- SCIENCE FICTION
- Science fiction as a genre came early to Meiji Japan, with the Dutch futurist novel Anno 2065: een Blik in de Toekomst (2065: A Glimpse of the Future) appearing in Japanese translation in 1868. Jules Verne was a popular author during this era as well, and many of his works were either adapted or translated into Japanese. Japanese science fiction did not witness great development until after World War II, when copies of English-language science fiction novels made their way into Japan with the Occupation forces. Some postwar writers, seeing that this genre was growing in popularity in the West, experimented with science fiction and even started a magazine, which quickly folded, as did many others, creating a publishing commonplace at the time that science fiction would never sell.The genre broke through, however, in the 1960s when a combination of science fiction movies, such as Godzilla, and the success of the first science fiction novel, Hikari no to (Tower of Light, 1962) by Aran Kyodomari (1910–2008), signaled a change in reader tastes. Science fiction manga and animated cartoons (anime), such as Tezuka Osamu’s (1928–89) Tetsuwan Atomu (Astro Boy), fed the popular interest in science fiction as well, and mainstream writers, such as Abe Kobo, also began to write science fiction. By the end of the 20th century, science fiction films, television shows, anime, and plays had become staples of Japanese popular culture, and science fiction continues as a thriving genre.
Historical dictionary of modern Japanese literature and theater. J. Scott Miller. 2009.
