The mobile phone novel takes off in Tokyo

Every night after work, Ryu, a Japanese former barman, would get out his mobile and write about his day. His worries about his close friend’s drug addiction dominated his writing.

As he wrote,  he sent the bar-room blogs to his friends’ mobiles. Their reaction to the story, which Ryu called Tokyo Real, convinced Ryu to publish it online.

His mobile phone novel – or keitai shousetsu - was an overnight success, and has now been downloaded by more than three million people in Japan.

It's also been published in more conventional paper format by a mainstream Japanese publisher, and also been transformed into a film. Last year, Real readers organised a march through the Tokyo streets to raise awareness of the dangers of drugs.

(more after the video)

Ryu’s keitai novel is part of a mobile publishing boom in Japan – of last year’s 10 best-selling novels in country, five were originally mobile phone novels. While Tokyo Real examines addiction, most keitai novels are love stories, with sentences more characteristic of text messages than highbrow literature.

Whether the UK will produce bestselling novelists writing specifically for mobile phones remains to be seen. But where Japan leads, the UK follows. And the most popular place to read a keitai novel in Japan is on the subway. Judging by the commute of the average Londoner – even when the Tube offers a ‘good service’ – expect to see the mobile phone novel move west.

Jeremy Hart reports on Japaneses mobile innovation stories, using 3's INQ1 internet phone. For more info see www.3Snapshot.com/tokyo