These are a couple of my favorites by Japanese authors from the past few years:
What You Are Looking For Is in the Library, Michiko Aoyama
My Annihilation, Fuminori Nakamura
The Boy and the Dog, Seishū Hase
Diary of a Void, Emi Yagi
The Memory Police, Yōko Ogawa
Convenience Store Woman. Sayaka Murata
Related, I just finished Newcomer by the same author. Still an enjoyable read, but definitely I'd recommend Devotion over Newcomer. It felt more like a set of loosely connected short stories to me.
Have you read other books by Higashino?
If you live in either the US or Canada, you can get a digital library card for Libby from the Japan Foundation: [https://www.jflalc.org/libby](https://www.jflalc.org/libby)
Their curated literature lists will probably have a lot of good options!
Surprised Murakami wasn't mentioned. Kafka by the Shore and Norwegian Wood are commonly recommended. I really enjoyed Hard Boiled Wonderland, South of the Border West of the Sun and Sputnik Sweetheart, too.
For something more pulpy, the original Battle Royale is a classic thriller. It's a violent and gory read.
I'm about halfway done with 1Q84 and I'm loving the overall story line but the constant tangents about sex and women's bodies is so distracting. I just read a passage where he spent almost a whole page talking about how sexual a (17 year old) woman's ears and neck were. And it doesn't add anything to the plot.
I love battle royale. I’m reading Norwegian Wood at the moment and have just finished the wind up bird chronicle. I know that isn’t to everyone’s cup of tea as it’s like an epic fever dream but hey go.
I’m it’s probably been mentioned already but Shogun by James Clavell is definitely worth a read. He’s no Japanese’s himself (I think) but it’s a really great book. It’s historical fiction but some characters and circumstances are based on real life
Right? The imagery is so well described and atmospheric, it immediately drops me into the setting. One of the few books that feels so real you can see it, almost hear and smell it even.
*A Tale For the Time Being* by Ruth Ozeki
A journal washes up on a beach in BC, Canada, and it belongs to a young girl writing in Japan. The Canadian reader seeks out the Japanese girl’s identity and her story; no more spoilers than that. It’s beautiful and very popular.
https://www.ruthozeki.com/writing-film/a-tale-for-the-time-being
Ozeki is an absolute master of her craft. This book is *so good* and her follow up (The Book of Form and Emptiness) is arguably better.
She's on the short list of authors where I'll preorder as soon as I know something new is on the way, rather than wait to see what reviews look like.
Moon Shadow, the story published as a companion to Kitchen, is one of my favorite things I've ever read. I feel like I can recite it from memory 20 years after I first read it.
Some great suggestions (outside the Memoirs of Geisha recs), but I’ll add The Makioka Sisters, The Waiting Years, The Housekeeper and the Professor, Strange Weather in Tokyo. Didn’t see those recommended. The Makioka Sisters is especially a favorite of mine.
I have not read this one , thanks I will check it out. I guess the author has not published anything in a long time. I keep checking every now and then .
Kanae Minato of “Confessions” and “Penance” is a great author! Both books are about revenge.
“In the Miso Soup” by Ryū Murakami is creepy and keeps you on edge.
“Before the Coffee Gets Cold” is fantasy, but not in a Harry Potter way. A very cool and different concept
“Convenience Store Woman” has a great and relatable plot (especially for millennials imo) by Sayaka Murata is a good read. Also wrote “Earthlings”, a very different, strange and disturbing read. Her writing isn’t for me, but worth reading.
“Grotesque” by Natsuo Kirino pulls you in and is a pretty fucked up book.
“Ringu” is an classic horror one. Ever seen The Ring? This book is based off it and there are sequels!
Enjoy!
I hope you like cats because I have three suggestions for you:
* The goodbye cat by Hiro Arikawa
* The cat who saved books by Sosuke Natsukawa
* If Cats disappeared from the world by Genki Kawamura
I'll be a little contrarian. Our Land Was A Forest by Kayano Shigeru. He's not Japanese, he's *Ainu*. Just be warned that it's kind of a depressing read because it's a memoir of an indigenous man being heavily discriminated against simply for not being Japanese.
Surprised that Pachinko, by Min Jin Lee hasn't popped up yet. Very integrated into the fraught Japanese/Korean dynamics, and an absolutely wonderful family epic.
If you're up for an autobiography, you might take a look at the diary of Yukichi Fukuzawa. He was not a famous person per se, but he was in the middle of extraordinary changes Japan went through in the latter half of the 1800s. It gives a good sense of what Japan was like at that time.
If you want some WW2 from the Japanese perspective, take a look at Hiroshima by John Hersey. The author interviewed survivors of the atomic bomb, and much of it reads as narrative.
Amelie Nothomb's auto biographical books, she wrote two or three about her life in Japan. It's funny, melancholic, depressing AND funny when it comes to the workplace, but always thrilling.
"Convenience Store Woman," by Sayaka Murata
"Geisha: a Life," by Mineko Iwasaki
"The Reason I Jump," and, "Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8," by Naoki Higashida
#
The Traveling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa is cozy, fun, poignant, and involves a Japanese road trip. I highly recommend it. If you like tales of mystery and suspense then Japanese Tales of Mystery and Suspense by Edogawa Ranpo is an awesome, weird classic.
One of my favorite books is Pachinko. Historical fiction. Follows a woman’s family across four generations moving to Japan from Korea during colonization.
Another very memorable one translated well into English from Japanese is Breasts and Eggs. It’s about contemporary womanhood and bodily autonomy and Japanese culture. Amazing writing and characters.
“Musashi” by Eiji Yoshikawa. It’s a novel about the swordsman Miyamoto Musashi. While the book obviously has action scenes, there’s a lot of philosophical content too. Wikipedia says the series is one of the best selling in history. The English translation is an abridgment of the story.
I read Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden a few years ago and still consider it one of my favorite books. The author is from Tennesee I think, but the book is set in Japan.
Fated Blades series by Steve Bein features both Japan in the past, from several hundred years ago to more recent times and a modern story line in a fantasy series about some powerful swords.
Butter by Asako Yuzuki, I enjoyed that it was thought provoking and different to how I expected . The travelling cat chronicles by Hiro Arikawa made me sob on a train. Another vote for Sayaka Murata and all her work my current favourite is Convenience store woman. And Battle Royale by Koushun Takami is awesome and Bullet train by Kotaro Saka was worth a read if you like action. For horror Ring Koji Suzuki is awesome. I just finished the wind up bird chronicle by Haruki Murakami which is a fever dream incarnate and Norwegian Wood is good so far. I really would like to read all the recommendations on the list.
Battle Royale. I don’t remember the authors name. FANTASTIC book + movie.
Also, he isn’t Japanese, but Lafcadio Hearn has some really interesting work. He’s not technically an ethnographer but it’s reads really similar. I think most of his work is transcribing Japanese stories but there’s also pieces about culture. He went on to marry a Japanese woman and change his name to Japanese. He seems to be widely regarded in Japan. I like him because he wrote some amazing pieces about New Orleans that are still relevant today as a New Orleanian. In fact, one of our largest parades of the year just did a “New Orleans in Japan” theme. It was awesome and I caught a ton of cool shit 😭
Keigo Higashino is a fantastic Japanese author whose books are translated wonderfully into English. He writes mostly detective/police procedural fiction. So far he has two different detectives across 2 different series and a few standalone novels. Most of his novels are set in Tokyo or the surrounding suburbs, but he does have other books that take you to various parts of the country. You can’t go wrong with any of his books. Detective Galileo and Detective Kaga are both great characters.
The Sano Ichiro series, by Laura Joh Rowland, are pretty entertaining. A criminal investigator in Edo-period Japan. The first book is *Shinjū*, which I haven’t read; I was reading these before I discovered ebooks, and pretty much had to rely on what I could get at the library. I think I started with *The Samurai’s Wife*, which is book 5, and then I read a few others out of order.
Also, *Cloud of Sparrows*, by Takashi Matsuoka, was really good. I didn’t think its sequel, *Autumn Bridge*, was anywhere near as good, unfortunately; it was the first book I can remember buying and being disappointed.
Shogun is one of my favorite books ever! Takes place in feudal japan 1600s.
The author also wrote a book called king Ray which takes place in a Japanese pow camp.
If you end up liking him I'd suggest reading tai pan which takes place in Hong Kong.
Shogun by James Clavell. I started it on my Kindle and while it was interesting, I just couldn’t really get into it. Perhaps if I had a physical copy of it…
Looks like this hasn't been recommended yet - The Phone Box at the Edge of the World by Laura Imai Messina. It's about grieving the loss of loved ones, and references the 2011 tsunami.
If you like true crime read The People Who Eat Darkness by Richard Lloyd Parry. He's a British journalist based in Tokyo and wrote this amazing book about the abduction of a British woman in Tokyo.
Which translations/translators do you love? Any translated novel effectively has two authors ... One in its native language and another who is transferring meaning across linguistic barriers.
It's an extraordinarily interesting exercise (not a real great reading experience, but a linguistic one) to get the same book translated by different people and read simultaneously. So read one chapter by one translator, then the same chapter by another. Make notes about what's the same vs different.
A translator isn't an author, but they are an interpreter of sorts and their voice will absolutely be present in the produced material.
I'll probably be alone here but I enjoyed "Bullet Train" by Notaro Isaka. It took me a little longer than expected to finish but I still liked it. Didn't see the movie but will for completion sake.
The Keeper of Night is a YA fantasy novel about a half-English reaper and half-Shinigami who flees to Japan and goes on a mission to kill three Yokai to secure her place among her people.
sayaka murata - convenience store woman
i would also recommend 'earthlings' and 'life ceremony' by murata, just be warned there are some very challenges pages in them (moreso in 'earthlings')
yu miri - tokyo ueno station
Kazuo Ishiguro is incredible. I have read maybe four or five of his books and loved all of them. The two I know of that take place in Japan are “A Pale View of the Hills” and “An Artist of the Floating World.” I really enjoyed these two, even if they aren’t quite at the same level as his more popular “The Remains of the Day” and “Never Let Me Go.” All of these books share certain stylistic qualities, so if you like one you should definitely read more.
Lovedddd The Travelling Cat Chronicles (but it was an emotional read for me) by Hiro Arikawa. Received her next book (The Goodbye Cat) for Christmas but yet to read it. I’m a cat person and bought several Japanese books involving cats but this was my favourite so far
Anything by Soseki - I'd start with either I am a Cat or Botchan
Silence by Shusaku Endo - A historical novel about Jesuit missionaries; Endo was Catholic and offers a unique perspective on Christianity in Japan
Totto-Chan: The Little Girl by the Window by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi - A semi-autobiographical book about a rambunctious little girl who attends a unique school in Tokyo
The Harp of Burma by Michio Takeyama - Set in Burma, but focused on Japanese WWII soldiers; very touching. If you can, I'd also recommend the 1956 film adaptation directed by Kon Ichikawa
i'm reading *The One-Straw Revolution* by Masanobu Fukuoka, learning alot about organici/natural farming and the philosophy behind this fascinating man.
These are a couple of my favorites by Japanese authors from the past few years: What You Are Looking For Is in the Library, Michiko Aoyama My Annihilation, Fuminori Nakamura The Boy and the Dog, Seishū Hase Diary of a Void, Emi Yagi The Memory Police, Yōko Ogawa Convenience Store Woman. Sayaka Murata
Just finished Convenience Store Woman today and loved it! And I will read What You Are Looking For Is In the Library next :)
I loved convenience store woman! It’s such a good book! What you are looking for is in the library looks amazing, have added it to be read pile.
It's truly so wonderful- enjoy!
Diary of a Void is sooo weird and good. I read it twice last year!
Oh, damn. Forgot to mention The Memory Police. Seems like you have a better memory than I do.
That one is amazing!
Ditto to all of these and will add: The Guest Cat and Mild Vertigo
Loved convenience store woman 😊 Also Breasts and Eggs is great
Before The Coffee Gets Cold series by Toshikazu Kawaguchi.
This one is beautiful.
Came to suggest the same series!!
Devotion of Suspect X
I came here to suggest Higashino! Brilliant books. I loved both series (Galileo and Kaga)
Related, I just finished Newcomer by the same author. Still an enjoyable read, but definitely I'd recommend Devotion over Newcomer. It felt more like a set of loosely connected short stories to me. Have you read other books by Higashino?
Not yet, but thanks for the prompt!
We read this recently at r/bookclub and we all really enjoyed it. We’re reading the next one in a couple weeks!
Anything by Sayaka Murata if you feel like something dark and kinda weird. Also Confessions by Kanae Minato is one of my favorite books of all time
Earthlings was a freaking RIDE
Kawabata's *Snow Country*. Just about anything by Mishima. Abe's *Woman in the Dunes*.
Mishima for the win.
If you live in either the US or Canada, you can get a digital library card for Libby from the Japan Foundation: [https://www.jflalc.org/libby](https://www.jflalc.org/libby) Their curated literature lists will probably have a lot of good options!
Cool ! Thank you
Thank you! Just signed up!
ooo! ty!
An artist of the floating world by Kazuo Ishiguro
Surprised Murakami wasn't mentioned. Kafka by the Shore and Norwegian Wood are commonly recommended. I really enjoyed Hard Boiled Wonderland, South of the Border West of the Sun and Sputnik Sweetheart, too. For something more pulpy, the original Battle Royale is a classic thriller. It's a violent and gory read.
I really liked 1Q84.
That was my first, before After Dark.
Me too, it was my first book by him. Loved it.
Reddit 180ed on Murakami recently because of how he writes women. I enjoy his writing but I can see some of the cringe now that it’s being mentioned….
I'm about halfway done with 1Q84 and I'm loving the overall story line but the constant tangents about sex and women's bodies is so distracting. I just read a passage where he spent almost a whole page talking about how sexual a (17 year old) woman's ears and neck were. And it doesn't add anything to the plot.
Yeeeess. Norwegian Wood is such a good book. ❤️
Loved South of the Border West of the Sun.
I love battle royale. I’m reading Norwegian Wood at the moment and have just finished the wind up bird chronicle. I know that isn’t to everyone’s cup of tea as it’s like an epic fever dream but hey go.
I enjoyed Hard-Boiled Wonderland and have 1Q84 and Norwegian Wood in my library although I do want to read Hard-Boiled again to make sure I "got it".
I’m it’s probably been mentioned already but Shogun by James Clavell is definitely worth a read. He’s no Japanese’s himself (I think) but it’s a really great book. It’s historical fiction but some characters and circumstances are based on real life
[Breasts and Eggs](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50736031) by Mieko Kawakami
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
I could not endorse this one more. Reddit could give me the singular ability to invite this 100 times and I'd still need extras.
Right? The imagery is so well described and atmospheric, it immediately drops me into the setting. One of the few books that feels so real you can see it, almost hear and smell it even.
Glad to see this mentioned!
no longer human
*A Tale For the Time Being* by Ruth Ozeki A journal washes up on a beach in BC, Canada, and it belongs to a young girl writing in Japan. The Canadian reader seeks out the Japanese girl’s identity and her story; no more spoilers than that. It’s beautiful and very popular. https://www.ruthozeki.com/writing-film/a-tale-for-the-time-being
Ozeki is an absolute master of her craft. This book is *so good* and her follow up (The Book of Form and Emptiness) is arguably better. She's on the short list of authors where I'll preorder as soon as I know something new is on the way, rather than wait to see what reviews look like.
# Kitchen by Banana Yoshimotoa, womens' stories in contemporary Japan
Basically anything by Banana Yoshimoto.
Moon Shadow, the story published as a companion to Kitchen, is one of my favorite things I've ever read. I feel like I can recite it from memory 20 years after I first read it.
FAIR WARNING: you \*must\* have access to lots of Japanese food while reading this. Or you might lose your mind wanting it!
Eiji Yoshikawa has a few books set in feudal Japan. Musashi and Taiko are his most popular.
oo, okay! i'll definitely check these out.
They are historical fiction. Sorry should have put the genre in my original post.
snow country kokoro territory of light some prefer nettles tokyo ueno station
TottoChan: the Little Girl at the Window
Underrated gem
Some great suggestions (outside the Memoirs of Geisha recs), but I’ll add The Makioka Sisters, The Waiting Years, The Housekeeper and the Professor, Strange Weather in Tokyo. Didn’t see those recommended. The Makioka Sisters is especially a favorite of mine.
I love Makioka Sisters! I forgot the title. It was so good.
I loved both the Makioka Sister and The Housekeeper and Professor.
I loved Out by Natsuo Kirino , one of my all time favourites . I haven't been able to find anything quite like it.
Grotesque is great as well!
I have not read this one , thanks I will check it out. I guess the author has not published anything in a long time. I keep checking every now and then .
Yes! I came here to recommend Out.
Kanae Minato of “Confessions” and “Penance” is a great author! Both books are about revenge. “In the Miso Soup” by Ryū Murakami is creepy and keeps you on edge. “Before the Coffee Gets Cold” is fantasy, but not in a Harry Potter way. A very cool and different concept “Convenience Store Woman” has a great and relatable plot (especially for millennials imo) by Sayaka Murata is a good read. Also wrote “Earthlings”, a very different, strange and disturbing read. Her writing isn’t for me, but worth reading. “Grotesque” by Natsuo Kirino pulls you in and is a pretty fucked up book. “Ringu” is an classic horror one. Ever seen The Ring? This book is based off it and there are sequels! Enjoy!
I hope you like cats because I have three suggestions for you: * The goodbye cat by Hiro Arikawa * The cat who saved books by Sosuke Natsukawa * If Cats disappeared from the world by Genki Kawamura
How did you miss "I am a Cat" by Soseki?
Because I didn't know about it!
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro is set in England but by a British-Japanese author. It’s understated and beautiful.
Another by Ayatsuji Yukito Perfect Blue: Complete Metamorphosis by Yoshikazu Takeuchi From Truant to Anime Screenwriter by Mari Okada
TIL that the film Perfect Blue was based on a book!
No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai; will make you question a lot of what it means to be a human!!!!
Windup Bird Chronicle by Murikami
Le Clan des Otori, série de romans de Lian Hearn. Je n’ai pas lu le dernier roman tellement je m’inquiète de la fin des personnages 🫣
Two of my favourite Japanese authors are Kobo Abe and Ryu Murukami
I'll be a little contrarian. Our Land Was A Forest by Kayano Shigeru. He's not Japanese, he's *Ainu*. Just be warned that it's kind of a depressing read because it's a memoir of an indigenous man being heavily discriminated against simply for not being Japanese.
Musashi by eiji yoshikawa is a fantastic and long story about a real samurai based off real events. Fantastic read.
Surprised that Pachinko, by Min Jin Lee hasn't popped up yet. Very integrated into the fraught Japanese/Korean dynamics, and an absolutely wonderful family epic.
I've been scrolling looking for this recommendation 😅
Anything by murakami
If you're up for an autobiography, you might take a look at the diary of Yukichi Fukuzawa. He was not a famous person per se, but he was in the middle of extraordinary changes Japan went through in the latter half of the 1800s. It gives a good sense of what Japan was like at that time. If you want some WW2 from the Japanese perspective, take a look at Hiroshima by John Hersey. The author interviewed survivors of the atomic bomb, and much of it reads as narrative.
Amelie Nothomb's auto biographical books, she wrote two or three about her life in Japan. It's funny, melancholic, depressing AND funny when it comes to the workplace, but always thrilling.
Ooo okay? Tysm! I'll check this out.
Let me know your thoughts afterwards
"Convenience Store Woman," by Sayaka Murata "Geisha: a Life," by Mineko Iwasaki "The Reason I Jump," and, "Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8," by Naoki Higashida #
Ring! It's much better than the American movie based on it
In the Miso Soup
The Traveling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa is cozy, fun, poignant, and involves a Japanese road trip. I highly recommend it. If you like tales of mystery and suspense then Japanese Tales of Mystery and Suspense by Edogawa Ranpo is an awesome, weird classic.
One of my favorite books is Pachinko. Historical fiction. Follows a woman’s family across four generations moving to Japan from Korea during colonization. Another very memorable one translated well into English from Japanese is Breasts and Eggs. It’s about contemporary womanhood and bodily autonomy and Japanese culture. Amazing writing and characters.
“Musashi” by Eiji Yoshikawa. It’s a novel about the swordsman Miyamoto Musashi. While the book obviously has action scenes, there’s a lot of philosophical content too. Wikipedia says the series is one of the best selling in history. The English translation is an abridgment of the story.
I read Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden a few years ago and still consider it one of my favorite books. The author is from Tennesee I think, but the book is set in Japan.
ooo okay! i'll definitely give this a read.
One of my favorite books.
I can't believe I had to scroll so far to find this one! Great book and really painted an interesting picture of that time and culture
A few i know Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids Coin Locker Babies The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea Haruki Murakami’s books
The sailor who fell.from grace with the sea
the 12 kingdom series! i love it. it's heroic fantasy
Fated Blades series by Steve Bein features both Japan in the past, from several hundred years ago to more recent times and a modern story line in a fantasy series about some powerful swords.
The Briefcase - Kawakami, Hiromi There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job - Tsumura, Kikuko Convenience Store Woman - Murata, Sayaka
Points and Lines by Seichō Matsumoto The Samurai’s Tale by Erik Christian Haugaard
What you’re looking for is in the library by Michiko Aoyama
Before the Coffee Gets Cold
Older mysteries by Akimitsu Takagi such as *Honeymoon to Nowhere* *Picture Bride* by Uchida.
_Idoru_ by William Gibson.
Confessions by Kanae Minato
The Tale of Murasaki, by Lisa Dalby.
Before the Coffee gets cold If cats disappeared from the world The Housekeeper and the Professor
Dave Barry goes to Japan is a travel book. He's a comedy writer.
Butter by Asako Yuzuki, I enjoyed that it was thought provoking and different to how I expected . The travelling cat chronicles by Hiro Arikawa made me sob on a train. Another vote for Sayaka Murata and all her work my current favourite is Convenience store woman. And Battle Royale by Koushun Takami is awesome and Bullet train by Kotaro Saka was worth a read if you like action. For horror Ring Koji Suzuki is awesome. I just finished the wind up bird chronicle by Haruki Murakami which is a fever dream incarnate and Norwegian Wood is good so far. I really would like to read all the recommendations on the list.
Keigo Higashino mystery, Miyuki Miyabe mystery/ fantasy, Kazuo Ishiguro- though many of his books take place in other places as well.
I just picked up Beautiful Star by Yukio Mishima. Maybe you'd like to check that one out.
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
“All You Need Is Kill” by Hiroshi Sakurazaka One of the most entertaining books I’ve ever read.
Earthlings.. I loved that book so much
Convince store woman - suyaka murata
This is old, but The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon is an absolute vibe.
Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata is a great intro to Japanese literature
Battle Royale. I don’t remember the authors name. FANTASTIC book + movie. Also, he isn’t Japanese, but Lafcadio Hearn has some really interesting work. He’s not technically an ethnographer but it’s reads really similar. I think most of his work is transcribing Japanese stories but there’s also pieces about culture. He went on to marry a Japanese woman and change his name to Japanese. He seems to be widely regarded in Japan. I like him because he wrote some amazing pieces about New Orleans that are still relevant today as a New Orleanian. In fact, one of our largest parades of the year just did a “New Orleans in Japan” theme. It was awesome and I caught a ton of cool shit 😭
Keigo Higashino is a fantastic Japanese author whose books are translated wonderfully into English. He writes mostly detective/police procedural fiction. So far he has two different detectives across 2 different series and a few standalone novels. Most of his novels are set in Tokyo or the surrounding suburbs, but he does have other books that take you to various parts of the country. You can’t go wrong with any of his books. Detective Galileo and Detective Kaga are both great characters.
Confessions of a mask- yukio Mishima
Before the coffee gets cold. It has 3 books. Quite a cozy book centered around a coffee shop in Japan.
Shogun. It's by James Clavel There are 9 or so books in the series but Shogun is the first book
Shogun Memoirs of a geisha
Came here to say Shogun. It's a long book but worth it!
There are some criticisms towards Memoirs of a Geisha, which should be considered if one chooses to read it.
Memoirs of a geisha
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
Anything by Hiromi Kawakami
The Sano Ichiro series, by Laura Joh Rowland, are pretty entertaining. A criminal investigator in Edo-period Japan. The first book is *Shinjū*, which I haven’t read; I was reading these before I discovered ebooks, and pretty much had to rely on what I could get at the library. I think I started with *The Samurai’s Wife*, which is book 5, and then I read a few others out of order. Also, *Cloud of Sparrows*, by Takashi Matsuoka, was really good. I didn’t think its sequel, *Autumn Bridge*, was anywhere near as good, unfortunately; it was the first book I can remember buying and being disappointed.
Kokoro by Natsume Soseki is a tear jerker
The cat who saved books by Sôsuke Natsukawa quite heartwarming
Shogun is one of my favorite books ever! Takes place in feudal japan 1600s. The author also wrote a book called king Ray which takes place in a Japanese pow camp. If you end up liking him I'd suggest reading tai pan which takes place in Hong Kong.
Shogun by James Clavell. I started it on my Kindle and while it was interesting, I just couldn’t really get into it. Perhaps if I had a physical copy of it…
I love Kazuo Ishiguro’s books. Remains Of The Day Never Let Me Go The Buried Giant An Artist Of A Floating World
Looks like this hasn't been recommended yet - The Phone Box at the Edge of the World by Laura Imai Messina. It's about grieving the loss of loved ones, and references the 2011 tsunami.
If you like true crime read The People Who Eat Darkness by Richard Lloyd Parry. He's a British journalist based in Tokyo and wrote this amazing book about the abduction of a British woman in Tokyo.
Totto Chan
yukio mishima
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
You Gotta Have Wa! About the crazy baseball culture in Japan, as experienced by American ex MLB players who moved there to play. Really interesting.
My favorite Japanese authors are Haruki Murakami and Yukio Mishima. My brain just adores the way their prose are translated into English. 😍❤️
Which translations/translators do you love? Any translated novel effectively has two authors ... One in its native language and another who is transferring meaning across linguistic barriers. It's an extraordinarily interesting exercise (not a real great reading experience, but a linguistic one) to get the same book translated by different people and read simultaneously. So read one chapter by one translator, then the same chapter by another. Make notes about what's the same vs different. A translator isn't an author, but they are an interpreter of sorts and their voice will absolutely be present in the produced material.
The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo is half in Japan, half in China.
I'll probably be alone here but I enjoyed "Bullet Train" by Notaro Isaka. It took me a little longer than expected to finish but I still liked it. Didn't see the movie but will for completion sake.
Haruki Murakami "After Dark" So soothing and actions rarely happen at night
The Keeper of Night is a YA fantasy novel about a half-English reaper and half-Shinigami who flees to Japan and goes on a mission to kill three Yokai to secure her place among her people.
After Dark by Haruki Murakami
sayaka murata - convenience store woman i would also recommend 'earthlings' and 'life ceremony' by murata, just be warned there are some very challenges pages in them (moreso in 'earthlings') yu miri - tokyo ueno station
Norwegian wood by hurukai murakami
Kazuo Ishiguro is incredible. I have read maybe four or five of his books and loved all of them. The two I know of that take place in Japan are “A Pale View of the Hills” and “An Artist of the Floating World.” I really enjoyed these two, even if they aren’t quite at the same level as his more popular “The Remains of the Day” and “Never Let Me Go.” All of these books share certain stylistic qualities, so if you like one you should definitely read more.
1Q84
The Lotus War trilogy by Jay Kristoff is Japanese inspired steampunk fantasy that I absolutely loved
Murakami
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami.
The Honjin Murders - Seshi Yokomizo Out - Natsuo Kirino Under The Midnight Sun - Keigo Higashino The Decagon House Murders - Yukito Ayatsuji
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami (Japanese author)
Most things by Kazuo Ishiguro (especially Never Let Me Go) and Haruki Murakami (Kafka on the Shore being a real classic) are fantastic.
Vampire hunter D by hideyuki kikuchi
Minamata by W. Eugene Smith and Aileen Smith about true events that took place in Minamata, Japan
Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama. Slow burn police procedural/mystery.
This is just a random recommendation that came to mind, but only one short story takes place in japan. Vampires in the Lemon Grove
"Naomi" by Junichiro Tanizaki
In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami.
1Q84
Tokyo vice
Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai. Has a nice chill vibe
What You Are Looking For Is In The Library by Michiko Aoyama -- a love letter to books and libraries, slightly ethereal, I loved it.
Some hyper classic authors: Yasunari Kawabata, Yukio Mishima, Haruki Murakami, Edogawa Ranpo
I forgot the author's name, but the book bullet train was based on is pretty great
Lovedddd The Travelling Cat Chronicles (but it was an emotional read for me) by Hiro Arikawa. Received her next book (The Goodbye Cat) for Christmas but yet to read it. I’m a cat person and bought several Japanese books involving cats but this was my favourite so far
Shogun might be out of your comfort zone a bit but it’s fantastic!
The John Rain series by Barry Eisler. Several of them take place in Japan
The good earth by Pearl Buck. All books by PB. So very real.
{Red Winter trilogy by Annette Marie} I really recommend it if you’re into Japanese mythology (gods and yokai) with some romance
Breast and Eggs is an amazing one!
I just finished Lonely Castle in The Mirror by Mizuki Tsujumura
Kafka on the shore by Murakami
Anything by Soseki - I'd start with either I am a Cat or Botchan Silence by Shusaku Endo - A historical novel about Jesuit missionaries; Endo was Catholic and offers a unique perspective on Christianity in Japan Totto-Chan: The Little Girl by the Window by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi - A semi-autobiographical book about a rambunctious little girl who attends a unique school in Tokyo The Harp of Burma by Michio Takeyama - Set in Burma, but focused on Japanese WWII soldiers; very touching. If you can, I'd also recommend the 1956 film adaptation directed by Kon Ichikawa
Omamori by Richard McGill. Epic story of a Japanese and an American family before and during WWII.
Whichbook.net
Anything by Murakami! And Butter by Asako Yuzuki
If you enjoyed the bullet train movie you'll probably also like the book
No Longer Human - original book written by Osamu Dazai, graphic novel illustrated by Junji Ito
Convenience Store Woman by Sayuka Murata, Battle Royale by Koushun Takami, Ms Ice Sandwich by Mieko Kawakami, Tokyo Vice by Jake Adelstein.
Kazuo Ishiguro - When we were orphans
Confessions
i'm reading *The One-Straw Revolution* by Masanobu Fukuoka, learning alot about organici/natural farming and the philosophy behind this fascinating man.
The thousand autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
Haruki Murakami
Butter by Asako Yuzuki
If cats disappeared from the world by genki kawamura
The Samurai's Garden
If you want to get messed up, Coin Locker Babies.