Wonder
Counting the Last Flashes
On the last night of his duty at the lighthouse, Morito kept counting the flashes. He had been h…
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.
Wonder
The Rain Knows Inequality
At the mountaintop weather observatory, I was gazing at rainfall data from across the country. T…
Wonder
The Iron Constellation Cracked in Silence
He never opened the window of the finishing shop until the morning pouring was done. The ceiling…
Wonder
In the Stacks, the Rain Ripens
While Niigata and Tokushima, Hiroshima and Hanshin took turns battling on the screen, I was down…
Wonder
Dawn Breaks, Still Unlit
The tag on the launch rack read 214. But 215 shells lay neatly in place. Only the extra one had…
Wonder
The White Ship Carried Wool
The night the settlement's lights dwindled to seven, only the clock at the island clinic ran thi…
Wonder
The Winter Sea’s Castoff
His job was to keep the beach houses from noticing it was winter. He pulled down the shutters, p…
Wonder
The Earth Wakes Beneath the Bath
In the ryokan kitchen, when two in the morning came, the white steam and the master's sighs sett…
Wonder
What Carries the Light Below
At midnight, when the last inspection was done, he killed the lights inside the aquarium. The wo…
Wonder
On Shelves Never Lent, Words Sprout
In the stacks three floors underground, four hundred thousand books sleep, never once passed thr…
Wonder
The Typhoon Brings Lies
Four years now since I took up my post at the mountaintop weather station. My work is this: twic…
Wonder
The Winter the Horizon Split in Two
The beach-house shutters were lowered only once, at the end of November. Every year, on that day…
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.