Discovering the Joy of Literature at Keio Shiki Senior High School, He Made His Debut as a Writer with a Novel Modeled on His Alma Mater

Alumnus Reisuke Kaneko (Graduate of the Faculty of Business and Commerce)

2025/07/10

In a classroom at Keio Shiki Senior High School, the setting for the novel "Shinda Yamada to Kyoshitsu" (Yamada is Dead in the Classroom).

Reisuke Kaneko / Writer
Graduated from the Faculty of Business and Commerce in 2016. He passed the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) examination while still a student and worked for an auditing firm after graduation. He began writing novels while attending Keio Shiki Senior High School and continued to submit his works to numerous literary awards after starting his career. In 2023, he won the 65th Mephisto Prize for "Shinda Yamada to Kyoshitsu," a novel set at "Keiei University Fuzoku Hogi High School," a fictional school modeled on his alma mater, and debuted as a professional writer. After revisions, the work was published as a hardcover by Kodansha the following year. In the same year, he successively published "Shinda Ishii no Taigun" (The Horde of Dead Ishii), which incorporates a "death game" theme, and "Shinda Kimura o Joen" (Staging the Dead Kimura), modeled on the Keio University Theater Study Group, garnering attention as a promising new writer.

-Were you an avid reader as a child, Mr. Kaneko?

Kaneko: Not at all. In elementary school, I only read manga like "Weekly Shonen Sunday" and "Weekly Shonen Jump." I don't recall reading many novels written with just text. The only ones I remember are perhaps the works of Kaoru Hayamine, which were part of Kodansha's "Aoi Tori Bunko" children's novel series—the publisher of my current book—and were popular with my friends at school. Also, since I liked insects, I read things like "Fabre's Book of Insects." I loved video games, and I think my conversations with friends were always about manga and games. In junior high, I started enjoying mystery novels by authors like Keigo Higashino and Kotaro Isaka on a friend's recommendation, but I actually felt I was poor at Japanese language class. I was always convinced I was bad at writing essays and compositions, so I never imagined I would end up writing novels.

-I understand you attended affiliated schools from elementary through high school. Why did you change paths and decide to go to Keio Shiki Senior High School?

Kaneko: To put it simply, it was because I didn't want to take university entrance exams. When I entered junior high, the school curriculum became focused on university entrance exams. I didn't dislike studying itself, but schoolwork was no longer fun. I didn't want to continue with exam-oriented studies in high school, so I decided to aim for a high school that would allow me to proceed directly to university. I thought that way I could enjoy my high school life. So, I started attending a cram school for high school entrance exams in my second year of junior high. While attending information sessions for various high schools, mainly those affiliated with Waseda and Keio, I was drawn to Keio Shiki Senior High School. Having originally been an agricultural high school, its spacious environment, rich in nature, gave me the intuition that "I could spend three years here freely and comfortably." At the autumn information session, the persimmon trees on the school grounds were full of fruit, and the principal at the time told us, "Please feel free to take home any persimmons that have fallen." This left a strong impression on me, and I decided, "I'll make Keio Shiki Senior High School my first choice!" After enrolling, I found that many students, like me, had come from other junior high schools. The environment was lush with greenery, and my image of Keio as being very urban changed considerably (laughs).

-And it was in a Japanese class at Keio Shiki Senior High School that you encountered "literature," wasn't it?

Kaneko: Yes, I became fascinated with Osamu Dazai in my second-year Japanese class. Perhaps because the previous year was the 100th anniversary of Dazai's birth, our Japanese teacher, Jun Ozawa, who had a deep knowledge of modern literature, spent the entire year conducting classes where we analyzed each story in "Bannen" (The Final Years), Dazai's first collection of short stories. In parallel, he also covered Fujiko F. Fujio's "Doraemon," which made for a very strange and groundbreaking class. It was truly enjoyable. The teachers at Keio Shiki Senior High School gave unique lessons that drew on their respective areas of expertise, and after enrolling, I deeply felt, "I'm so glad I came to this school."

Kaneko: Until I took Mr. Ozawa's class, my only image of Dazai was from works like "Run, Melos!" that appeared in textbooks. However, through his class, I came to understand how experimental and avant-garde Dazai's approach to writing was, and it was a series of surprises. The short story "Ha" (Leaves) at the beginning of "Bannen" is a work composed of 36 fragments, which I felt was, in a way, comparable to modern social media. His other works were also full of techniques that feel innovative even by today's standards, such as creative narration, use of perspective, and meta-structures within the works. I was deeply struck every time I read one. The value of novels grew immensely within me, and before I knew it, I started to think, "I want to try writing a novel myself."

-Did you just suddenly start writing novels, having never written one before?

Kaneko: I started writing before I even realized it. I admired experimental and avant-garde works, but I decided to first master the basic "form" of a novel by incorporating the styles of my favorite writers and manga artists to create stories. I also love music, and at Keio Shiki Senior High School, I sang in the Wagner Society Male Choir. I'm a little proud that during my time there, we were the only group in the history of Keio Shiki Senior High School to make it to the national competition (laughs). I was also dedicated to my activities with the Wagner Society, but writing novels gradually took up more of my time, and I was writing one piece of about 10 to 50 manuscript pages every two or three months. By the time I graduated high school, I had written seven or eight very short and short stories, and three longer novels of 100 to 250 pages. I submitted these works to various literary awards, but not a single one passed the preliminary screening. Upon entering university, I thought it would be impossible to make a living as a novelist, so I decided to aim for certification as a Certified Public Accountant.

-Why a Certified Public Accountant?

Kaneko: My father was a CPA working at a tax accounting firm, so I figured that if I had the certification, I wouldn't have to go through the job-hunting process. Our generation had witnessed the "employment ice age," so I didn't think someone like me, who is not good at self-promotion in interviews, could survive the job-hunting competition. But I knew I could earn a certification if I studied hard. I envisioned a future where I would lead a stable life as a CPA while writing novels.

-So after entering university, you continued to write novels while taking classes at the Faculty of Business and Commerce and studying for the CPA exam?

Kaneko: Yes. I would sneak into classes in the Faculty of Letters, continued my creative activities based at the "Mita Bungaku Jukuseikai," an official circle belonging to the Federation of Cultural Organizations, and also worked on my CPA studies. Students like me who came from affiliated schools didn't have to take university entrance exams, so we had some extra capacity. I managed to pass the CPA exam in my third year of university, which was a great relief.

-Did you continue submitting your work to literary awards?

Kaneko: Of course. But I kept failing to pass the preliminary screenings for regional literary awards and newcomer awards from literary magazines, and I started to feel a sense of resignation, thinking, "Maybe literature will just have to be a hobby for me from now on." But determined not to have any regrets, I worked hard to create a piece that represented my best effort. When I submitted it to the "Gunzo Prize for New Writers," a pure literature award, in my first year of university, I passed the first and second preliminary rounds for the first time and made it to the stage just before the final selection. In the end, I wasn't chosen for the prize, but around that time, I made more literary friends through social media. They would praise my work, saying it was "interesting," and when I was about to give up on becoming a writer, some told me, "We want you to keep writing." Come to think of it, a friend I met in a Faculty of Letters class once told me, "I think you'll become a writer someday, Kaneko." In reality, however, I continued to pass the preliminary rounds for literary magazine awards but never won.

-So after graduating from university, you continued to write while working at an auditing firm?

Kaneko: Yes. I continued to submit to literary magazines like "Bungei," "Shincho," and "Subaru," but I never won, and I felt completely broken-hearted. Some of my literary friends from social media had already debuted as writers, and they would tell me, "We're waiting for you, Kaneko." But in my despair, I messaged them back, saying, "I'm quitting writing novels." Then, one of my friends advised me, "Why not switch from pure literature to entertainment?" Since the first time I passed a preliminary screening was for a pure literature magazine's newcomer award, I had convinced myself that I was suited for pure literature, but apparently, my friends didn't necessarily see it that way. So I reconsidered, thinking I should take the plunge and switch to entertainment, and if that didn't work out, then I could give up. And so, I restudied the techniques of mystery writing and wrote "Shinda Yamada to Kyoshitsu" while reminiscing about my days at Keio Shiki Senior High School, which went on to win the Mephisto Prize in 2023.

-The setting, classroom 2-E, is where you studied during your time at Keio Shiki Senior High School, isn't it?

Kaneko: Yes, the protagonist "Yamada" is a character into whom I projected myself, and the other characters also reflect elements of myself and my classmates from that time. The act of writing itself can be a struggle and cause distress, but I've been able to continue because there is an "absolute joy" in it. This was the first work where that effort paid off. I believe I was able to write it precisely because I spent three years at Keio Shiki Senior High School, met many friends, and encountered literature.

-I hear you're already preparing your next book for publication.

Kaneko: In the first half of 2025, I plan to release a collection of linked short stories with a romance theme, which will be different in style from the "Shinda" (Dead) trilogy. After that, although it's still in the planning stages, I want to write an "isolated island mystery" like Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None." I'm also already thinking about the work after that, and I have a mountain of subjects I want to write about. I hope to continue writing various types of novels in the future, without being confined to a single genre.

-What kind of writer do you aspire to be?

Kaneko: I have left the auditing firm and am now a professional writer, but I still feel the same joy in writing. Therefore, I want to insist on writing freely and joyfully about what I want to write, rather than seeing it as a means to "make a living." If I can no longer make a living as a writer, I can just go back to working as a CPA on the side. Speaking of writer role models, Osamu Dazai, whom I encountered at Keio Shiki Senior High School, remains a huge presence for me. I've read many contemporary authors and been influenced by them, but when I occasionally reread Dazai's works, I still find a freshness in his narration and novelistic structure. Dazai will likely remain my eternal inspiration.

-Finally, do you have a message for current Keio students?

Kaneko: In a word, I want you to enjoy "learning." My university years were a difficult time for me, as I kept getting rejected for literary awards, but "learning" was always enjoyable. It was Keio Shiki Senior High School and the environment at Keio University that taught me the joy of "learning." Your passions may vary—not just academics, but also arts, sports, and so on—but whatever path you choose, I hope you will think about what you can do to "keep loving what you love," separate from others' evaluations or results, and tackle it with all your heart. I hope that all of you who come after me will enjoy learning and pursue your respective dreams.

-Thank you for your time today.

This article was originally published in the "Jukuin Sanmyaku" (Keio University alumni Profiles) section of "Juku" SPRING 2025 (No. 326).