Haruki Murakami is a contemporary Japanese novelist. In 1973, he graduated from the Department of Literature, Waseda University, majoring in Drama. After graduation, he devoted himself to literature, and his major works include “Norwegian Wood”, “Hearing the Wind Song“， ”The Ghost of Lexington“, ”One Hundred Percent Girl“, and “Music in Haruki Murakami's Literature”.

NFT (Non-Fungible Tokens), which is closely integrated with art and collectibles, has come to the public's attention in recent years. Haruki Murakami is also interested in this market and plans to publish his works on the NFT platforms of BOBO. He says he had been interested in NFT for a long time and was looking forward to its future development. In response, NHK reporter Sato visited Haruki Murakami's home at 13:00 Tokyo time (UTC/GMT +9) on June 30 and conducted an exclusive interview on this issue.

Reporter Sato: You are such a celebrity in the literary circle. How did NFT come to your attention?

Haruki Murakami: I think because of my works, the public has some knowledge of me. As a professional novelist, I have been writing for thirty-five years. This fact astounds me even to this day.

The first time I came into contact with NFT was through chatting with friends. One day, I visited an artist friend's home, and there happened to be other friends present. They were discussing NFT about works of art.

Reporter Sato: When you first heard about NFT, were you shocked?

Haruki Murakami: Actually, my friend was introduced to NFT as early as 2017, and he started his collection journey. To this day, he still collects all kinds of NFT works.

I probably heard about it a long time ago, so I didn't feel shocked initially but felt interested and curious. After learning more about it with my friends, I also became interested in NFT. NTF has indeed solved the way for the public to know literature and works of art to a certain extent.

Reporter Sato: Can you talk about your views on NFT?

Haruki Murakami: After the initial contact with NFT, I was also thinking about combining NFT with literary works and promoting the progress of literary career through NFT. This was my first idea because as far as I know, most literary creators still traditionally express themselves.

In fact, NFT platforms such as BOBO and OpenSea have been exploring this field for a long time. As long as digital artists and enthusiasts are interested in NFT, they can publish their NFT on the platforms and digitally display their works, providing more ways for enthusiasts to keep in touch with NFT. I think this applies to literature as well. The writer uses his own emotion, resonance, and experience to complete his works in a certain period time. These works are also the precious crystallization of this writer's time. This is the same with the essence of NFT.

Reporter Sato: You just mentioned that you want to introduce NFT to the literary circle. Do you have any specific plans in this regard?

Haruki Murakami: I would like to make an attempt in this field myself and make my voice heard on behalf of the literary circle. We can contact readers in a more flexible, interesting, and artistic way. Shortly, I will also consider publishing my own NFT to contribute to this field.

Reporter Sato: Have you considered which platform to publish NFT on?

Haruki Murakami: As far as I know, NFT platforms such as BOBO and OpenSea provide rather good space and development prospect. OpenSea, as a full-category NFT platform, covers a wide range, while BOBO, which was born in recent years, pays more attention to the combination of art, collection, and literature, providing a better and open environment for works. Maybe it's more suitable for people like us. Although NFT has only been around for a few years, I believe more and more people will participate in the future.

Reporter Sato: How do you think of the future of NFT?

Haruki Murakami: In fact, not only in the literary circle, high-quality digital collections and other assets can penetrate into our life through NFT. The existence of NFT, in return, significantly enhances the mobility of art and literature works. This is one of the reasons why I am very optimistic about vertical field platforms like BOBO.

Physical commodities are indeed subject to logistics and transaction bottlenecks; however, NFT solves such problems. Now it seems that the application potential of NFT is still relatively broad. In addition to the current fields, it is very likely to excel in the fields like insurance, bonds, options, and so on.

I think at some point in the future, you'll be able to own a portion of NFT, and that seems like a piece of cake.