Kobo Abe (1924-1993) dubbed ‘The Kafka of Japan’ wrote about many things including for instance robots and the robotic existence of modern life in Japan, but his book Inter Ice Age 4, published at the height of the Cold War in 1959, is arguably one of the best works of science fiction ever written by a Japanese author.
It tells the story of a submerged world in the near future in which the polar ice caps have melted, leading to the creation (through genetic engineering) of an ‘aquatic human’ capable of breathing underwater.
In terms of its scale and sheer imagination, its impact on the science fiction genre in Japan was significant. Nevertheless, today Abe is best known, inside and outside Japan, for his social commentary novel, The Woman in the Dunes, a jarringly dry novel about the futility and repetitiveness of modern Japanese existence.
A book about an aquatic man by Kobo Abe written at the height of the Cold War is considered by some as one of the best works of science fiction written by a Japanese author
[UPDATED: 3-31-2026]
© Red Circle Authors Limited
A book about an aquatic man by Kobo Abe written at the height of the Cold War is considered by some as one of the best works of science fiction written by a Japanese author
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