This article examines the uneasy relationship between globally celebrated literature and international propaganda.
By tracing how narratives surrounding the “Nanjing Incident” are amplified through bestselling fiction and praised by state-linked media in China, the essay questions how cultural authority, historical distortion, and geopolitical strategy intersect.
It raises a critical alarm about how literary prestige can be leveraged to legitimize politically motivated falsehoods on the global stage.

March 8, 2017
My close friend, three years ago in August, learned the true nature of the Asahi Shimbun when the newspaper held a press conference to formally apologize for two major fabrications: its false reporting on the so-called “comfort women” issue and its distortion of statements made by the director of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
Angered by this revelation, he ended his long-standing subscription and switched to the Sankei Shimbun.
Today, that same friend pointed out the following article to me.
In striking contrast to it, the Asahi Shimbun devoted large space to praising Haruki Murakami’s latest novel.
After reading the Sankei article, I became convinced that everything I had previously written about this author was correct.
At the same time, a long-held suspicion finally dissolved.
I had always found it deeply strange that Murakami was writing novels while staying at the world’s most luxurious resorts and hotels.
At last, I understood why.
Tetsuhide Yamaoka has, through one of the most serious and authentic studies in recent years, taught us the reality of China’s intelligence apparatus.
For China and South Korea, which rely on anti-Japan propaganda as a lifeline for regime legitimacy, focusing their attention on Haruki Murakami would be Intelligence Work 101.
After all, the Japanese public had long been completely unaware of where Murakami was or what he was doing.
Murakami’s new novel, Killing Commendatore, released last month, has stirred controversy due to its references to the so-called “Nanjing Incident.”
In the novel, a character claims that Japanese forces killed surrendered soldiers and civilians, suggesting death tolls ranging from one hundred thousand to four hundred thousand.
China asserts a figure of three hundred thousand victims, while recent historical research in Japan widely considers this number to be grossly exaggerated, with some scholars arguing that the event itself has been fundamentally misrepresented.
On the day of release, novelist Naoki Hyakuta remarked sarcastically on Twitter that Murakami’s work would likely become a bestseller in China, as it could be used to claim that even Japan’s most celebrated author acknowledges the “Nanjing Massacre.”
The controversy quickly spread to China, where the People’s Daily’s Japanese-language site praised Murakami’s “honest confrontation with history.”
Professor Minoru Kitamura of Ritsumeikan University warned that, given Murakami’s global stature, such fictional statements could easily be exaggerated and politically exploited by the Chinese side.