68 Program ( 戦闘実験第六十八番プログラム, Sentō Jikken Dai Rokujū Hachi Ban Puroguramu), wherein fifty randomly selected classes of third-year junior high school students are kidnapped, dropped into a remote location, and forced to kill one another until only one student of each class remains. The government has established a military program, the Battle Experiment No. The government controls everything, and anything 'immoral', such as rock music, is banned, unless it beatifies the government, along with an unnamed dictator with a strong cult of personality able to bend the whims of the populace. The state, known as the Republic of Greater East Asia ( 大東亜共和国, Dai Tōa Kyōwakoku), arose after an alternate World War 2 where Japan emerged victorious and a rebellion was put down by the combined military and police forces.

Map of Okishima Island, seen inside the cover of the 2003 English translationīattle Royale takes place in a fictional fascist Japan in the year 1997. The film spawned a sequel, and two more brief manga adaptations were also created. The film was both controversial and successful, becoming one of the year's highest-grossing films as well as prompting condemnation by Japan's National Diet. In 2000, one year after publication, Battle Royale was adapted into a manga series, written by Takami himself, and a feature film. Upon publication in 1999, the novel became a surprise bestseller. The dystopian novel was previously entered into the 1997 Japan Horror Fiction Awards but was eventually rejected in the final round due to concerns over its depictions of students killing each other. The story tells of junior high school students who are forced to fight each other to the death in a program run by a fictional, fascist, totalitarian Japanese government known as the Republic of Greater East Asia. Originally completed in 1996, it was not published until 1999.

Battle Royale ( Japanese: バトル・ロワイアル, Hepburn: Batoru Rowaiaru) is the first novel by the Japanese author Koushun Takami.

Takami koushun