Hikari said she spends on average three hours a day reading cell phone novels, giving her parents a monthly bill of 40,000 yen (350 dollars). Kanno is one of the majority of Japanese secondary school students who own cell phones and spend an average of two hours a day on their phones, as opposed to just 26 minutes reading books, according to a recent government report.

Publishing companies have pounced on the craze, printing some of the most widely read cell phone novels into books. Three novels that originally targeted cell phones topped the bestseller lists in 2007, according to leading book distributor Tohan Co. Among the top 10 novels, half were written for cell phones. Authors have inevitably had to adapt to the cell phone novel, which appears on the small handset screens in short, downloadable installments.

The text is written horizontally with wide spaces separating each line, unlike most Japanese novels that are written vertically and in small font. Writers generally use simple language, short phrases, "emoticon" icons and jargon popular among youngsters.

"Although cell phone novels were initially snubbed by traditional writers, they reflect our time. They could develop into a new literary genre so we must keep our minds open," said Mikio Funayama, the spokesman of Japan's most prestigious literary journal "Bungeikai". "I think cell phone novels appeal to many people because they are easy to read and understand. Readers are able to share with the author the feelings written in them. And there's an element of pop culture too," he told AFP.