“That Day Does Not Belong to Our Generation”: Komatsu Sakyō’s Affective Futurities

Commentary that observes the frequency of appearances images disaster pervades much discourse surrounding postwar Japanese popular culture, and especially science fiction. Against such approaches, I argue it is more productive to read these narratives through critical lens genre’s engagement with problem futurity. My contention then do not merely function as imaginative repetitions or re-enactments past events, but also take on an anticipatory quality, affectively preparing ground for pre-empting responses future events. examine work Komatsu Sakyō (1931–2011) in particular, whose writing makes illustrative test case articulating premediative dimension