James Nicoll Reviews

1989’s The Best Japanese Science Fiction Stories is a collection of Japanese science fiction stories. The editors are credited as John L. Apostolou and Martin H. Greenberg.

Various quirks of how I track books are going to bite me on the ass with this book. I’ve only myself to blame.

Because I am lazy, I only track gender and race for anthology editors, rather than taking the time to look at contributors. This means that although the contents are almost all by Japanese persons, this isn’t going to get a tick in the books-by-POC column. Also, because I am lazy, I won’t be entering the legion of translators (see below) into my database.

In addition to the above, the foreword strongly suggests crediting Apostolou and Greenberg as editors is overegging the pudding. The actual editors appear to have been Judith Merril and Grania Davis. Apostolou and Greenberg entered the picture because they were able to arrange for American publication. I don’t know why Merril and Davis didn’t make it onto the cover. Experience teaches us to assume the worst, so I will put it down to the 1980s anti-women-in-SF backlash and provide Merril and Davis with byline credit.

Annoyingly, I didn’t notice that my copy is missing pages. More on that later.

This anthology feels far more like Merril’s Best S‑F anthologies than it does Greenberg anthologies. The definition of SF in play is very broad, so broad as to include mainstream stories. The tales lean whimsical and New Wavey. There were at this time Japanese authors who wrote stories very much like American hard SF, but as that is not the direction Merril’s tastes ran, those stories are not well represented in this volume.

The anthology passes an important test: are the titles enough for me to remember the stories without consulting my notes? They are. The general level of quality here is high enough that it’s hard to select the best stories. (I will make a negative exception for ​“The Empty Field,” which was just not my thing, but may be yours). This is a solid anthology, well worth picking up.

The Best Japanese Science Fiction Stories is out of print.

And now the details.

A note on the presentation of the contents: I will use the translated title, but the earliest publication date. I would say ​“original” but for some reason ​“Cardboard Box” seems to have an original publication date of 1989, and a translated publication date of 1980. ​“Fnifmum” was undated.

Foreword (The Best Japanese Science Fiction Stories) • (1989) • essay by Grania Davis

Davis provides short comments on Japanese SF, also on the problems encountered getting the book into print. The project languished for almost a decade before Apostolou and Greenberg entered the picture.

Why the interest in Japanese SF? Well, some felt Japan was already living in the future:

Then gradually Americans realized that the Japanese are already living in a version of the future — with its overcrowding, micro-electronic gadgets, polluted environment, and efficient group-minds. The problems — and solutions — of the future are happening in Japan right now. Japanese science fiction gives us an insight into that future — often a shocking, yet witty and satiric insight. 

Please sprinkle ​“they meant well” throughout the text where appropriate.

So why the hesitation by publishers to publish Japanese SF? We would have to waterboard the publishers in question to know for sure; for many of the ones involved, that would involve a chalked pentagram and necromancy. But I can’t help but remember that just prior to Davis and Merril’s efforts, DAW Books had imported and translated some overseas SF. Too bad that it didn’t sell. Publishers might have been entirely correct to think in 1980 that there was not a huge market in the US for translated SF¹.

Introduction (The Best Japanese Science Fiction Stories) • (1989) • essay by John L. Apostolou

Apostolou provides a very compressed history of Japanese science fiction.

“The Flood” • (1950) • short story by Kōbō Abe, translated by Lane Dunlop

Humans begin to turn to liquid, with generally catastrophic results for the economy. Liquefaction isn’t exactly good for the individuals involved, either.

Did Abe focus only on catastrophes?

“Cardboard Box” • (1980) • short story by Ryo Hanmura, translated by David Lewis

The life-cycle of self-aware cardboard boxes is usually grim, but one very lucky box finds a form of transcendence.

The answer to ​“what if commonplace goods like toys or boxes or toilet paper were self-aware?” is ​“unspeakable horrors will ensue.” Well, almost always.

“Tansu” • (1983) • short story by Ryo Hanmura, translated by

Grania Davis and Shimizu Hitomi

A family gradually succumbs to a peculiar obsessive behavior whose purpose they cannot explain, beyond inviting people to join in.

“Bokko-Chan” • (1963) • short story by Shinichi Hoshi, translated by Noriyoshi Saito

A robot in the form of a beautiful woman is key to extracting money from lonely, unobservant men.

This aged well.

“He — y, Come on Ou — t!” • (1971) • short story by Shinichi Hoshi, translated by Stanleigh Jones

A mysterious hole appears to be the solution for many of life’s ills. If only the people using it as an oubliette knew where it led.

The hole is one-way, so there is no way to check out the far end and return with information.

“The Road to the Sea” • (1966) • short story by Takashi Ishikawa, translated by Judith Merril and Tetsu Yano

A hopeful but sadly ignorant boy sets out to find an ocean he will never reach.

“The Empty Field” • (1973) • short story by Morio Kita, translated by

Kinya Tsuruta and Judith Merril

Musings on transformation, delivered in New Wavian vernacular.

This was a bit of a chore to get through. I am in no way surprised that Merril had a hand in this one. It seems like the sort of story she would like.

“The Savage Mouth” • (1978) • short story by Sakyo Komatsu, translated by Judith Merril

A determined man consumes himself, horrifying society.

“Take Your Choice” • (1967) • short story by Sakyo Komatsu, translated by Shiro Tamura and Grania Davis

Unhappy people pay to choose one of three futures. The proprietors of this venture have two questions: how long will it take for authorities to notice their business, and why do customers always choose the apocalyptic future?

Technically, this isn’t SF. It has aged pretty well, though, as people are just as prone to seeing what they want to see now as they were in 1967.

“Triceratops” • (1974) • short story by Tensei Kono, translated by David Lewis

A father and son bond by watching the dinosaurs mysteriously appearing here and there.

This goes much better than I would expect from ​“multi-ton animals, some carnivorous, suddenly appear.”

“Fnifmum” • short story by Taku Mayumura, translated by

Katsumi Shindo and Grania Davis

An alien struggles with the repercussions of its odd relationship to spacetime dimensions.

“Standing Woman” • (1981) • short story by Yasutaka Tsutsui, translated by David Lewis

Unsanctioned deviation is punished by arboreal transformation.

The Legend of the Paper Spaceship • (1978) • novelette by Tetsu Yano, Translated by Gene Van Troyer and Tomoko Oshiro

The tragic tale of a simple-minded woman sexually exploited by the men of her incredibly unpleasant village, as witnessed by her telepathic son, whose abilities provide him with a more-than-front-row-seat to proceedings.

The final page of this is missing in my copy.

“A Reading List of Japanese Science Fiction in English” • (1989) • essay by John L. Apostolou and Martin H. Greenberg

All of this is missing from my copy.

1: A few Japanese works had made it over. Japan Sinks comes to mind, as do the television shows Marine Boy and Battle of the Planets. Warriors of the Wind is a bit late to justify mention here. You can assume that seven thousand words of increasingly angry ranting about the choices made importing that movie would have gone here if I could have justified it.