The Mainichi Shimbun reports that the finalists for the Oda Sakunosuke Prize have been announced. They are:

• Aoyama Nanae, すみれ (“Violet”)
• Ishii Shinji, ある一日 (“One Day”)
• Ekuni Kaori, 犬とハモニカ (“The Dog and the Harmonica”)
• Kubo Misumi, 晴天の迷いクジラ (“Lost Whale on a Fine Day”)
• Tanaka Shin’ya, 夜蜘蛛 (“The Night Spider”)

Organized by the Mainichi Shimbun, the city of Osaka, and the Osaka Literary Promotion Association, the prize, in its current form, honors a publication (fiction or non-fiction) that relates to Kansai culture, in addition to a New Writer’s Prize, which is selected from previously unpublished submissions by authors under the age of 24. The winner of the Main Prize will receive a million yen, and the winner of the New Writer’s Prize will receive 300,00 yen.

The current judges for the Main Prize are authors Inaba Mayumi, Tsujihara Noboru, and Gen Getsu, literary critic Tanaka Kazuo, and Professor at Kansai University Professor Kawata Teiichi.