One Stormy Night… by Yuichi Kimura, illustrated by Hiroshi Abe, translated by Lucy North [in AsianWeek]
In the middle of a fierce storm, a wolf and a goat comfort each other in a completely darkened hut against the deafening thunder outside. The unlikely pair get to know one...
In the delightful sequel to
An entertaining ghost story with a twist about a recently divorced television script writer who takes to visiting his parents … except they died tragically in
an accident decades ago, leaving him an orphan from childhood. The...
The yakuza genre, or gangster films, have more or less replaced samurai films in both quantity and popularity in Japan. Schilling, a Japan Times film reviewer since 1989, brings together all the...
Read Different. Read Vertical.
So there seems to be two basic types of readers of Japanese fiction: those who revere the classic writers like Kawabata, Tanizaki, Ōe, and maybe Mishima with an occasional contemporary foray into Haruki...
Living in the Space of 'In-Between': In any language, author Yoko Tawada is easily understood
If I wanted to make my mother truly proud, I would finally complete either of the...
Forget your stereotypical visions of the meek and timid Japanese housewife who waits for her salaryman husband with slippers in hand and dinner on the table. Meet Masako and her fellow night-shift food processing plant co-workers...
From one of the world’s most famous – and favorite – ex-pats living in Japan comes a shrewd though appreciative look at Japan’s craze for fads, fashions, and style, from manga, pachinko, cell phones,...
A disturbing collection of essays that explores the inextricable link between sex and consumerism in art in Japan. It is one of those “you just can’t take your eyes away” sort of voyeuristic books...
Move over, Harry Potter – here’s a totally different kind of fantasy series. While this is the first available installment in English, the Japanese version has up to 89 titles! [Publisher Vertical, Inc. has...
An entertaining, quirky, somewhat sad love story of sorts about a troubled young woman who marries a gay doctor and creates a new kind of family of her own.
Review:
Here's the book that inspired both the Japanese cult film, Ringu, and the recent American remake, The Ring. With its bright pink and white cover, it’s a major eye-catcher. Start reading and it’s so creepy, your...
A middle-aged yakuza who probably should have been “The Boss” but has stalled somewhere tries to figure out how to get out of the fray and quietly manipulate his way to the top.
Review:
First trade paperback edition of the harrowing memoir of a 6-year-old child who becomes separated from her family in the last days of World War II in Okinawa,...
Newly released paperback edition of critically acclaimed autobiographical novel which details the life of a young boy in 1930s Japan through World War II, whose father is a secret anti-war activist and...
A stunning compilation of woodblock prints by Yoshitoshi (1839-1892), considered Japan’s last master of the ukiyo-e (“floating world”) woodprint, who is most renowned for his One...
Oda, known for his outspoken anti-war sentiments, captures a group of loyal, patriotic Japanese soldiers on a South Pacific island during the final days of World War II, who are mere pawns of a...
The paperback re-issue of a collection of essays on all things Japanese by the world’s most famous honorary almost-Japanese.
Review:
Another quirky tale – a love story of sorts – from Japan’s favorite Gen-Xer, this time about two extremely different cousins who spend a summer together by the seashore.
Review: