Inter Ice Age 4 (第四間氷期, Dai-Yon Kampyōki) is an early science fiction novel by Japanese writer Kōbō Abe originally serialized in the journal Sekai from 1958 to 1959.

[1][2][3] Plot elements include submersion of the world caused by melting polar ice, genetic creation of gilled children for the coming underwater age, and a fortune-telling computer predicting the future and advising humans how to deal with it.

Fatally for him, this system predicts his compulsive refusal to go along with his associates and his government in the creation of genetically engineered children, adapted for life in the rising seas.

"[5] In his Visual Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, British author and critic Brian Ash calls the English translation of the novel "flat" and "featureless", but notes that this "could not smother the miracle of [Abe's] use of biology to attack racism at its very root, asking what will be our attitudes to those whom we ourselves design for life in alien habitats?

A number of critics have identified Inter Ice Age 4 as Japan's first full-length science fiction novel, and a work that helped jump start Japanese interest in the genre.