Novelist and well-known music enthusiast will present the Stay Home Special ‘to blow away some of the corona-related blues’

Much-acclaimed Japanes novelist Haruki Murakami will host a radio special next week to try to lift the nation’s spirits under the coronavirus lockdown.

Murakami, the author of books including Norwegian Wood and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, and a perennial favourite to win a Nobel prize, will play some of his favourite songs and answer listener questions in a two-hour show to air nationwide on 22 May. Called Stay Home Special, the show is named for the Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike’s recent plea for residents to stop going outside.

Related: Haruki Murakami: ‘You have to go through the darkness before you get to the light’