Project Leader: Masaaki Takeda

Fellows: Masaaki Takeda, Masahiko Abe, Maki Sato, Shinji Kajitani

The Archive of Contemporary Japanese Writers is developed with the aim of documenting the actual voices of leading writers of Japanese-language literature, and communicating the significance of contemporary Japanese literature to a wider audience both in Japan and overseas. The project is carried out through the cooperation of writers, researchers and editors who are members of the Iidabashi Literary Club (a gathering of people active in the field of literature, led by novelist Keiichiro Hirano), and multiple departments of the University of Tokyo. Thus far, 15 writers/artists have been interviewed, and the interviews have been transmitted in video form over the internet and published in printed form by the University of Tokyo Press. The project will continue conducting interviews of currently active writers, in principle about once every three months.