Japan’s #iyashikei (healing type) cultural commodities exist across a variety of media. They typically manifest as anime, manga or other narrative forms that offer a cozy atmosphere and feature mundane dramas unfolding at a leisurely pace.
In recent years, publishers have perked up to the potential of “healing fiction,” driven by a healthy appetite for East Asian literature.
Translated fiction has been gaining more readers due to social media communities like Bookstagram and BookTok.
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Healing fiction is prevalent in the latest wave of Korean literature in translation, with escapist narratives centered on magical bookstores, laundromats and other mundane spaces.
Younger generations of readers have been so voracious that in this calendar year alone, Penguin Random House UK is releasing six English translations of Korean titles: soothing tomes of fiction and nonfiction that tackle social issues and delicate topics including mental health.
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Japan also figures prominently in this literary landscape, and a fondness for #cats in the iyashikei genre has proven commercially viable abroad.
While it’s true feline-centered iyashikei literature may lean toward the frivolous at times, the late poet Mayumi Inaba amply demonstrates its quiet potentiality in her memoir “Mornings With My Cat Mii,” skillfully translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori.