Destination Japan

Salon has started a feature called the Salon Literary guide to the World, which has been pretty interesting.  But I have to say that I am disappointed with the entry on Japan.  It omits the big three of Japanese literature (Mishima, Tanizaki, and Kawabata), Nobel Prize recipient, Kenzaburo Oe, and the most popular Japanese writer today, Haruki Murakami.  There's only passing mention of the notorious Osamu Dazai, instead the author, Kyoko Mori, focuses on his daughter, Yuko Tsushima, whom I've never even heard of.  She also includes Japanese-British writer, Kazuo Ishiguro, who despite being a fine writer does not write in Japanese, but in English of his adopted country England..  A missed opportunity for sure.  Other authors who were omitted include Endo, Atagawa, Ryu Murakami, Banana Yoshimoto-just to mention a few.  I would also go so far as to say that more Japanese writers, even writers of popular fiction are having their books translated into English than ever before, and that could have been the angle of the article as well. Another choice could have been a discussion of novels set in Japan: Shogun, Barry Eisler detective novels, Jay McInerney's Ransom, etc...