Japanese Literature Gains International Feel-Good Popularity

At a Feb. 7 symposium marking the 30th Konishi Japanese-French Literature Translation Awards in Paris, Professor Emeritus Cécile Sakai described a rising demand for translated Japanese novels, especially 'iyashikei' feel-good works, across Europe and the United States. She attributed the trend to post-COVID anxieties and noted wider translation output and bestseller variations by country. Sakai cautioned that AI may cut costs but cannot match nuanced human literary translation.