Factbook

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Creative Writing

Haruki Murakami, who loves cats, ran a jazz bar and coffee shop called Peter Cat before making his debut as a writer

[UPDATED: 2-26-2018]

While studying at Waseda University in Tokyo Haruki Murakami, probably the best known contemporary Japanese writer in the English speaking world, met his wife Yoko, while working in a record store and set up a jazz bar and coffee shop called Peter Cat.

He and his wife ran Peter Cat together between 1974 and 1981. He published his first novel, Hear the Wind Sing, in 1979.

Like the name of his jazz bar, cats also often feature prominently in some of his novels. He is on record as being a cat lover, like many other high profile Japanese authors, such as Kazufumi Shiraishi and Mitsuyo Kakuta.

Cats also play important roles in some of his best novels. Novels like The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Kafka on the Shore and a story titled: Town of Cats, included in IQ84, which was published in 2011.

Murakami’s books have been translated into more than 50 languages and have sold millions of copies in Japan and internationally.

Haruki Murakami, who loves cats, ran a jazz bar and coffee shop called Peter Cat before making his debut as a writer Posted January 3rd, 2018 by Richard Nathan

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Factbook

Haruki Murakami, who loves cats, ran a jazz bar and coffee shop called Peter Cat before making his debut as a writer

New international standards for measuring time, weights and measures encouraged some to call for Japan to adopt a Westernised writing system abandoning traditional alphabets[UPDATED: 7-7-2023]

In 1841 Shakespeare’s name appeared in print in Japan in Japanese for the first time[UPDATED: 6-14-2023]

Japan experts, Japanologists, commentators, as well as visitors to Japan, have been deriding each other’s ‘Knowledge’ of the nation for over a century[UPDATED: 5-10-2023]

By 1905 Japanese people were already buying the ‘Encyclopedia Britannica’ on subscription and their prompt payment was used to highlight the trustworthiness of the nation[UPDATED: 4-3-2023]

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