Books from Japan
235 popular japanese books
Travel the world without leaving your chair.
The target of the Read Around The World Challenge is to read at least one book written by an author from each and every country in the world.
All books that are listed here as part of the "Read Around Asia Challenge" were written by authors from Japan.
Find a great book for the next part of your reading journey around the world from this book list. The following popular books have been recommended so far.
122.
Rental Person Who Does Nothing : A Memoir by Shoji Morimoto EN
Description:
Profiled in The Times, The Independent and by BBC Reels I’m starting a service . . . available for any situation in which all you want is a person to be there. Maybe there’s a restaurant you want to go to, but you feel awkward going on your own. Maybe a game you want to play, but you’re one person short. Or perhaps you’d like someone to keep a space in the park for your cherry blossom viewing party . . . Shoji Morimoto was constantly being told by his boss that he contributed nothing to the company he worked for and that it made no difference whether he showed up or not. He began to wonder whe... continue
123.
Restaurant of Love Regained, The by Ito Ogawa EN
Description:
Returning home from work, Rinko is shocked to find that her flat is totally empty. Gone are her TV set, fridge and furniture, gone are all her kitchen tools, including the old Meiji mortar she has inherited from her grandmother and the Le Creuset casserole she has bought with her first salary. Gone, above all, is her Indian boyfriend, the maitre d' of the restaurant next door to the one she works in. She has no choice but to go back to her native village and her mother, on which she turned her back ten years ago as a fifteen-year-old girl. There she decides to open a very special restaurant, o... continue
124.
Revenge : Eleven Dark Tales by Yoko Ogawa EN
Description:
Offers eleven interwoven macabre short stories that take an ominous look at grotesque characters, violent emotions, and murder.
125.
Sailor Moon by Naoko Takeuchi EN
Description:
A graphic novel featuring the further adventures of Bunny, Luna, Tuxedo Mask, and the Scouts.
126.
Samurai! by Saburo Sakai, Martin Caidin, Fred Saito EN
Description:
Saburo Sakai was Japan's greatest fighter pilot to survive World War II. A veteran of more than two hundred dogfights, Sakai reportedly shot down sixty-four Allied planes, but he is best known for flying his crippled Zero nearly 600 miles to safety while partially paralyzed and nearly blind from multiple wounds.
127.
128.
Description:
"The novella that first propelled Dazai into the literary elite of post-war Japan. Essentially the start of Dazai's career, Schoolgirl gained notoriety for its ironic and inventive use of language. Now it illuminates the prevalent social structures of a lost time, as well as the struggle of the individual against them--a theme that occupied Dazai's life both personally and professionally. This new translation preserves the playful language of the original and offers the reader a new window into the mind of one of the greatest Japanese authors of the 20th century"--Page 4 of cover.
129.
Seven Japanese Tales by Junichiro Tanizaki EN
Description:
Junichiro Tanizaki’s Seven Japanese Tales collects stories that explore the boundary at which love becomes self-annihilation, where the contemplation of beauty gives way to fetishism, and where tradition becomes an instrument of voluptuous cruelty. A beautiful blind musician exacts the ultimate sacrifice from the man who is both her disciple and her lover. A tattooist turns the body of an exquisite young girl into a reflection of her predatory inner nature. A young man is erotically imprisoned by memories of his absent mother. Shocking in its content and lyrical in its beauty, these stories re... continue
130.
Description:
Novelist Hiromi Goto effortlessly blends wry, observational slice-of-life literary fiction with elements of the fantastic in the tender and gripping graphic novel Shadow Life, with haunting art from debut artist Ann Xu. When Kumiko’s well-meaning adult daughters place her in an assisted living home, the seventy-six-year-old widow gives it a try, but it’s not where she wants to be. She goes on the lam and finds a cozy bachelor apartment, keeping the location secret even while communicating online with her eldest daughter. Kumiko revels in the small, daily pleasures: decorating as she pleases, e... continue