EXPLORING HEALING FICTION IN CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE LITERATURE THROUGH MAI MOCHIZUKI’S THE FULL MOON COFFEE SHOP

In recent years, a new genre has taken the contemporary literary world by storm, especially in contemporary Japanese fiction. These stories prioritise emotional recuperation, gentleness, and human connection, with a touch of magic, over plot-driven narratives. This emerging body of work has travelled internationally through translated works under the term “Healing Fiction.” The genre offers readers a refuge from modern-day problems and anxieties through soothing narratives, creating an emotional safe space. The distress, trauma, and hardships faced by the characters are not dramatised overwhelmingly; instead, they are presented through cosy settings, kind-hearted strangers, and elements of magical realism that gradually help resolve the characters’ struggles, allowing them to heal wholeheartedly. This genre also enriches the slice-of-life tradition, inviting readers to pause, reflect, and heal through relatable problems and gentle solutions.

This paper positions Healing Fiction as a new genre making its mark in contemporary Japanese literature, while remaining deeply connected to the country’s cultural aesthetics, such as iyashi — meaning healing or soothing — and communal empathy. With Mai Mochizuki’s The Full Moon Coffee Shop as the primary text, this paper explores the defining characteristics of Healing Fiction and suggests that it functions as a literary response to some of the most common issues faced by modern-day people, including exhaustion, isolation, burnout, guilt, and regret. The paper further asserts that Healing Fiction deserves recognition not merely as a BookTok trend or a marketing idea, but as a meaningful genre in its own right, one that pulses through the emotional realities of contemporary life and offers new possibilities of compassion, comfort, and gentle transformation.