ABSTRACT
One of the most hotly debated popular literary forms of the twenty-first century has been keitai shōsetsu, novels written, predominantly with thumbs, on cellphones and circulated on specialized websites; some keitai shōsetsu have been published as bestselling print books and adapted into television dramas, feature films, and other media. The best-known keitai shōsetsu were written by amateur authors younger than thirty-five. The nicknames oyayubizoku (thumb tribe) or oyayubi sedai (thumb generation) were applied as early as 2001 to youths adept at texting with their thumbs. This chapter overviews historical developments in mobile technologies and the languages, cultures, and social discourses that arose around them to argue that cellphone novels should be viewed as a generational phenomenon that changed popular literature—generational in terms of technological developments and age of authors—generally lasting from the increased use of Japan’s 3G (third-generation) phones in 2001 to the dominance of touchscreen smartphones. Keitai shōsetsu were especially popular in Japan between 2005 and 2007, crucial years in the spread of the internet and the globalization of Japanese popular culture. Although the trend waned in popularity after around 2008, keitai shōsetsu have had a lasting impact on how books and authors are defined.
