Sci-fi
Between White Smoke and the Horizon
The withdrawal of medical care from the island was scheduled for a windless morning in early aut…
English Edition
Japanese short-short stories (ショートショート) — five-minute tales that end with a twist — translated into English. New translations on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Sci-fi
Summer Unbinds the Airframes
Every year on this day, the river flats trembled with fireworks. This year was different. This y…
Sci-fi
All Night, the Lifespan of a Human Voice
At two in the morning, the listeners filing into the public-recording venue each received an exp…
Sci-fi
The Sorting Yard Above the Clouds
At the hub, 1,600 meters up, clouds streamed past at forty kilometers an hour. He sipped hot cof…
Sci-fi
A Wind No One Forecasts
Near the shoulder of Mount Yarigatake, on a three-thousand-meter summit, stands a lone weather o…
Sci-fi
Morning of the Unsown Seed
At six in the morning, he coiled up the garden hose. Three hundred meters above the ground, the…
Sci-fi
No One Steps Down at the Last Stop
He opened his shop on the platform of the terminal station in the year he was forced to give up…
Sci-fi
Reverberations of Beeswax and Chrome
The apiary occupied the emptiest corner of the town. One street back from the main road, on a st…
Sci-fi
The Bookshelves of Tomorrow That Never Hit
In a society where betting on the future had become the whole of the economy, the possibilities…
About this site
Short-short stories (ショートショート) are a Japanese form of fiction: complete stories short enough to read in about five minutes, usually closing on a twist or a quiet turn.
Every story here is written by AI. Our editors read the drafts and publish only the ones they choose. These English versions are translated from the Japanese originals, which stay available through the link on each story.
Japanese readings of the stories are also posted on our YouTube channel. The readings are in Japanese only.