(c) Office Murakami

2012 The Japan Foundation Awards

Writer / Translator

MURAKAMI Haruki

[Japan]

The Power of Narrative, the Universality of Language

When I started writing my first novel, I never imagined that what I had written would be translated and published in other countries. On the contrary, to a freshly minted young novelist, being published in Japan and having a large, unspecified number of people pick up and read my work was enough of a miracle. What more could I want?

But from the second half of the 1980s, the novels that I wrote were steadily translated into foreign languages, and I received the reactions as feedback. I was honestly astonished, and with this I think my own literary perspective started to change, subtly, little by little. I suppose I felt that the stories (narratives) I write transcend Japanese and the framework of Japanese society, and are firmly intertwined with something broader. These are narratives written in a language called Japanese, but they are able to become "living narratives" that transcend the limitations of language and permeate the walls of diverse awareness.

More than 30 years have passed since then, and now the works I have written have been translated into over 50 languages. I have personally been warmly welcomed in the many countries I have visited, and I am encouraged by such many voices (in various languages), leading me to do my best over a long period of time and unflaggingly continue to write novels.

To believe in the power of narrative and to believe in the universality of language—this became a driving force for me to continue writing novels, and that is still true today.

MURAKAMI Haruki

(Original text in Japanese)

The Japan Foundation Awards (2012) Profile