This book explores the idea of a new cosmopolitan Japanese identity through a socio-cultural analysis of contemporary Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. It is the first monograph to apply the idea of cosmopolitanism to this writer's global popularity widely known as the "Haruki phenomenon".

By pioneering an enquiry into Murakami's cosmopolitanism, this book aims to overcome the prevailing myth of "Japaneseness"(Nihonjinron) as a form of self-identification for Japanese, and propose an alternative approach for contemplating contemporary Japanese cultural identity. Socio-cultural analysis of this author and his works shall establish Murakami's cosmopolitan qualities and how they contribute to the cultural phenomenon of globalization.

Furthermore, this book will introduce the idea of "everyday cosmopolitanism" as a relevant concept to address an emergent global cultural sphere. Unlike the traditional model of cosmopolitanism, which is sometimes regarded as idealist and elitist, "everyday cosmopolitanism" encompasses the everyday spheres of ordinary people. Tomoki Wakatsuki argues that the Haruki phenomenon, as a global and local event, echoes this important social trend today.

Murakami's departure from conventional notions of Japanese identity offers an alternative perception of identity and belonging that is useful for situating Japanese identity within a global context. This text will be of interest to students and scholars of cultural studies, global literature, contemporary Japanese literature, cultural cosmopolitanism and the global cultural sphere.

1.Introduction  A Cosmopolitan Roadmap to the Haruki Phenomenon

1.1Is Murakami World Literature?

1.2Everyday Cosmopolitanism and the other world

1.3Introducing the Chapters

2.Chapter One  Everyday Cosmopolitanism and Haruki-mania

2.1The Haruki Phenomenon

2.2Identity and Belonging, as a Cosmopolitan

2.3After the Speeches in Jerusalem and Barcelona

2.4Murakami's Cosmopolitan Commitment in Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

2.5Le Mal du Pays - Past Memories and Beyond

2.6In Search of the right place of Belonging

3.Chapter Two  Is Murakami un-Japanese? : the Myth of Japaneseness

3.1The Myth of Japaneseness and the Nihonjinron Discourse

3.2The watakushi shsetu and the Japanese Self

3.4Novel Subjects for a New Nation-State

3.5Lost Identity: Westernization and Japanization 

4.Chapter Three  A Friend of the 'egg': Murakami Speaks in Jerusalem

4.1As a Novelist and an Individual

4.2From Cosmopolitan Exile to Cosmopolitan Commitment

4.3What is the System?

4.4Representations of the System in Murakami's Works

4.5The System is being created by us

4.6Breaking Through the Wall

5.Chapter Four  An (Extra) Ordinary Cosmopolitan

5.1The Haruki Phenomenon and the Question of Japaneseness

5.2A New Cosmopolite Japaneseness?

5.3The Two Currents of the Haruki Wave

5.4An Array of Gatekeepers

5.5To Be Engaged in a Silent Conversation

6.Conclusion  In Search of Belonging

6.1Investigating the everyday and otherness in Murakami and Shaun Tan

6.2The other world or another world In Between?