Books

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."

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.

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.

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.

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 ...

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 ...