[Shinchosha Publishing Co., Ltd.] The winners of the 57th Shincho Newcomer Award have been announced! The winners are Michiru Uchida, from Hiroshima Prefecture, and Miku Ariga, a third-year high school student. For details, see the November issue of Shincho (on sale October 7th).
Shinchosha Co., Ltd. Press release: October 3, 2025 To Members of the Press The winners of the 57th Shincho Newcomer Award have been announced! The winners are Michiru Uchida, from Hiroshima Prefecture, and Miku Ariga, a third-year high school student. For details, see the November issue of Shincho (on sale October 7th). The Shincho Newcomer Prize has produced many famous authors, including Fumino Nakamura and Shinya Tanaka. This year’s winning works are “The Red Vest” by Michiru Uchida (38 years old) and “A Hill You Have Never Run On” by Miku Ariga (18 years old). The November issue of “Shincho,” which will announce the winners, will also feature Haruki Murakami’s latest work, “Kaho and the Termite Queen” (150 pages), as well as the first interview between Mitsuyo Kakuta and Yoko Ogawa. Please look forward to this packed issue!
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https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/47877/2395/47877-2395-67452f102b99436c2fde0213dac04403-1801×2700.jpg Michiru Uchida (C) Shinchosha Miku Ariga’s “Slopes You’ve Never Run On” (90 pages) depicts the life of Xing Yao, a Hong Kong-born woman who speaks only Japanese, as she navigates a variety of uncertainties, including her identity, including her nationality and language, her mother, whom she has never met, and her feelings for her best friend, Nao. The novel has garnered praise for its unique writing style, in which punctuation marks express the narrator’s growing awareness of reality as confusion and pain accumulate, its focus on Hong Kong, and its sense of humor.
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/47877/2395/47877-2395-f123684fb0a1bec615f664aed4b12245-1801×2700.jpg Mirai Ariga (C) Shinchosha ■From the selection review (partial excerpt) ▶Nobuaki Osawa (About “The Red Vest”) The writing is simply excellent. Perhaps it’s partly due to the author’s personality, but I felt awe at the raw presence of a man whose ordinary emotions have been worn away. His extremely keen mind permeates all five senses. (Omitted) It also read like a kind of horror novel. It’s the horror of even thinking about it, and ultimately the horror of living. ▶Kanehara Hitomi (About “Slopes You’ve Never Run On”) Although the sentences appear to be disjointed and unpunctuated, this style of writing fully conveys the protagonist’s confusion and the accumulating feelings he cannot resolve. The confusion between him and his best friend, his listlessness, his pre-dawn wanderings, and the hesitation and sentimentality of youth are depicted with such dynamism that it’s a perfect score for a high school story. (Omitted) I also felt a natural talent for the way he knows how to control things.
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/47877/2395/47877-2395-b723d2c408b5d8ea026fc4f8cc1fef5d-3445×2298.jpg Judges (from left: Naoki Matayoshi, Hitomi Kanehara, Takehiro Ueda, Hiroko Oyamada, and Nobuaki Osawa) (C) Shinchosha ■Recipient Profile ▶Michiru Uchida Born in Hiroshima Prefecture in April 1987. Graduated from Tokyo Gakugei University. Works in the counseling and support field. ▶Mr. Mirai Ariga Born in July 2007 in Tokyo. Third year high school student. ■Book data “Shincho” November 2025 Issue [Release Date] Tuesday, October 7th [Price] 1,200 yen (tax included) [JAN code] 4910049011157 [URL] https://www.shinchosha.co.jp/shincho/
