Japan’s 1st Mobile Phone Novel Awards

An Osaka woman who wrote of a pure love story between a schoolgirl prostitute and a host club gigolo was Tuesday awarded the grand prize in the first Japan Mobile Phone Novel Awards at a ceremony in the Mainichi’s Tokyo headquarters. Towa, the pen name of the author, received 1 million yen and the right to publish “Kurianesu,” her story about unlikely love.

“I received lots of advice from readers along the way and I’m sure the story would have been different if I had done it alone,” Towa said upon receiving her prize. Mobile phone novels are written to be read over mobile phones. Towa said she writes on a computer if one is around, but will also make additions to her mobile phone novels on her mobile phone itself. “Your thumb ends up hurting, though,” she told reporters a news conference following the awards ceremony.

Outstanding Achievement Awards were presented to Sadatsugu Shu, a 37-year-old Shiga Prefecture company employee, for his novel, “Chikyu no Saigo no 24 Jikan,” the tale of a world with only 24 hours of existence remaining, and Yuki, a 17-year-old Aichi Prefecture schoolgirl whose “Kono Namida ga Kareru Made” is about young love. They were each awarded 300,000 yen cash and publication of their stories. Continue >>