Information Society Watch

January 20, 2008, Norimitsu Onishi, New York Times

Digital technologies are transforming the way that knowledge is created in Japan, as half of the country's ten best selling novels of 2007 were books that had originally been composed on cellphones. This article discusses the rise of the genre of the cellphone novel in Japan and how both its critics and its proponents have responded. The cellphone novels are usually love stories typed by young women in a style that characterises the communication of a generation that has come of age with mobile technology. The novels emerged in 2000 when a Japanese site realised users were writing novels on their blogs and allowed them to upload works in progress from their cellphones. But the boom really began when cellphone companies decided to offer flat monthly rates for unlimited data transmission, including text messages. Critics find these novels lacking the plot or character development of traditional novels, but recognise that regardless of their literary merits, this new genre is dominating the mainstream.

Read full text