Dostoevsky in 21st Century Japan

Literary Saloon commented on this earlier, but apparently the new translation of The Brothers Karamazov is a bit hit in Japan.

Why?

At a lecture in Tokyo in August, Kameyama explored possible reasons for the boom, saying that “Karamazov” depicts the “humble existence” of human beings who find themselves at the mercy of a chaotic world. “This bears similarity to the modern world under globalization. We live in an era when we are wedged between huge tragedies such as terrorist attacks and Internet-based information that we read with a guilty conscience,” he said.