Haruki Murakami’s hopes for ‘East Asian cultural sphere’ remain distant goal

The Asahi Shimbun AJW’s series on internationally acclaimed writer Haruki Murakami 

Haruki Murakami, among the world’s most celebrated authors, was stunned by the bitter cultural backlash brought to his works in China after Japan nationalized the disputed Senkaku Islands in September 2012.

His books, along with works by other Japanese writers, were pulled from bookstores in Beijing amid the anti-Japan demonstrations across the nation, threatening what some see as a fragile, but growing, cultural circle connecting the region.