Nobel Laureate Kenzaburō Ōe once described the fiction of Haruki Murakami as “not really Japanese”. If not Japan, where can Haruki Murakami’s fiction be located? This project assumes the answer is Murakami-land. Murakami-land is a holophrase adopted to best map and politically contextualise the fiction of Murakami as it appears in English language translation. The thesis runs with Ōe’s assertion, querying what it means to be a Japanese writer (appearing in English). The Murakami-land holophrase allows discussion of the tropes, cultural references, postmodern playfulness, and oddly insistent idiosyncrasies that define Murakami’s fiction. Engagement with Murakami-land is limited to English translations as Murakami’s second language is English; his first novel was originally written (but not published) in English. This constraint allows for engagement with English-language Murakami criticism to its fullest potential, while also narrowing the scope and refining overall arguments of this project. Murakami’s early work is compared to other Japanese artists broadly analogous to Murakami, such as Yukio Mishima and Akira Kurosawa, augmented by writers on anglophone versions of Japan, such as Ian Buruma and Roland Kelts. The thesis further considers myth and Murakami, studying how he uses and problematises existing myths, while forging his own. This world-building exercise is examined as a portal through which Murakami-land is transformed from literary fiction to a space accommodating modern fandom. This forms the second half of the thesis, which engages with online Murakami fans across different social networks. The study finally attempts to map the unmappable and to define the borders of a non-physical country. Murakami-land both is and is not Japan: in this contradiction, the true appeal and cultural capital of Haruki Murakami may best be felt.