What We Are Reading Today: ‘Men Without Women'
Haruki Murakami's 'Men Without Women' is a poignant and masterfully crafted collection of short stories that delve into the loneliness and disorientation experienced by men after the women central to their lives have departed.
It was published in English in 2017, translated from Japanese by Phillip Gabriel and Ted Goossen.
As the title suggests, each narrative explores a man grappling with absence. We meet Kafuku, an actor dissecting decades of grief and his wife's infidelity during introspective taxi rides; Kitaru, who inexplicably asks his friend to date his girlfriend; and Dr. Tokai, a commitment-phobic surgeon shattered by unrequited love for a married woman.
Elsewhere, Habara, confined indoors, finds enigmatic connection with his housekeeper; Kino flees his collapsed marriage only to face uncanny visitations in his bar; and a man undergoes a surreal reversal — transformed from insect to human — in a direct homage to Kafka's Gregor Samsa. Each protagonist carries a palpable void, that missing jigsaw piece in their heart.
Murakami's genius lies in his acute observation of fragility in the human spirit and the unpredictability of emotions. Themes resonate powerfully: paralyzing grief, the sting of unreciprocated love, and the suffocating safety of chosen isolation.
His prose seamlessly blends the mundane with the surreal, creating a hypnotic atmosphere that immerses readers in these internal landscapes. The collection flows with remarkable cohesion.
While undeniably melancholic, 'Men Without Women' is a moving exploration of love, loss, and the haunting silence that remains.
Murakami compels readers to undertake the difficult task upon which Kafuku reflects: to look inside their own heart as perceptively and seriously as possible, and to make peace with what they find there. A must-read for insights into solitude's weight.
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Saudi Gazette
12 hours ago
- Saudi Gazette
A massacre on the eve of WW2 still haunts China-Japan relations
TOKYO – Japanese vlogger Hayato Kato's 1.9 million followers are used to his funny clips about exploring China, where he has been living for several years. But on 26 July he surprised them with a sombre one. "I just watched a movie about the Nanjing Massacre," he said, referring to the Japanese army's six-week rampage through Nanjing in late 1937, which, by some estimates, killed more than 300,000 civilians and Chinese soldiers. Around 20,000 women were reportedly raped. Dead To Rights, or Nanjing Photo Studio, is a star-studded tale about a group of civilians who hide from Japanese troops in a photo studio. Already a box office hit, it is the first of a wave of Chinese movies about the horrors of Japanese occupation that are being released to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two. But a sense of unfinished history – often amplified by Beijing – persists, fuelling both memory and anger. Speaking in Chinese on Douyin, China's domestic version of TikTok, Kato recounted scenes from the film: "People were lined up along the river and then the shootings began... A baby, the same age as my daughter, was crying in her mother's arms. A Japanese soldier rushed forward, grabbed her, and smashed her into the ground." He said he had seen many people on the Japanese internet denying the Nanjing Massacre had happened, including public figures, even politicians. "If we deny it, this will happen again," he continued, urging Japanese people to watch the movies and "Iearn about the dark side of their history".The video quickly became one of his most popular, with more than 670,000 likes in just two the comments are less positive. The top-liked one quotes what has already become an iconic line from the movie, uttered by a Chinese civilian to a Japanese soldier: "We are not friends. We never were."For China, Japan's brutal military campaign and occupation are among the darkest chapters of its past – and the massacre in Nanjing, then the capital, an even deeper has made it fester is the belief that Japan has never fully owned up to its atrocities in places it occupied – not just China, but also Korea, what was then Malaya, Philippines, Indonesia. One of the most painful points of contention involves "comfort women" – the approximately 200,000 women who were raped and forced to work in Japanese military brothels. To this day, the survivors are still fighting for an apology and his video, Kato seems to acknowledge that it's not a subject of conversation in Japan: "Unfortunately these anti-Japanese war movies are not shown in Japan publicly, and Japanese people are not interested to watch them."When the Japanese Emperor announced on 15 August that he would surrender, his country had already paid a terrible cost – more than 100,000 had been killed in bombing raids on Tokyo, before two atom bombs devastated Hiroshima and defeat, however, was welcomed in large parts of Asia, where the Imperial Japanese Army had claimed million of lives. For them, 15 August carries both freedom and lingering trauma – in Korea the day is called 'gwangbokjeol', which translates to the return of light."While the military war has ended, the history war continues," says Professor Gi-Wook Shin, of Stanford University, explaining the two sides remember those years differently, and those differences add to the tension. While the Chinese see Japanese aggression as a defining, and devastating, moment in their past, Japanese history focuses on its own victimhood – the destruction caused by the atom bombs and post-war recovery."People I know in Japan don't really talk about it," says a Chinese man who has been living in Japan for 15 years, and wished to remain anonymous."They see it as something in the past, and the country doesn't really commemorate it – because they also view themselves as victims."He calls himself a patriot, but he says that hasn't made things difficult for him personally because their reluctance to talk about it means they "avoid such sensitive topics"."Some believe the Japanese army went to help China build a new order – with conflicts occurring in that process. Of course, there are also those who acknowledge that it was, in fact, an invasion."China fought Japan for eight years, from Manchuria in the north-east to Chongqing in the south-west. Estimates of those killed range from 10 to 20 million. The Japanese government says around 480,000 of its soldiers died in that years have been well-documented in award-winning literature and films – they were also the subject of Nobel laureate Mo Yan's period is now being revisited under a regime that holds patriotism as central to its ambitions: "national rejuvenation" is how Xi Jinping describes his Chinese dream. While the Party heavily censors its own history, from the Tiananmen Square massacre to more recent crackdowns, it encourages remembering a more distant past – with an outside even revised the date the war with Japan started – the Chinese government now counts the first incursions into Manchuria in 1931, which makes it a 14-year war, rather than eight years of full-fledged him, Beijing has also been commemorating the end of World War Two on a bigger scale. On 3 September, the day Japan formally surrendered, there will be a major military parade in Tiananmen in September, a highly-anticipated new release will focus on the notorious Unit 731, a branch of the Japanese Army that conducted lethal human experiments in occupied Manchuria. The date of release – 18 September – is the day Japan attempted its first invasion of is apart from Dongji Rescue, a film inspired by the real-life efforts of Chinese fishermen who saved hundreds of British prisoners of war during Japanese raids; and Mountains and Rivers Bearing Witness, a documentary from a state-owned studio about Chinese resistance."That one generation fought a war on behalf of three, and endured suffering for three. Salute to the martyrs," a popular RedNote post on Nanjing Photo Studio reads."We are not friends...", the now-famous line from the movie, "is not just a line" between the two main characters, says a popular review that has been liked by more than 10,000 users on is "also from millions of ordinary Chinese people to Japan. They've never issued a sincere apology, they are still worshipping [the war criminals], they are rewriting history – no-one will treat them as friends", the comment says, referring to some Japanese right-wing figures' dismissive has issued apologies, but many Chinese people believe they are not profuse enough."Japan keeps sending a conflicting message," Prof Shin says, referring to instances where leaders have contradicted each other in their statements on Japan's wartime years, in Chinese history classes, students have been shown a photo of former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt kneeling before a memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1970. The Chinese expect a similar gesture from wasn't always the case, Japan surrendered in 1945, the turbulence in China did not end. For the next three years, the Nationalist Kuomintang – then the ruling government and the main source of Chinese resistance against Japan – fought a civil war against Mao Zedong's Communist Party war ended with Mao's victory and the Kuomintang's retreat to Taiwan. Mao, whose priority was to build a communist nation, avoided focusing on Japanese war crimes. Commemorations celebrated the Party's victory and criticised the Kuomintang. He also needed Japan's support on the international stage. Tokyo, in fact, was one of the first major powers to recognise his wasn't until the 1980s – after Mao's death – that the Japanese occupation returned to haunt the relationship between Beijing and Tokyo. By then, Japan was a wealthy Western ally with a booming economy. Revisions to Japanese textbooks began to spark controversy, with China and South Korea accusing Japan of whitewashing its wartime atrocities. China had just begun to open up, and South Korea was in transition from military rule to Chinese leaders moved away from Mao – and his destructive legacy – the trauma of what happened under Japanese attack became a unifying narrative for the Communist Party, says Yinan He, associate professor of international relations at Lehigh University in the US."After the Cultural Revolution, Chinese people for the large part were disillusioned by communism," she told the BBC. "Since communism lost its appeal, you need nationalism. And Japan is [an] easy target because that's the most recent external [aggressor]."She describes a "choreographed representation of the past", where commemorations of 1945 often downplay the contributions of the US and the Kuomintang, and are accompanied by growing scrutiny of Japan's official stance on its wartime hasn't helped is the denial of war crimes – prominent right-wing Japanese don't accept the Nanjing massacre ever happened, or that Japanese soldiers forced so many women into sexual slavery – and recent visits by officials to the Yasukuni Shrine, which honours Japan's war dead, including convicted war hostility between China and Japan has spilled over into everyday lives as nationalism online peaks – Chinese and Japanese people have been attacked in each other's countries. A Japanese schoolboy was killed in Shenzhen last economic rise and assertiveness in the region and beyond has changed the dynamic between the two countries again. It has surpassed Japan as a global power. The best time to seek closure – the 1970s, when the countries were closer – has passed, Prof He says."They simply said, let's forget about that, let's set that aside. They've never dealt with the history – and now the problem has come back to haunt them again." – BBC
Al Arabiya
a day ago
- Al Arabiya
South Korean Supreme Court dismisses US composer's ‘Baby Shark' copyright claim
South Korea's Supreme Court rejected a 30 million won ($21,600) damage claim Thursday by an American composer who accused a South Korean kids content company of plagiarizing his version of 'Baby Shark,' ending a six-year legal battle over the globally popular tune known for its catchy 'doo doo doo doo doo doo ' hook. The top court upheld lower court rulings dating back to 2021 and 2023 that found no sufficient grounds to conclude Pinkfong infringed on Jonathan Wright's copyright. Wright, also known as Johnny Only, had recorded his version in 2011, four years before Pinkfong's, but both were based on a traditional melody popular for years at children's summer camps in the United States. The courts ruled that Wright's version did not differ enough from the original melody to qualify as an original creative work eligible for copyright protection, and that Pinkfong's song had clear differences from Wright's. Wright's South Korean attorney and Pinkfong didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. Pinkfong's 'Baby Shark' became a global phenomenon after it was released on YouTube in 2015, with the original video now exceeding 16 billion views and peaking at No. 32 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Arab News
2 days ago
- Arab News
Saudi ‘Art Bridges' 4-nation project opens for applications
JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia's Visual Arts Commission has launched its 'Art Bridges' initiative for 2025–2026, a series of international programs designed to promote cultural exchange. The programs will be hosted in Scotland, Japan, South Korea and Spain. The first in Scotland will be held from Sept. 22 to 27, in partnership with the British Council Scotland. Japan will host an event from Oct. 31 to Nov. 7, followed by South Korea from Nov. 19 to 27, and Spain from March 2 to 9, 2026. Dina Amin, CEO of the Visual Arts Commission, said in a statement that the initiative offers a unique opportunity for cultural practitioners to share their creative voices with the world. Each edition of 'Art Bridges' will be tailored to the host destination. There will be meetings with thought leaders, visits to major cultural institutions, museums, galleries and artist studios, as well as workshops, knowledge-exchange sessions, and discussions with prominent local art figures. The 2025–2026 programs will explore specific themes, with Japan focusing on art and the environment by examining how artists interact with natural, urban and traditional settings. South Korea's program will address identity through art and society by studying community cultural movements, independent artist spaces and collaborative platforms. In Spain, the program will highlight heritage and collaborative practice by showcasing the intersection of shared artistic expression, and social purpose in cultural spaces. The application window for those wishing to participate opens on Aug. 13. The deadline for Japan is Aug. 21, while South Korea and Spain close on Aug. 31. Applicants must be over 21, have at least five years of professional experience, submit a strong portfolio, be fluent in English and commit to the full program schedule. The commission stated that 'Art Bridges' forms a cornerstone of its strategy to expand Saudi Arabia's cultural presence globally, build sustainable creative ecosystems, and forge long-term international partnerships.
