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My father belongs to the generation that fought the war in the 1940s. When I was a kid my father told me stories – not so many, but it meant a lot to me. I wanted to know what happened then, to my father’s generation. It’s a kind of inheritance, the memory of it.
Every writer has his writing technique – what he can and can’t do to describe something like war or history. I’m not good at writing about those things, but I try because I feel it is necessary to write that kind of thing.
I’m a writer. I don’t support any war. That’s my principle.
Young people these days don’t trust anything at all. They want to be free.
I didn’t read so much Japanese literature. Because my father was a teacher of Japanese literature, I just wanted to do something else.
You are 27 or 28 right? It is very tough to live at that age. When nothing is sure. I have sympathy with you.
Team sports aren’t my thing. I find it easier to pick something up if I can do it at my own speed. And you don’t need a partner to go running, you don’t need a particular place, like in tennis, just a pair of trainers.
Since I have come to America, I am often asked whether my next novel will be set in America. I don’t think it will. I think I will be living in America for some time to come, but while living in America, I would like to write about Japanese society from the outside.
I didn’t want to be a writer, but I became one. And now I have many readers, in many countries. I think that’s a miracle. So I think I have to be humble regarding this ability. I’m proud of it and I enjoy it, and it is strange to say it this way, but I respect it.
I don’t want to express my opinion about actual politics, because if I do, I have to be responsible for my decision.