"Apocalyptic scenarios occupy a critical place in Japanese science fiction, and since the disasters of 2011, it has become even clearer that such fictions represent an important conceptual tool for trying to think through these unthinkable events. Motoko Tanaka moves us beyond facile generalizations about Japan's preoccupation with disaster, by examining the changing ways that Japanese literature has conceived of the apocalyptic and tracing these ideas through a fascinating array of texts and media." - Christopher Bolton, Associate Professor of Comparative and Japanese Literature, Williams College, USA and co-editor of Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams: Japanese Science Fiction from Origins to Anime