Haruki Murakami's 'Underground' still holds chilling lessons about Japan
Haruki Murakami's sole foray into journalism, "Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche," celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. What lessons does it hold today about where Japan has gone as a society?
'The Journey': Jiro Osaragi depicts a society coming to grips with defeat and occupation
Jiro Osaragi's "The Journey" is an intriguing literary and psychological depiction of a society coming to grips with the aftermath ...
There's a story for every taste in 'Speculative Japan 4'
"Speculative Japan 4" is the latest in Kumamoto-based Kurodahan Press' mission to bring the best of Japanese science fiction and ...
'Yakuza Tattoo': Inside the secretive world of the yakuza's tattoos
Andreas Johansson spent almost three weeks immersed in the world of the yakuza, photographing and talking to around 30 gang members for his book, "Yakuza Tattoo."
Mieko Kawakami: A writer's writer who is at once highly readable and immensely popular
From her distinctive style to her choice of topics, Mieko Kawakami is both a writer's writer and an entertainer, a thinker and constantly evolving stylist who manages to be highly readable and immensely popular.
Strongly autobiographical, 'Death by Water' reflects on Kenzaburo Oe's own oeuvre
Written in dialogue with Oe's own, earlier works on similar subjects "Death by Water" is a careful, multilayered contemplation on the methodology and potential of art itself.
Finding beauty amid defeat: Jan Morris' 'Battleship Yamato: Of War, Beauty and Irony'
In this slim, beautifully illustrated book, historian Jan Morris details an account of the battleship Yamato's final, suicidal run near Okinawa at the end of World War II.
'Yokohama Burning': Destruction, massacre and tornadoes of fire
One of the most fascinating and controversial books about the Great Kanto Earthquake is Joshua Hammer's 2006 release "Yokohama Burning," in which the former bureau chief for Newsweek magazine suggests a link between the national response to the 1923 disaster and Japan's descent into ...
'Isako Isako': No punches pulled when confronting internment
Mia Ayumi Malhotra's collection of poetry, "Isako Isako," is a carefully controlled whirlwind of ideas and impressions that reminds us that the scars laid down today will still be visible generations from now
Toshiki Okada's 'The End of the Moment We Had' explores the plague of modern ennui in Japan
In two short stories, "The End of the Moment We Had" and "My Place in Plural" Okada excels at describing the great indifference that marks some Japanese youth.
Speculative fiction or prophetic prose? Novel imagines a U.S.-North Korea nuclear conflict
Jeffrey Lewis' speculative novel, "The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States," takes the form of a 9/11 Commission-style report on a fictionalized war between North Korea and the U.S. and its Asian allies in March 2020.
'Hybrid Child': Enter a sprawling excursion into the unknown
For any fan of speculative fiction, Hybrid Child presents a sprawling, imaginative excursion into the unknown that also predicts current familiar thematic questionings on gender politics or weaponized robots.
'The Crazy Iris': Unflinching stories inspired by the aftermath of the atomic bomb
Compiled and edited by Kenzaburo Oe, "The Crazy Iris and Other Stories of the Atomic Aftermath" is a multifaceted look at the nightmarish horrors of the atomic bomb.
'Birds of Japan': More than a guide, a labor of love
Mark Brazil's "Birds of Japan" will be a birders' Bible for the foreseeable future and fills the niche for anyone who plans to search out the wealth of birds that this country has to offer.
'Dear Diary Boy': A vivid insider's look at education and mothering in Japan
Kumiko Makihara's recently published memoir "Dear Diary Boy" might well come with a trigger warning for parents of school-aged children in Japan. Many will be able to relate to the references to heaps of homework, judgmental parents and teachers, long lists of things that ...
