee also

* Science fiction in Australia
* Science fiction in China
* Science fiction in Croatia
* Science fiction in Poland
* Science fiction in Russia
* Science fiction in Serbia

External links

* [http://www.sfwj.or.jp/INDEX.e.html Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of Japan's official site]
* [http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/88/abe.htm Abe Kôbô Two Essays on Science Fiction]

References

*"Much of the content of this article comes from the equivalent Japanese-language Wikipedia article (October 2005)."