Erroneous report on Nobel Literature Prize winner causes stir in Japan

A stir erupted in Japan on Oct. 10 after a Japanese news outlet erroneously reported that Japanese writer Haruki Murakami was selected as the winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in literature.

The Digital News of the Sankei Shimbun made the report in an extraordinary edition it published shortly before the prize announcement by the Royal Swedish Academy in Stockholm, Sweden, later in the day.

Peter Englund, permanent secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy, announced that Canadian author Alice Munro is the winner of this year's Nobel Literature Prize.

After the announcement, the Digital News hurriedly erased the report and apologized to readers and Murakami for making the error.

Popular author Murakami's latest novel "Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage" was at the top of the best-seller lists at South Korean bookstores for five consecutive weeks in August.

By Kim Jong-chan

AJP