The term "business novel" is a translation of the Japanese word kezai shosetsu, which may be translated literally as * 'economy novel.'' Critic Makoto Sataka first used the word "business" in place of "economy" in his monograph How to Read Business Novels (1980).l Business novels are "popular novels" (taishu bungaku) widely read by Japanese businessmen, their wives, students, and other professionals.. Business novels were recognized as a * 'field'' or a literary sub-genre in the late 1950s. It was Saburo Shiroyama's Export (Yushutsu) (1957), if not his Kinjo the Corporate Bouncer (Sokaiya Kinjo) (1959), which marshalled their enormous popularity. The seven short works in this collection represent prototypes of the business novel. Their distinctive features are that business activities motivate plot developments, although psycho-socio-cultural elements are tightly interwoven.
Biography
Tamae K. Prindle is Oak Professor of East Asian Language and Literature and resident director of AKP (Associated Kyoto Program) at Colby College, USA. Her many publications include Made in Japan and Other Japanese "Business Novels" (1989), Kinj? the Corporate Bouncer and Other Stories from Japanese Business, and Ikk? Shimizu, The Dark Side of Japanese Business: Three ""Industry Novels,"" all of which she translated and introduced.
