Japanese detective fiction

When Western detective fiction spread to Japan, it created a new genre called detective fiction (tantei shōsetsu (探偵小説)) in Japanese literature.[1] After World War II the genre was renamed deductive reasoning fiction (suiri shōsetsu (推理小説)).[2] The genre is sometimes called mystery, although this includes non-detective fiction as well.

Edogawa Rampo is the first Japanese modern mystery writer and the founder of the Detective Story Club in Japan. Rampo was an admirer of western mystery writers. He gained his fame in early 1920s, when he began to bring to the genre many bizarre, erotic and even fantastic elements. This is partly because of the social tension before World War II.[3] Rampo's mystery novels generally followed conventional formulas, and have been classed as part of the honkaku ha (本格派), called "orthodox school",[4][5] or "standard" detective fiction,[6] or "authentic" detective fiction.[7][8]

In 1957, Seicho Matsumoto received the Mystery Writers of Japan Award for his short story The Face (顔, kao). The Face and Matsumoto's subsequent works began the "social school" (社会派, shakai ha) within the genre, which emphasized social realism, described crimes in an ordinary setting and sets motives within a wider context of social injustice and political corruption.[9][10]

Since the 1980s, a "new orthodox school" (新本格派, shin honkaku ha) has surfaced. It demands restoration of the classic rules of detective fiction and the use of more self-reflective elements, largely inspired by the works of Ellery Queen and John Dickson Carr. Famous authors of this movement include Soji Shimada, Yukito Ayatsuji, Rintaro Norizuki, Alice Arisugawa, Kaoru Kitamura and Taku Ashibe.

I think that the writer of the detective novels can describe human being by emphatically drawing the crime motive. Because the crime motive originates from the psychology when people is left in the extreme situation. After World War II, I do not think that the writers of the detective novels have succeeded in drawing human being enough. Rather I think that from the beginning they abandon the will that draw human being. In this way, the detective novels became the game for narrow-minded enthusiasts. From old days, I had dissatisfaction toward the detective story of the kind that common people could not be interested in. Accurately, I had this dissatisfaction for the writers who continue to write such a detective novel. I will not assert that a detective novel has to be literary. However, nonetheless, I hope the detective novels to be written that we can appreciate more than the minimum standard as a novel.

— Seichō Matsumoto. Zuihitsu Kuroi Techō (Essays on the Mystery Novel). 1961. pp.18 - 25.

Ellery, the slim handsome young man says: "To me, detective fiction is a kind of intellectual game. A logical game that gives readers sensations about detectives or authors. These are not to be ranked high or low. So I don't want the once popular 'social school' realism. Female employee murdered in a deluxe suite room; criminal police's tireless investigation eventually brings in the murdering boss-cum-boyfriend--All cliché. Political scandals of corruption and ineptness; tragedies of distortion of modern society; these are also out of date. The most appropriate materials for detective fiction, whether accused untimely or not, are famous detectives, grand mansions, suspicious residents, bloody murders, puzzling situation, earth-shattering scheme . . . . Made up things are even better. The point is to enjoy the pleasure in the world of reasoning. But intellectual prerequisites must be completely met."

— Yukito Ayatsuji. The Decagon House Murders. 1987. pp.1.