Reflection of Japanese culture in Murakami

Murakami’s writing is not the typical Japanese literature in the sense that it is much influenced by Western literature and incorporates American pop culture into the daily lives of the protagonists. However, even through the old jazz records and German novels, a big part of Japanese culture is reflected in Murakami’s writings. 

A big portion of the modern Japanese entertainment/media contains escapism. Escape from reality into “isekai” is so popular in anime and manga, that it became a sub-genre of fiction. “Isekai” would be directly translated into “a different world”, and there even is a commonly used medium to go to this world, an “isekai truck”, which hits the protagonist suddenly and when they wake up, they are in a completely different world. Though Murakami does not use the concept of “isekai” or the truck, his story does involve a lot of shifts into somewhere separate from reality. “The Wild Sheep Chase” and “Kafka on the Shore” reflect this, as they go into the mountains or forests, which act as an entrance to a dream world. Escapism in Japanese media is not just a common trope, but it is symbolic of the young Japanese generation and their wish for escapism.

The second popular trend in Japanese media is the male fantasy, where an ordinary, almost asexual(or his main motives are not sex) male protagonist attracts multiple beautiful women, who all try to seduce him. Although this may be a common fantasy among many, it does definitely appear much more often in Japanese media. This includes a big number of Murakami’s fictions. Most of his works tend to have a male protagonist, and surrounding them are mysterious, eccentric, or depressed women who seduce him, or are described in a sexual manner. They do end up sleeping with the protagonist anyways.

The pretty common trend of young generations in Japan, the social isolation, is also reflected in Murakami’s work subtly. The general tendency to do things alone, like go to bars, go travel, eat alone in restaurants and so on, are a big part of the protagonist’s life. Unlike the Western culture of seldomly doing things alone, the protagonist of Murakami’s world does more things alone than with others.

Being so used to the country’s media and culture, I never viewed Murakami’s work as a reflection of Japanese culture or trends, but reading Murakami’s books again in America, it is clearer to see that Murakami’s work contains many ideologies and the lifestyles of Japan.

Yewon Yun