For middle-aged Japanophiles, the recent Japan boom among the young can at times feel exhausting. Japanese pop, rapid and relentless, sounds like something put together by toddlers on a sugar binge. Meanwhile, the popularity in the West of manga and anime seems to rely on its combination of fighting, gore and interminable questing. But for those of us who first encountered Japanese culture during the comparatively laidback Nineties and early Noughties, it was all about films, food, chunky Nintendo cartridges — and Haruki Murakami, whose latest novel, The City and Its Uncertain Walls, is out this week.
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