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R/£ Marxist novel a surprise hit in Japan
August 14, 2008 Edition 2
Tokyo - A Marxist novel written in 1929 has climbed to the top of Japan's best-seller list, reflecting growing anxiety about job security and widening income gaps in the world's second-biggest economy.
"I think people are feeling keenly that the economy is starting to slow down and things are getting more difficult,'' said 27-year-old Sota Furuya, a marketing consultant who recently read the book.
Furuya is one of the many Japanese readers who have put Kanikosen, or A Crab-Canning Boat, on best-seller lists in recent months. It is near the top of several of Japan's leading best-seller lists, almost unheard of for a book of this genre.
A Crab-Canning Boat tells the tale of a crab boat crew working in harsh conditions under a sadistic captain. It was written by Takiji Kobayashi, a communist who was tortured to death by police at the age of 29 in 1933.
Most of the novel is devoted to the crew's struggle to unite and co-ordinate a strike, and the story ends with their vow to topple their capitalist masters.
The book has long been a favourite of scholars of Marxist literature, but it gained mainstream attention after an advertising campaign linked it with the concept of the working poor, said Tsutomu Sasaki, of Shinchosha Publishing Co, which reprinted the book. The book has been on best-seller lists since around May.
Experts say the novel's popularity reflects anxiety over job security, widening wage gaps and the hardships suffered by growing ranks of low-paid, part-time and contract workers.
"I think the keywords here are sympathy and similarities,'' said Hirokazu Toeda, a professor at Tokyo's Waseda University.
"Young people are sympathising because they see themselves and today's situation in the novel.''
But while the story resonates, the novel is unlikely to hold practical lessons for workers in present-day Japan, where labour union membership has been in decline for decades and only a tiny minority of voters back leftist political parties.
"The sympathy is sporadic and I don't think it will lead to organised movements,'' Toeda said. - Reuters
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