RETURN OF THE REPRESSED

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Tokyo - A Marxist novel written in 1929 has climbed to the top of Japan's best-seller list, reflecting growing anxiety about job security and widening income gaps in the world's second-biggest economy.

"I think people are feeling keenly that the economy is starting to slow down and things are getting more difficult,'' said 27-year-old Sota Furuya, a marketing consultant who recently read the book.

Furuya is one of the many Japanese readers who have put Kanikosen, or A Crab-Canning Boat, on best-seller lists in recent months. It is near the top of several of Japan's leading best-seller lists, almost unheard of for a book of this genre.

A Crab-Canning Boat tells the tale of a crab boat crew working in harsh conditions under a sadistic captain. It was written by Takiji Kobayashi, a communist who was tortured to death by police at the age of 29 in 1933.

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