ABSTRACT
During the 1990s, in the context of increasing globalization and growing critique of the dominant myth of Japanese uniqueness and homogeneity, a number of ekkyô (border-crossing) writers gained prominence in Japan. In its current usage (and the concept is still in its infancy), the term ‘ekkyô writer’ refers to either ethnically non-Japanese authors writing in Japanese in Japan or ethnically Japanese authors writing in Japanese and foreign languages either in Japan or elsewhere. While ekkyô encompasses border-crossings both ‘into’ and ‘away from’ Japan, more emphasis is placed on inflow than outflow. Writers who emigrated overseas and write exclusively in the language of the host society, such as Kazuo Ishiguro, are not considered ekkyô writers even when they write on Japan. In other words, ekkyô literature is not just about its producers’ physical border-crossings, but is about its place and function in relation to Japan, in particular the function of challenging the ‘inside’ with some elements of ‘outside’. Writing in-between national/ethnic cultures, ekkyô writings typically contain a radical challenge to the closed ‘inside’ of the Japanese nation by employing vivid images of identities that are neither ‘here’ nor ‘there’. Despite their ‘outside’ elements, they are usually exclusively addressed to ‘national’ readers and written in Japanese. Although small in number, by the end of the 1990s such writings had become quite visible in the public domain, moving beyond the narrowly defined literary establishment. Their border-crossing lives, as well as their literary exploration of identities negotiated at an intersection of multiple cultural, historical and political forces, seem to have struck a chord with many readers in Japan.
