Why the year 1984 specifically?
Murakami mentioned George Orwell’s ’1984′ a number of times in 1Q84. The term ‘big brother’ is used repeatedly and ‘little people’ have special significance in the novel. So to show the relation between 1984 and 1Q84, Murakami might have used the same year for his book. But as we all know that Orwell’s work continues to influence popular and political culture but Murakami consider himself a typical fiction writer so the question of the similarity ruled out.
1Q84′s fictional Sakigake cult exhibits some similarity to Aum Shinrikyo, a famous Japanese cult founded by Shoko Ashara in 1984. Murakami named the book after the year of establishment of Aum Shinrikyo. Even leader of Sakigake posses same character as leader of Aum Shoko Ashara. Murakami wrote about these cults and leader in his book ‘Underground: The Tokyo gas attack and the Japanese psyche’.