Episode 21: Sexlessness in Japanese Fiction

Check out Episode 21 of the Read Literature podcast.

Transcript available.

This episode is marked mature.

Today we’ll explore two trends in contemporary Japanese fiction:

Protagonists who don’t want to have sex
And women who want to have babies anyway.

To take a closer look at these trends, we’re going to ask a couple of questions about contemporary Japan:

What is “celibacy syndrome”? Does it even exist?
What role does motherhood play in a shrinking society?
And how do sexlessness and motherhood play out in 21st-century Japanese fiction?

We’ll end with a closer look at Mieko Kawakami’s best-selling novel, Breasts and Eggs.

(CW: domestic violence in a novel)

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Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami (translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd)
- You can also read passages from Chichi to Ran Eggs translated into Manchester dialect by Louise Heal Kawai for free at Words without Borders.
“A Clean Marriage” by Sayaka Murata (translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori) (read for free via Granta)
- “A Clean Marriage” also appears in editions of Murata’s Life Ceremony published by Granta Press.

More by Mieko Kawakami:

All the Lovers in the Night (translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd)
- Read my review of All the Lovers in the Night.
“Dreams of Love, etc.” (translated by Hitomi Yoshio) featured in The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories
- “Dreams of Love, etc.” also appears in Monkey Business: New Writing from Japan 3
Heaven (translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd)
- Read my review of Heaven.
“The Little Girl Blows Up Her Pee Anxiety, My Heart Races” (translated by Hitomi Yoshio) in Monkey Business: New Writing from Japan 4
“March Yarn” (translated by Michael Emmerich) in March Was Made of Yarn: Reflections on the Japanese Earthquake, Tsunami, and Nuclear Meltdown
Ms Ice Sandwich (translated by Louise Heal Kawai)
“My Baby” (translated by Hitomi Yoshio) in Monkey Business: New Writing from Japan 6
“The Thirteenth Month” (translated by Hitomi Yoshio) in Monkey Business: New Writing from Japan 5

Read Mieko Kawakami for free:

“About Her and the Memories That Belong to Her” (translated by Hitomi Yoshio) (read for free via Granta)
“The Flowers Look More Beautiful Now Than Ever” (translated by Hitomi Yoshio) (read for free via Granta)
“Golden Slumbers” (translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd) (read for free via The New York Times; article limit)
“How Much Heart” (translated by David Boyd) (read for free via Granta)
“Shame” (translated by Louise Heal Kawai and Hitomi Yoshio) (read for free via Granta)
“Where Have All the Sundays Gone?” (translated by Hitomi Yoshi) (read for free via Words without Borders)
“Wisteria” (translated by Hitomi Yoshio) (read for free via Astra)

This episode also mentions:

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori)
Diary of a Void by Emi Yagi (translated by David Boyd and Lucy North)
- Read my review of Diary of a Void.
Earthlings by Sayaka Murata (translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori)
Hit Parade of Tears by Izumi Suzuki (various translators; expected spring 2023)
ME by Tomoyuki Hoshino (translated by Charles de Wolf)
Terminal Boredom by Izumi Suzuki (various translators)
- Read my review of Terminal Boredom.
“Smartening Up” in Where the Wild Ladies Are by Aoko Matsuda (translated by Polly Barton)
- Read “Smartening Up” for free via Granta.
- Read my review of Where the Wild Ladies Are.
Territory of Light by Yuko Tsushima (translated by Geraldine Harcourt)
Twinkle Twinkle by Kaori Ekuni (translated by Emi Shimokawa)
Woman Running in the Mountains by Yuko Tsushima (translated by Geraldine Harcourt)
- Read my review of Woman Running in the Mountains.
Nipponia Nippon by Kazushige Abe (translated by Kerim Yasar) is the 1st novel to be translated into English by Mieko Kawakami’s husband. As of February 2023, the anticipated release date for Europe is in late summer 2023. The anticipated release date in the US is fall 2023.
- See a full list of 2023 upcoming Japanese fiction releases.

Find Out More

More on Japan’s perceived sexlessness. NSFW. This article includes links to most other English-language articles on the same topic when it was on many people’s minds in the mid 2010s.

RJL on sexlessness in contemporary Japanese fiction. NSFW. Includes reflections on the work of Mieko Kawakami and Sayaka Murata. (spoilers)

RJL on ME and Earthlings. (spoilers)

6 Facts about Gender Equality in Japan from Unseen Japan.

Other RJL Episodes of Interest:

Episode 1: The Kojiki. The Kojiki includes one of Japanese literature’s first depictions of pregnancy.
Episode 9: The Women Writers of Meiji Japan. This episode talks about the development of women’s fiction from the 1870s-1910s. Mieko Kawakami finds special inspiration in the work of Ichiyo Higuchi.
Episode 14: Banana and the Bubble. Protagonists in shojo stories rarely think about pregnancy.
Episode 15: Translating Japanese Women. This episode talks about the development of women’s fiction, especially from the 1920s-2010s.
Episode 17: The Smile of the Mountain Witch. Many yama-uba stories explore pregnancy and mother. Minako Oba wrote these themes in her fiction.
Episode 20: The Akutagawa Prize and Kobo Abe. Mieko Kawakami won the Akutagawa for Chichi to Ran in 2008.