Japanese Science Fiction: A View of a Changing Society

by Robert Matthew

After the Meiji Restoration of 1868 Japan modernized rapidly, transforming itself perhaps more quickly than any other country in history. However, the change was not without its conflicts, many of them still unresolved as the pleasures of modern society vie with a respect for the traditional Japanese lifestyle. As the literature of change and of the young, science fiction acts as a window to the modern mind and the uneasy alliance of the old and new. This book, filled with detailed reference to numerous stories, traces the origin and development of the genre from the mid-nineteenth century to today, thus exploring unique insights into Japanese attitudes to commercialism, spirituality, the media, war and international relations.

Genres: Japan, Science Fiction, Japanese Literature

270 pages, Hardcover

First published April 6, 1989

Reviews

[Renate]

to date still the most indepth english reference work on early japanese sf - of which the vast, vast majority of early (pre-wwii) stories remain untranslated