Jaime Sorenson

Professor David Pollack

JPN246 Modern Japanese Culture
13 February 2009
Mobile Novels: A Novel Media

Japan is usually considered to be at the height of cutting edge technology for many electronics, such as cell
phones. The cell phone is particularly integrated into the everyday lives of Japanese. These cell phones are used
to send e-mail, take photos, purchase items, surf the Internet, and even conduct bank transactions. The newest
applications on cell phones allow users to type up short messages and upload these onto a host website,
compiling them into novels. These novels, keitai shosetsu, are causing a commotion in Japan as to whether they
are beneficial or detrimental to society and the future of literature and publishing. The keitai shosetsu trend
started with Japanese women in their 20s nearly a decade ago and has since spread to other countries like China
and the United States. Some argue that the poor spelling and grammar as well as the violent and graphic topics
will cause literacy and social behaviors to deteriorate. Others see mobile novels as a great way to make reading
accessible to anyone at any moment and to nurture creativity and individuality. This essay will delve deeper into
the reasons behind the rise of this popular media, the structure and content of the novels, as well as their impact
on the future literary world.
Mobile messages are not a new way of communicating. According to Japan Today, teenage girls began
messaging with pagers in the early '90s which led to Japan becoming the first country to have widespread mobile
communications (Galbraith). The first cell phone novel was written by a Tokyo man in his mid-thirties called
Yoshi. He set up a website in 2000 and started posting "Deep Love" in small segments. The main character is a 17
year old girl who's boyfriend needed a heart operation. To raise the money, she entered a form of prostitution
called enjo kosai. As in most of these novels, tragedy strikes: the money never reached the boyfriend, she dies
from AIDS, which she contracted from a client.
Around the same time that "Deep Love" was being posted, one of the most popular blogging sites, Magic iLand,
added an application allowing members to upload texts into a novel template and comment on other user's
works. This piqued the digital generation's interest but what really helped mobile novels become really popular
and wide spread was the decision of cell phone companies to offer unlimited packet data transmission at a flat
rate. It used to be the case that a writer would acquire a cell phone bill that easily reached $1,000 and would be
unable to continue writing until the bill was paid. Keitai shosetsu grabbed the attention of publishers after
Yoshi's self-published book sold 100,000 copies. Starts Publishing Company became very interested in Yoshi's
work and was allowed to publish "Deep Love" in hard-back form. The novel was then turned into a manga,
television drama, a film, and a series of novels that sold 2.7 million copies (Goodyear). With the current economy
in such poor shape, the success of mobile novels is just what some companies need to keep up sales. Keitai
shosetsu have opened the previously selective field of literature to anyone with access to the internet. Many of
these authors have never written a novel before and very few of the authors or readers have even read a novel.
According to an article in the New York Times, many Japanese avoid reading real novels because "the sentences
are too difficult to understand, their expressions are intentionally wordy, and the stories are not familiar to
them" (Onishi).
One of the topics of contestation has been the casual and child-like structure of keitai shosetsu. The whole
novel is written and uploaded in 140 character segments written with short sentences and a lot of returns and
spaces. Because of this character limit,writers of keitai shosetsu are figuring out the importance of composition
and how it impacts the flow of the story.
Authors use the returns to end a line, making the choice of words very important. Spaces are used to create a
rhythm so that the overall look of a quiet scene is slow due to the high amount of spaces. For the faster rhythm of
a fight, the words are crammed together into very choppy sentences. The structure of the sentences is very basic
and compact. Instead of having longer sentences that would describe a tight knit family and the basics of each
member, the novels describe this in broad terms: "Daddy / Mom /Yudai / I love you all so much" (Goodyear). All
of the locations and people are described similarly, giving the whole story a vague, fuzzy reality that can be very
easy to relate to. There is a general worry in Japan that with such vague descriptions, people will begin to feel
bogged down by the colorful details in a normal novel which will lead to even fewer readers of traditional paper-
back books.
The vocabulary and lack of editing of keitai shosetsu is also feeding this worry causing some Japanese to be
concerned about the literacy skills of reader. Keitai shosetsu are written in plain everyday speech which is further
embedded with emoticons and slang expressions like 'se-fure' for 'sex friend' and 'mitaina' equivalent to 'like, you
know'. In general, these novels reflect "the average, ordinary girl talking to herself, the mumblings of her heart”
(Goodyear). The vocabulary is extremely basic, posing little challenge to elementary school children. The stories
read like diaries instead of lengthy traditional novels. The text is also written horizontally and mostly in hiragana
instead of the traditional vertical style with more kanji. On top of an already limited vocabulary and short
sentences, mobile novels rarely undergo any form of editing before being made available to the public. With all of
the spelling and grammatical mistakes, cell phone novels have a very raw quality but many readers find very
attractive. The same aspect also serves as a rally point for critics to rage about the decline of the quality of
modern literature. Exposure to such poor quality has led adults to worry that mobile novels will stunt the growth
of children's vocabulary, accelerate illiteracy, and damage their ability to express themselves.
Since 1977, the Japanese school system has been gradually reducing the requirements in classes to try and
reduce the stress on school-age children. This system, called yutori kyouiku, has become quite controversial
because some believe that the following generations of Japan will be less intelligent. This fear has caused critics
to begin calling cellphone novel enthusiasts "yutori," slang for those who cannot properly read, write or think
because of yutori kyouiku (Galbraith). The simple sentences and basic vocabulary are beneficial to reach a
younger audience and make the stories easy to relate to, however the same structure may stunt the creative
growth of the younger generations.
While the structure of mobile novels may have some impact on the future of Japanese literature, the most
shocking part of these novels is the content. The stories tend to be emotional and highly melodramatic, covering
popular genres like romance, horror, sci-fi, and fantasy. The content has the power to alter how readers perceive
reality as well as society's attitude and view of women.
Because over half of all people who read mobile novels are young women, romance seems to be the most
popular and influential genre. The standard romance keitai shosetsu has portions of drugs, prostitution, rape,
fatal diseases, violence, and death. In Anatole Fuksas's essay, he summarizes the results of a number of
experiments investigating the connection between reading and body motion. Fuksas states that "narrative
references processed by means of sensory-motor resonance while reading or listening to stories may interfere
with the actual sensory experience" (Fuksas). This statement is supported by the many cases where elementary
school girls fantasize about being raped by an older man who subsequently falls in love with them. Their young
age coupled with the desire to be raped is alarming elementary school teachers and parents. It is instilling in
young girls that they are to have little personal pride and also teaching them that rape and violence is just
another inevitable part of life.
While it is important for girls to be able to speak about themselves, the stories echo the conservative view that
women are victims of their emotions and suffer passively. One mobile novel, "Love Sky", has recently been
released in theatres earning over $35 million. Clearly, the movie was very popular but the moral of the story is
not that sex leads to all kinds of pain and should thus be avoided. It is that sex leads to all kinds of pain and pain
is the center of a woman's life. These issues are not appropriate for young children to feel intimately familiar
with.
Mobile novels can be used to incorporate important lessons that the readers can benefit from as well. Jakucho
Setouchi, a well known Buddhist nun who translated "The Tale of Genji" into modern Japanese, has written a
novel on her own cell phone. Even though most of her readers have never read "The Tale of Genji", she still
incorporated references to the 11th century novel. Setouchi took important messages from "The Tale of Genji"
and added them to her novel with some changes. Since Genji never repents for his sins, her main character says
at one point "I shouldn't be happy because I did wrong" (Okamura), emphasizing what the correct and expected
behavior is in modern Japan. Girls can also draw courage from these stories. Many of the girls have experienced
at least one aspect of the novels and can empathize with the heroine. Regardless of the embellishment of parts of
the stories, they are still based off of the author's personal experience or that of a friend. Therefore, the reader
can see what happened to the characters and learn from their mistakes, hopefully to not repeat them in real life.
As a method of expression, it leads to the empowerment of girls, but in regard to the content, it reinforces norms
that are popular in male-dominated cultures.
Keitai shosetsu will remain a popular creative outlet for a while for many reasons. First, the desire to read and
write them must exist within the population. Given the wide selection of topics, individuals can always find
something interesting to read. The reader can always relate to the characters in the novel and escape the social
pressures on the real world. With a birth rate low enough to be a national concern, women are facing even more
pressure to find a man and start a family. Women who fail to do so by the time they are 30 are known as "loser-
dogs" and the fantasy of rural life offered in keitai shosetsu becomes irresistible (Goodyear). Authors must also
be willing to write the novels to meet this demand. Writers are usually relating a personal or provocative stories
for the first time, using their stories as a way to release internal pressures and reflect on their lives. Many start
writing because they want to join the group of keitai readers and writers in order to feel a sense of community
and companionship.
Next, the novels must remain available for them as a genre to exist. Because they are written on a cell phone
and uploaded to a website, they can be written anywhere. Similarly, they can be downloaded onto cell phones to
be read at anytime making keitai shosetsu much more accessible than paper books. They are also very portable.
One doesn't have to go out to the store, buy the book, and carry it around in order to read it. The novels can be
read online for little or no cost to the reader. From this it would seem like the physical novel will disappear into
nonexistence but this is not the case. Enthusiasts will read a story on the internet and then support the author by
purchasing a physical copy from the bookstore.
 Finally, keitai shosetsu provide a way for individuals to express themselves while still remaining anonymous.
This desire for anonymity stems from the fears that others will notice an individual's different behavior and will
embarrass them. One author, Rin, stated that one reason why she prefers to remain anonymous is because
"others might think you were a bit strange if you [wrote novels during recesses]" (Hani). Another author who
goes by the name Mone regrets almost everything that she has published, "I could have done a lot to cover things
up and I didn't. I feel a profound responsibility about that." In her online blog, she is listed as an eight year old
girl who live at the heart of the mountain with no photograph to accompany this absurd profile. She says that she
does not want to inconvenience anyone by bringing unwanted attention to her or her husband's family
(Goodyear). Because keitai shosetsu are easily available and satisfy the desires of the Japanese population, they
will last for many years.
Ultimately, the phenomenon of writing novels on cell phones will persist regardless of the criticism because
they fill a niche in Japanese society. The world will have to learn how to adapt to this new genre and guide it in a
non-offensive direction. It is true that the poor spelling and grammar will have an impact on the literacy of the
readers, but this can be buffered by encouraging readers to supplement keitai shosetsu with other novels. The
content is very graphic and can be inappropriate in some situations. Despite the shortcomings of this new genre,
its ability to act as an escape valve for a society that expects normalcy will outlast any criticism directed towards
it.

Works Cited
Fuksas, Anatole P. "Embodiment of Stories in Hybrid Environments:." The Ecology of the Novel. 19 Nov. 2007.
01 Feb. 2009 <http://ecologyofthenovel.wordpress.com/2007/11/19/embodiment-of-stories-in-hybrid-
environments/>.

Galbraith, Patrick W. "Cell phone novels come of age." Japan Today: Japan News and Discussion. 26 Jan. 2009.
26 Jan. 2009 <http://www.japantoday.com/category/entertainment-arts/view/cell-phone-novels-come-of-
age>.

Goodyear, Dana. "Young women develop a genre for the cellular age." The New Yorker. 22 Dec. 2008. 31 Jan.
2009 <http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/12/22/081222fa_fact_goodyear?currentPage=all>.

Hani, Yoko. "Cellphone bards hit bestseller lists." Japan Times. 23 Sept. 2007. 31 Jan. 2009
<http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20070923x4.html>.

Okamura, Naoto. "Japanese nun writes mobile novel at 86." Asiaone. 26 Sept. 2008. 31 Jan. 2009
<http://www.asiaone.com/Digital/News/Story/A1Story20080926-90199.html>.

Onishi, Norimitsu. "Thumbs Race as Japan's Best Sellers Go Cellular." The New York Times. 20 Jan. 2008. 03
Feb. 2009 <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/world/asia/20japan.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1>.