Japan is known for technical innovations and ignited the global discussion about e-literature with its very own “cell phone novels” (kêtai shôsetsu) in 2007. Back then, 5 of the 10 top selling books were examples of these stories that had originally started out as texts to be read on mobile phones and were published as actual books later on. The authors of this new kind of literature were mainly teenage girls. This may well be called a success story, surprising to both publishers and writers as well as to the book industry.

This study approaches cell phone novels as a phenomenon between literature, technology, youth culture and media economics. After an introduction to structures of mobile internet and the book market in Japan, it presents the best known authors and analyses their texts. Furthermore, it discusses the controversial opinions on that topic in Japan. “Handyromane: Ein Lesephänomen aus Japan” (Cellphone novels: A Japanese reading phenomenon) explores whether cell phone novels can be seen as a culture of communication among the young generation or rather as a contemporary form of youth literature which attracts a big readership and thus promotes reading.