The Popularity of Japanese Mystery Novels in South Korea ：The Traslation Status from1945 to the 2010s

Abstract

This paper gives an overview of the reception of translated Japanese detective novels in South Korea from 1945 to 2021. The resulting analysis of the impact and characteristics of these translations, in the context of changes in Korean publishing and in popular culture, explains the popularity of Japanese detective novels in South Korea, and the significance of the still-current Japanese detective novel boom. Previously I have analyzed the reception of translated Japanese detective novels in South Korea from 1945 to 2009, so in this article, I will continue this analysis for the period up to 2021.The translation and publication of Japanese detective novels in South Korea began in 1961, and the number of such texts increased little by little every year until the end of the 20th century. Then, in the 2000s, the number of translations increased sharply, and since the beginning of the 2010s, detective novels have been translated and published at nearly three times the rate as was previously the case. The popularity of Japanese detective novels in South Korea has been influenced by the prevailing circumstances in the publishing world and by political and social conditions in South Korea. In addition, detective novels with a social dimension were popular from the 1960s to the 1980s, but since 1990 when they began to make an impact on mass consumer culture, more diverse detective novels and those with lighter themes have come to the fore. Finally, the unprecedented Japanese detective novel boom Korea is experiencing is due to the appearance of star writers such as Keigo Higashino and Miyuki Miyabe. This boom seems to have cultivated a more refined sense in Korean readers of the aesthetics of detective novels, and it has also been naturally influenced by the mystery narrative form in Korean popular culture.