Here’s an excerpt from the thesis I had linked several posts above when we were talking about the literary awards. It’s mainly about the Akutagawa selection process, but I assume the Naoki must be similar:
Hidden for size
The process has remained the same since the beginning of the Prize. Usually, around the beginning of March, twenty-four editors, all staff of Bungeishunju Ltd., are chosen to sit on the twelve-member selection committees for the Akutagawa Prize and the Naoki Prize. Twelve editors are chosen from the book publishing division, and twelve from the literary magazine division; they will serve for six months. They receive an official written appointment and a small allowance known as a yomidai or “reading fee.” For the 79th Akutagawa Prize, Okawara acted as head of these committees. First, he collected about 1300 qualified works from sixty general commercial literary magazines and 410 dojin magazines
(non-commercial literary coterie magazines) published during the previous six months.
Meanwhile, the general editorial affairs department of Bungeishunju Ltd., sent out a survey to approximately five hundred literary experts, including the ten judges, asking for recommendations of works written in the previous six months. Thus, each editor was assigned to read about sixty works in addition to their regular duties. However, they were allowed to recommend the works of their own clients as prospective winners. Once a month the members had a meeting in which they eliminated those works that did not fit the criteria.
Then, as now, the final nomination list was determined via discussion, coordination and debate among panel members. The 79th Akutagawa Prize survey had a response rate of sixty percent. If a judge recommended a particular work, it would remain on the final nomination list.
(Hope it’s okay to quote so much. Source: https://open.library.ubc.ca/media/stream/pdf/24/1.0072484/1)
I checked and it’s in third place in his top books of 2022. He actually seems pretty impressed by it in that video. There must be something more to it than meets the eye, but I’ll still avoid it, I think.
Yes, I actually think that they try to have something from several different genres (unlike the Akutagawa which is “pure literature”), that’s why there’s always a mystery nominee for example. I’ll see if I can find a source.