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Minority Writing from Japan

December 2018

This feature offers a limited sampling of writing from the underrepresented minorities of Japan: authors who write in Japanese but whose heritage classifies them outside of Japanese ethnicity.

Beyond the Circle: Minority Voices of Japan

What these authors share, as insiders to the Japanese language, is a firsthand perspective on a culture whose monoethnic self-image often excludes them by default.

Tokyo Ueno Station

My reticence and my incompetence troubled me more than my appearance, but most intolerable was my unluckiness.

Translated from Japanese by Morgan Giles

From Rainbow Bird

By Shun Medoruma

Even after the credits stopped rolling and the blue government warning turned into a blizzard of static, Katsuya kept staring at the screen, a vague grin on his face.

Translated from Japanese by Sam Malissa

Salam

By Shirin Nezammafi

They were the hands of someone who had never heard of hand cream.

Translated from Japanese by Aoi Matsushima

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