The year 2010 may come to be seen as a landmark in terms of literature written in English that draws on Japan as a setting.
That's because two books released this year — one non-fiction, the other fiction — are each remarkable in the sense of Japanese reality they conjure.
Until now, popular, non-scholarly books written in English have almost always used Japan as an exotic backdrop for the real-life dramas of Westerners who find themselves caught bewilderingly in front of it.