Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami realizes that all horrible things must come to an end. So he’s helping his fans bid good riddance to 2020 with a New Year’s Eve radio special, the Asahi Shimbun reports.
The author will host the broadcast from a studio in Kyoto, where he was born. “Let’s hear the tolling of the New Year’s Eve bells in the ancient capital and ring in the new year together,” he said on a website for the show.
“There’s no telling what I will say,” he added, intriguingly.
Murakami is a literary superstar not just in Japan but all around the world. He’s known for his novels The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Norwegian Wood, and, most recently, Killing Commendatore. He’s also an avid music fan, with a special love for jazz—he once ran a jazz club called Peter Cat.
Murakami has taken to the airwaves before; in May he hosted a radio special to entertain Japanese citizens staying home due to the country’s coronavirus lockdown. “I’m hoping that the power of music can do a little to blow away some of the corona-related blues that have been piling up,” he said at the time.
This will be Murakami’s first live radio show. He’ll be joined on air by two friends, anthropologist Juichi Yamagiwa and biologist Shinya Yamanaka.
Murakami’s broadcast, titled “Toshikoshi Special,” will air at 11 p.m. Japan Standard Time on the Tokyo FM network.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
