It could be said that Franz Kafka was postmodern before postmodernism existed. One need only look to his body of work to see that he shares much with the post-World War II writers that came after him. It is clear Murakami had the Czech writer on his mind when naming the protagonist in Kafka on the Shore. On his website at RandomHouse.com, Murakami has this to say about why he named his protagonist Kafka:

It goes without saying that Kafka is one of my very favorite writers. But I don't think my novels or characters are directly influenced by him…. What I see myself doing … is writing novels where, in my own way, I dismantle the fictional world of Kafka that itself dismantled the existing novelistic system. One could view this as a kind of homage to Kafka, I suppose. To tell the truth, I don't...