# Is "No Longer Human" by Osamu Dazai a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai (Chikuma Shobō, Tokyo, 1948) is identified by: Japanese true first: Ningen Shikkaku (人間失格), Chikuma Shobō, Tokyo, July 1948 (serialized in Tenbō; published about a month after Dazai's death). Original-language true first is Chikuma Shobō (Tokyo, 1948).

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Japanese true first: Ningen Shikkaku (人間失格), Chikuma Shobō, Tokyo, July 1948 (serialized in Tenbō; published about a month after Dazai's death)
- First English edition: New Directions, Norfolk, Connecticut, 1958, translated by Donald Keene; bound in orange cloth (some copies described as quarter/half cloth) with brown and gilt spine lettering; dust jacket designed by Owen Scott after a color woodblock print by Kiyoshi Saitō. New Directions first printings of this period carry no number line — identify the first printing by the absence of any later-printing statement on the copyright page, with the priced jacket present at the flap
- Publisher imprint reads Chikuma Shobō, Tokyo
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Osamu Dazai |
| Publisher | Chikuma Shobō, Tokyo |
| Year | 1948 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Japanese true first: Ningen Shikkaku (人間失格), Chikuma Shobō, Tokyo, July 1948 (serialized in Tenbō; published about a month after Dazai's… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Japanese true first: Ningen Shikkaku (人間失格), Chikuma Shobō, Tokyo, July 1948 (serialized in Tenbō; published about a month after Dazai's death). First English edition: New Directions, Norfolk, Connecticut, 1958, translated by Donald Keene; bound in orange cloth (some copies described as quarter/half cloth) with brown and gilt spine lettering; dust jacket designed by Owen Scott after a color woodblock print by Kiyoshi Saitō. New Directions first printings of this period carry no number line — identify the first printing by the absence of any later-printing statement on the copyright page, with the priced jacket present at the flap.

## Is this the true first?
Original-language true first is Chikuma Shobō (Tokyo, 1948). The first English edition is New Directions (US, 1958), which precedes the first UK edition (Peter Owen, London, 1959) — US precedes UK.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition documented. Later New Directions paperbounds (NDP series) and the 1973 reissue carrying Keene's introduction are reprints.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *No Longer Human* by Osamu Dazai a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/no-longer-human
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.