No Future in Sakurai Ami’s Tumorōzu songu: Gender and Body, Past and Present

Abstract

This paper analyzes Sakurai Ami’s novel Tomorrow’s Song (1999). The novel is unusual in Japanese literature for its attention to HIV, which even today remains little acknowledged in social discourse. My interest is in the ways in which Sakurai figures the virus vis-a-vis protagonist Akari’s singular devotion to counter-hegemonic ways of living, including drug use, unprotected sex, and alcoholism. My argument is that Sakurai uses HIV to advance a subtle petition for conformity.