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Japanese literature has a well established reputation for the subtle and delicate nature of its creation, but that looks like it is changing with the news that for the first time ever “Japan’s fiction bestseller list is dominated by books published, read and, in several cases, written on mobile telephones, most of them by young women in their 20s.”

This is mind blowing - the thought of writing an entire novel on a mobile phone is phenomenal. I thought it sounded mad that someone would actually read a novel on their mobile phone, but to write one. Puts my 140 character SMS messages to shame!

The real problem though is that the new “mobile novel” tends to be written in “short, simple sentences using relatively few characters, featuring melodramatic plots heavy on violence, sex and tear-jerking sentiment,” which is not your traditional Japanese cultural writing style. This is causing concerns that the current generation aren’t getting the education they need.

Remarkably this trend has grown pretty much out of nowhere with no novels in 2002, 1.8 billion yen worth in 2003 and 9.4 billion yen worth in 2006.

Via [Times Online]