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context: literature > modern
Modern Literature: General Points
Modern Japanese literature is much less distinctively Japanese - there is inevitably much more of an international feel, with loads of Western influence since the first translations in the late 19th Century. With that new world opening up, and loads of social changes after centuries of feudalism, there was a new search for meaning: i.e., something more or less like Modernism. Naturalism (Zola was a big favourite) was the biggest early winner, plus proletarian and social literature, and some modernist experimentation. Realism, rare in the history of Japanese arts, is mainly seen in the "I-novel", the subjective and often autobiographical novel. There was no great interest in social examination, for most.
Note that there was fascist suppression of many aspects of writing through the thirties until the end of the war; then US occupation until 1952, which gave more freedom in most literary ways, but some different restrictions existed.