Akira Otani Becomes First Japanese Novelist To Win British Crime Fiction Award
The Night of Baba Yaga
, translated by Sam Bett, was competing against five other novels, including
Butter
by
fellow Japanese author Asako Yuzuki. Otani's novel is a queer thriller that follows Yoriko Shindo, a fierce mixed-race fighter who becomes the bodyguard of a yakuza princess.
Although several acclaimed works by Japanese writers — such as Hideo Yokoyama, Kotaro Isaka and Keigo Higashino — have been shortlisted for the Dagger Award's translation category over the years, none have received the prize.
List of Contents:
Embracing Ambiguity in Fiction and Life
The Rise of Translated Japanese Fiction
Related Posts
courtesy of Kawade Shobo Shinsha
Embracing Ambiguity in Fiction and Life
Born in Tokyo in 1981, Otani began her career as a video game writer. Her debut in the literary world came in 2018 with
Nobody Said We're Perfect
, a short story collection that explores relationships between women.
The Night of Baba Yaga
, her fourth feature-length novel published in Japan, was the first to be translated into English in 2024. The translated work was featured in Tokyo Weekender's
2024 book recommendations list
.
'I feel that the depiction of women in fiction is often fixed and unrealistic, with only a few patterns,' Otani said in an
interview
with Shueisha Bungei Station. 'Real friends and acquaintances are more diverse and interesting than that… I decided to portray real women in my stories.'
Otani also discussed the importance of embracing gray areas in relation to her own identity as a writer during her acceptance speech at the Dagger Award Ceremony in London. 'I am not a mystery writer. I write a variety of works,' she
stated
, in reference to the segmentation of authors by genre in Japan. 'Ambiguity is what defines me as a writer. I believe that accepting your own ambiguity and acknowledging the ambiguity of others will make the world a better place.'
There are over 38,000 copies of
The Night of Baba Yaga
in Japan as of today, and the novel is currently available in the United Kingdom, United States and South Korea, with plans to publish in Germany, Italy and Brazil.
The Rise of Translated Japanese Fiction
Otani's work is one of a number of Japanese novels to have enjoyed great success in the United Kingdom in recent years. According to figures from Nielsen BookScan, Japanese fiction represented 25% of all translated fiction sales in the UK in 2022. Last November,
The Guardian
reported that 43% of the top 40 translated fiction titles in the UK for 2024, up to that point, were by Japanese authors.
While literary giants such as Banana Yoshimoto and Haruki Murakami are no strangers to overseas fame, the past decade has witnessed the global rise of a broader range of Japanese authors. Literary fiction titles from female perspectives by writers such as
Sayaka Murata
(
Convenience Store Woman
) and
Mieko Kawakami
(
Breasts and Eggs
) have surged in popularity, as have slice-of-life comfort fiction novels like Toshikazu Kawaguchi's
Before the Coffee Gets Cold
and Michiko Aoyama's
What You Are Looking for Is in the Library
.
There has also been a huge growth in classic and contemporary crime fiction from Japan in the UK market, including Yuzuki's aforementioned bestseller
Butter
and golden age crime novels such as Seicho Matsumoto's
Tokyo Express
(also known as
Points and Lines
).
Related Posts
Japan's Best Crime and Mystery Writers | List of 7
Visiting Real Life Locations From Haruki Murakami Novels in Tokyo
Spotlight: Yasunari Kawabata — Japan's First Nobel Literature Laureate
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Tokyo Weekender
8 hours ago
- Tokyo Weekender
Akira Otani Becomes First Japanese Novelist To Win British Crime Fiction Award
Novelist Akira Otani made history this week, becoming the first Japanese winner of the best translated crime novel prize at the Dagger Awards. Her triumph was announced by the United Kingdom's Crime Writers' Association (CWA) on July 3. The Night of Baba Yaga , translated by Sam Bett, was competing against five other novels, including Butter by fellow Japanese author Asako Yuzuki. Otani's novel is a queer thriller that follows Yoriko Shindo, a fierce mixed-race fighter who becomes the bodyguard of a yakuza princess. Although several acclaimed works by Japanese writers — such as Hideo Yokoyama, Kotaro Isaka and Keigo Higashino — have been shortlisted for the Dagger Award's translation category over the years, none have received the prize. List of Contents: Embracing Ambiguity in Fiction and Life The Rise of Translated Japanese Fiction Related Posts courtesy of Kawade Shobo Shinsha Embracing Ambiguity in Fiction and Life Born in Tokyo in 1981, Otani began her career as a video game writer. Her debut in the literary world came in 2018 with Nobody Said We're Perfect , a short story collection that explores relationships between women. The Night of Baba Yaga , her fourth feature-length novel published in Japan, was the first to be translated into English in 2024. The translated work was featured in Tokyo Weekender's 2024 book recommendations list . 'I feel that the depiction of women in fiction is often fixed and unrealistic, with only a few patterns,' Otani said in an interview with Shueisha Bungei Station. 'Real friends and acquaintances are more diverse and interesting than that… I decided to portray real women in my stories.' Otani also discussed the importance of embracing gray areas in relation to her own identity as a writer during her acceptance speech at the Dagger Award Ceremony in London. 'I am not a mystery writer. I write a variety of works,' she stated , in reference to the segmentation of authors by genre in Japan. 'Ambiguity is what defines me as a writer. I believe that accepting your own ambiguity and acknowledging the ambiguity of others will make the world a better place.' There are over 38,000 copies of The Night of Baba Yaga in Japan as of today, and the novel is currently available in the United Kingdom, United States and South Korea, with plans to publish in Germany, Italy and Brazil. The Rise of Translated Japanese Fiction Otani's work is one of a number of Japanese novels to have enjoyed great success in the United Kingdom in recent years. According to figures from Nielsen BookScan, Japanese fiction represented 25% of all translated fiction sales in the UK in 2022. Last November, The Guardian reported that 43% of the top 40 translated fiction titles in the UK for 2024, up to that point, were by Japanese authors. While literary giants such as Banana Yoshimoto and Haruki Murakami are no strangers to overseas fame, the past decade has witnessed the global rise of a broader range of Japanese authors. Literary fiction titles from female perspectives by writers such as Sayaka Murata ( Convenience Store Woman ) and Mieko Kawakami ( Breasts and Eggs ) have surged in popularity, as have slice-of-life comfort fiction novels like Toshikazu Kawaguchi's Before the Coffee Gets Cold and Michiko Aoyama's What You Are Looking for Is in the Library . There has also been a huge growth in classic and contemporary crime fiction from Japan in the UK market, including Yuzuki's aforementioned bestseller Butter and golden age crime novels such as Seicho Matsumoto's Tokyo Express (also known as Points and Lines ). Related Posts Japan's Best Crime and Mystery Writers | List of 7 Visiting Real Life Locations From Haruki Murakami Novels in Tokyo Spotlight: Yasunari Kawabata — Japan's First Nobel Literature Laureate
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The Mainichi
10 hours ago
- The Mainichi
Novelist Otani becomes Japan's 1st to win British crime writing award
LONDON (Kyodo) -- A Japanese novelist on Thursday became her country's first to win a major British award for crime and mystery writing, highlighting a boom in the popularity of translated Japanese fiction. Akira Otani was given the best translated crime novel prize at the Dagger Awards for "The Night of Baba Yaga," beating out five shortlisted competitors including fellow Japanese author Asako Yuzuki. "I'm in complete shock. My head is kind of upside down," Otani, 44, said during an award ceremony through an interpreter. Otani also told reporters that she has known about the Dagger Awards since she was young as her late grandfather loved foreign mystery novels. "So, if possible, I would want to tell him the most that I won this award," she said. Her novel tells the story of a woman kidnapped by a yakuza crime syndicate and forced to serve as a bodyguard to the boss's daughter. As the story progresses, the relationship between the pair develops in unexpected ways as the attitudes of the men around them grow darker and more sinister. Judges compared the story to a manga comic, praising the work for its raw depiction of the yakuza as well as the humanity and feeling of its characters in the competition organized by the Crime Writers' Association. "This saga sparkles with originality and delivers a splendid if bizarre love story," the judges said. The book, originally published in Japanese in 2020, is Otani's first work to appear in English. It was translated by Sam Bett and released in July 2024 in the United States, followed by publication in Britain two months later. The popularity of translated Japanese novels has grown in recent years in Britain. According to NielsenIQ statistics, three of the five best-selling translated fiction books in Britain for the first eight months of 2024 were by Japanese authors. The Guardian reported in November that among the top 40 translated fiction titles for 2024, 43 percent were Japanese. Otani was born in Tokyo and grew up mostly in the neighboring countryside. On writing the novel, she said she started out with the idea of resisting patriarchal society and that fiction allowed her to explore the concept. She added that for her, writing the story with the relationship between two women as the focus was not a conscious choice, but merely felt "more natural" to her than one between a man and a woman. Speaking to Kyodo News before the ceremony, Otani said that she thought one of the reasons it resonated with overseas readers was because she "wrote it with only domestic readers in mind." "Small things like place names and canned coffee, stuff that Japanese people would just understand right away, give it this feeling of being very authentically Japanese," she said. (By Callum Cafferty)
