Japan: Marxist Book Turns Bestseller 79 Years on

A 79-year-old tale of rebellion among a fishing boat crew has become an unlikely summer hit among young Japanese people facing economic decline and rising poverty. Sales of Kani Kosen (The Crab Ship) have soared, keeping it at or near the top of bestseller lists since May, an unheard of achievement for such an earnest work.

Written by Takiji Kobayashi in 1929, the novel quickly became Japan's answer to The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell's critique of capitalism. But Kobayashi paid for his radicalism in 1933 when he was tortured to death by the secret police at the age of 29.

Since its release as a paperback in 1953 the novel, which charts the crew's attempts to form a union and stage a strike in protest at their appalling working conditions, sold 5,000 copies a year.

Sales rocketed in 2008 after it was praised by Karin Amamiya, a rightwing punk singer-turned-writer, in a newspaper interview in January. Half a million copies have been sold so far this year, according to Kani Kosen's publisher, Shinchosha.

An advertising campaign - linking the plight of the crabbing crew to that of Japan's modern-day working poor - generated huge sales among people in their 20s and 30s, many of whom work in low-paid jobs with no security or benefits.

"Young people are sympathizing, as they see themselves and today's situation in the novel," said Hirokazu Toeda, a professor at Waseda University in Tokyo.

Around 10 million Japanese people now earn less than 2m yen (£9,790) a year.