Takami completed "Battle Royale" when he stopped working as a journalist in 1996. The story was rejected in the final round of the 1997 , which took place in March 1998, because of its controversial content. Masao Higashi, who took part in the award's preliminary selection committee, later suspected this was due to its backdrop of students killing each other being too reminiscent of the Kobe child murders committed the previous year. "Battle Royale" was first published in April 1999 by Ohta Publishing. In August 2002, it was released in a revised, two-part bunkobon by Gentosha.