Haruki Murakami Goes to Meet Hayao Kawai (Hayao Kawai, Haruki Murakami, Daimon Verlag, 2016)

Two of Japan's foremost contemporary cultural spokespersons met for an informal conversation with remarkable results. While their extended talk took place at a particular location at a particular moment in history, much of the content is timeless and universal. After popular acclaim in Japan, the transcript now makes its first appearance in English. 

Topics from the Contents:

• The Meaning of Commitment
• Words or Images?
• Making Stories
• Answering Logically versus Answering Compassionately
• Self-Healing and Novels
• Marriage and 'Well-digging'
• Curing and Living
• Stories and the Body
• The Relationship between a Work and its Author
• Individuality and Universality
• Violence and Expression
• Where are We Headed?  

Hayao Kawai was Minister of Culture for ­Japan and decorated as a 'Person of Cultural ­Merit'. He originally studied mathematics, then trained to become a Jungian psychoanalyst and sandplay therapist in Zürich. Back in his native country, he went on to introduce Jung's psychology and sandplay therapy. Kawai became a well-known writer and television personality in Japan and also abroad; many of his works have been translated into other languages. Haruki Murakami began to write at the age of 30 and blossomed into one of the premier writers of his generation. (amazon)