In this episode, we explore the enduring legacy of Greek/English/Irish/American/Japanese author Lafcadio Hearn and the ghost story The Peony Lantern.We'll start out by looking at Hearn's life. We'll discuss the long his...

In this episode, we look at bullying in Japanese literature.We'll start out by defining bullying and looking at bullying in Japanese schools as well as the Japanese workplace. We'll see some examples in Japanese novels. And then we'll t...

In this episode, we look into the history of Christianity in Japan—especially the role Christianity has played in Japanese literature. Our focus text is Shusaku Endo's Silence.

In this episode, we take a look at the Japanese proletarian writers’ movement of the 1920s and early 1930s. We also take a deep dive into the life of author Genzaburo Yoshino—not a proletarian writer, but a man who spent prison alongside them a...

For the first time ever, RJL brings you information from an interview with a Japanese author—Akutagawa-winner Keiichiro Hirano. This episode takes...