• The story must be original, fictional, written in either Japanese or English by the submitting author and never been published (even online).
  • The same story submitted in a previous year cannot be resubmitted.
  • The setting of the story should be in Little Tokyo – either past, present or future.
  • Submitted manuscript should be 2,500 words or less for English or 5,000 ji or less for Japanese and have a title.
  • File should be a Microsoft Word doc, docx or rtf.
  • For English-language entries, please use 12 point font, preferably Times Roman or Courier type and double space.
  • Please remove any mention of your name from your short story, including headers.
  • The short story manuscript must be submitted digitally as an e-mail attachment to Imaginelittletokyo@gmail.com (include SHORT STORY in the subject line). In the e-mail message, please include your name, phone number and age if 18 or under.
  • The submissions should include a signed agreement, which can be found on this page. The agreement can be either e-mailed or sent via post.
  • Submissions need to be e-mailed by February 15, 2020, 12 midnight PST. The deadline of January 31, 2020 was extended.
  • Immediate family members of judges (first-round or final) are ineligible.

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