cell phone novel

I have read about the popularity of the "cell phone novel" in Japan. As far as I know we do not have anything like that in the US and I am curious about it. I was wondering if there are any English transaltions of these types of stories. I have read about Mieko Kawakami. Does the fact that Mieko received the Akutagawa Award mean that this type of writing is well respected by the literary community in general or is it more of a pop culture thing? Are most of these stories like our soap operas or do they have social/political relevance? Thank you in advance for any help you can give me.

yeah im quite interested in what these stories are like also how readable are they on a regular mobile phone? and how long too? surely constantly tapping down every 10 seconds would get annoyin or are they more suited to pda style phones??

You guys might find this ABC News article interesting read...

abcnews.go.com/Technology/GadgetGuide/Story?id=4171826&page=1

Right now there are more technical limitations in implementing cell novels than not outside of Japan but that may change in the near future as American cell phone technology adapts further to address newer needs and features.