Wakana Abe wins inaugural Yoshimoto Kogyo literary audition

Wakana Abe, a former member of NMB48, has been named the first winner of the ‘Geinin Gensaku Audition Zeroichi’. The competition, organized by Yoshimoto Kogyo in collaboration with the platform note, invited approximately 6,000 talents to submit original stories for potential book and film adaptations.

Abe won the Grand Prize and the note Award for her horror novel, ‘Koko ni Kite Kudasai’. Out of roughly 600 submissions, her work was selected for its vivid concept involving horror elements within everyday mobile applications. As the winner, she received a prize of 500,000 yen.

Other award recipients included Fabian (Award for Book Publication) and Human Nakamura and Tsuji-kun (Awards for Film/Video Adaptation). The audition utilized a reader-participation model where engagement on the note platform influenced the selection process. Naoki Matayoshi, an observer and Akutagawa Prize winner, expressed optimism regarding the potential for entertainers to revitalize the literary world through their creative endeavors.