The Japanese Literature (J-Lit) Publishing and Promotion Center is a non-profit organization dedicated to translating, publishing and promoting contemporary Japanese literature abroad. Their Japanese Fiction Project publishes short stories online "by young writers who are widely recognized as being among the best in Japan today, but whose work has never before been translated into English."

The site currently features three short stories. (There are plans to add more, though they seem to be a bit behind. But who am I to judge? I can't remember the last Matt's Pick that was even close to being on time ...) The stories are available as HTML files if you want to read them online; they're also available as PDF files if you want to print one out and take it with you.

"Chino" by Tomoyuki Hoshino (translated by Lucy Fraser) didn't blow me away the first time I read it, but it's growing on me. It may be my favorite of the three. It's also the shortest of the three.