Half a Century of Japanese Theater is a series of translated Japanese plays that begins from the contemporary theater scene of the 1990s and moves back through the decades of modern Japanese theater to the mid-twentieth century.

The threefold aim of the Japan Playwrights Association in publishing this series is to offer performable English translations of modern Japanese plays, to encourage the production of such plays by foreign theatrical troupes and to extend possibilities for further international exchange in theater.

This volume treats six plays by major playwrights and a multimedia piece by a performance unit. These works raise the issues of the cost of modernization for Japan and of the value of realistic drama as a theatrical form.

Contents: The Man Next Door (Iwamatsu Ryo); Farewell to Huckleberry (Narui Yutaka); Festival for the Fish (Yu Miri); Hinemi (Miyazawa Akio); S/N (Dumb Type); Rhythm Method (Iijima Sanae and Suzuki Yumi); Cape Moon (Matsuda Masataka).