At that time he was, he says, running away from himself. I was a hermit in a wonderland of jazz. They prefer the formal beauty of Mishima, Tanizaki or Kawabata. By collecting and depicting the beauty of Japanese nature, traditional clothes, or Japanese food, they tried to reassemble that Japanese home. It is this sort of attitude that older Japanese find threatening.
Sex is another issue.
The uncharitable said it sold so well because its characters have so much sex, and talk about it so freeely. It's similar to dreams. Some parts do not belong to yourself. His books tend to fall into two camps. On the one hand there are love stories such as Norwegian Wood and his new novel Sputnik Sweetheart.