ABSTRACT
For our purposes (and following period distinctions observed widely by scholars both here and in Japan), “modern literature” refers to writing produced after the Meiji Restoration of 1868. It is literature of an enormous range and output. Donald Keene has observed that “the Japanese literature written in the century or so since 1868 exceeds in volume all the Japanese literature that survives from the preceding millennium” (the introduction to his history of modern Japanese literature, Dawn to the West provides other useful background detail). There is a substantial number of literary works available, even in English translation, and the lists grow at a steady rate.
