Publicity-phobic Japanese writer Haruki Murakami told his alma mater on Tuesday that he was far from being a model scholar, as he received an honorary degree in a rare public appearance.
“Considering what a bad student I was, it feels strange to be given an award,” Murakami said amid laughter from the audience at Waseda University.
“I would skip classes and forget about studying. I was doing whatever I wanted and causing a lot of trouble for the university,” the 75-year-old man said.
So the degree “is a very generous gesture on behalf of Waseda,” the novelist wearing academic regalia told an enthusiastic audience of hundreds of adoring fans and Waseda students.
Awarding an honorary doctorate, Tokyo’s prestigious Waseda University lauded the “cosmopolitan atmosphere” of Murakami’s work and his “ability to zigzag freely between the surreal and the surreal.”
The author of “Norwegian Wood” and “Kafka on the Shore” is known for his complex stories of the absurdity and loneliness of modern life, which have been translated into nearly 50 languages.
Murakami, a multiple Nobel Prize winner, is a reclusive man and famously shy of the media.
Readers of his works are attracted to the “Murakami world” where giant frogs challenge office workers to battle and mackerel rain from the sky.
“The City and Its Uncertain Walls”, his first full-length novel in six years, sold out in Japan last year, and copies of its English translation were released in November.
In his brief, self-deprecating speech, Murakami said he had “gained absolutely nothing” from his six previous honorary doctorates – all awarded by universities abroad – calling them “useless”.
“It’s not like they come with pension money… and just because you have an honorary doctorate doesn’t mean your books sell,” he quipped to another round of laughter.
That doesn’t mean he isn’t grateful to his alma mater, he said.
Murakami described the award as a milestone in his “life cycle”, saying, “If I had not enrolled at Waseda, I probably would not have been able to pursue a career as a novelist.”
Typical of his quiet style, Murakami didn’t give any clues about what his next project would be, but he ended his speech on a bright note.
“I want to continue writing good novels,” he said.
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