Around the World in 80 Books discussion

Place any book set in Japan here.

Books set in Japan:



The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
Battle Royale by Koushun Takami
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Geisha, A Life by Mineko Iwasaki
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
Shōgun by James Clavell
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
After Dark by Haruki Murakami
Out by Natsuo Kirino
A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa
Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami
The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama
Dance Dance Dance by Haruki Murakami
Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn (1st book in series)
after the quake by Haruki Murakami
Hiroshima by John Hersey
South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami
Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata
The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami
A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami
The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami
Kokoro by Natsume Sōseki
Woman in the Dunes by Kōbō Abe
The Makioka Sisters by Junichirō Tanizaki
An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
Underground by Haruki Murakami
The Pillow Book by Sei Shōnagon
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima
Silence by Shusaku Endo
The Sailor Who Fell from Grace With the Sea by Yukio Mishima
Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima
Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata
The Sound Of The Waves by Yukio Mishima
In the Miso Soup by Ryū Murakami
Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa
Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima
Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino
Goodbye Tsugumi by Banana Yoshimoto
The Street of a Thousand Blossoms by Gail Tsukiyama
Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids by Kenzaburō Ōe
Fear and Trembling by Amélie Nothomb
Learning to Bow: Inside the Heart of Japan by Bruce Feiler
Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan by Jake Adelstein
The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi
The Tale of Murasaki by Liza Dalby
The Diary of Lady Murasaki by Murasaki Shikibu
Beauty and Sadness by Yasunari Kawabata
A Personal Matter by Kenzaburō Ōe
The Teahouse Fire by Ellis Avery
In Praise of Shadows by Junichirō Tanizaki
Lizard by Banana Yoshimoto
Some Prefer Nettles by Junichirō Tanizaki
Asleep by Banana Yoshimoto
Naomi by Junichirō Tanizaki
Real World by Natsuo Kirino
The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II by Iris Chang
The Devil of Nanking by Mo Hayder
The Book of Tea by Kakuzō Okakura
Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai by Yamamoto Tsunetomo
Botchan: A Modern Classic by Natsume Sōseki
The Sound of the Mountain by Yasunari Kawabata
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
Shinju by Laura Joh Rowland (1st book in series)
I Am a Cat: Three Volumes in One by Natsume Sōseki
Almost Transparent Blue by Ryū Murakami
Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie
N.P. by Banana Yoshimoto
Rising Sun by Michael Crichton (aka "Nippon Connection")
Dave Barry Does Japan by Dave Barry
2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake by The quakebook community
Cloud of Sparrows by Takashi Matsuoka (1st book in series)
The Master of Go by Yasunari Kawabata
The Chrysanthemum and the Sword by Ruth Benedict
Princess Masako: Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne by Ben Hills
The Sign of the Chrysanthemum by Katherine Paterson
Black Rain by Masuji Ibuse
All She Was Worth by Miyuki Miyabe
Dogs and Demons: Tales from the Dark Side of Modern Japan by Alex Kerr
The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches by Bashō
The Old Capital by Yasunari Kawabata
Snakes and Earrings by Hitomi Kanehara (aka "Serpents and Piercings")
Japanland: A Year in Search of Wa by Karin Muller
Hokkaido Highway Blues by Will Ferguson
The Waiting Years by Fumiko Enchi
A Year in Japan by Kate T. Williamson
Eat Sleep Sit: My Year at Japan's Most Rigorous Zen Temple by Kaoru Nonomura
Funny Business: An Outsider's Year in Japan by Gary J. Katzenstein
Beyond Sushi, A Year in Japan by Kenneth Januszewski
The Lady and the Monk: Four Seasons in Kyoto by Pico Iyer
Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan by Herbert P. Bix
Palm-of-the-Hand Stories by Yasunari Kawabata
Kwaidan: Ghost Stories and Strange Tales of Old Japan by Lafcadio Hearn
Ring by Koji Suzuki (1st book in series)
The Lake by Banana Yoshimoto
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr

More books set in Japan:


Runaway Horses by Yukio Mishima
number9dream by David Mitchell
Coin Locker Babies by Ryū Murakami (aka Children from the Camera Store")
My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki
The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino
Silk by Alessandro Baricco
The Commoner by John Burnham Schwartz
Taiko: An Epic Novel of War and Glory in Feudal Japan by Eiji Yoshikawa
Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus
The Samurai by Shusaku Endo
Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi
Amrita by Banana Yoshimoto
How to Be an American Housewife by Margaret Dilloway
Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard
Gai-Jin by James Clavell
Hardboiled and Hard Luck by Banana Yoshimoto
Forbidden Colors by Yukio Mishima
The Diving Pool: Three Novellas by Yoko Ogawa
Tokyo Fiancée by Amélie Nothomb
The Ginger Tree by Oswald Wynd
The Setting Sun by Osamu Dazai
The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan by Ivan Morris
The Temple of Dawn by Yukio Mishima
Seven Japanese Tales by Junichirō Tanizaki
Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edogawa Rampo
Japanese Fairy Tales by Yei Theodora Ozaki
Sixty-Nine by Ryū Murakami
Bushido: The Classic Portrait of Samurai Martial Culture by Inazo Nitobe
Lost Japan by Alex Kerr
Shutting Out the Sun: How Japan Created Its Own Lost Generation by Michael Zielenziger
On the Narrow Road: A Journey into Lost Japan by Lesley Downer
Looking for the Lost: Journeys Through a Vanishing Japan by Alan Booth
The Key by Junichirō Tanizaki
Piercing by Ryū Murakami
Shipwrecks by Akira Yoshimura
The Fox Woman by Kij Johnson
Strangers by Taichi Yamada
Audition by Ryū Murakami
Masks by Fumiko Enchi
Speed Tribes: Days and Nights With Japan's Next Generation by Karl Taro Greenfeld
Wrong About Japan by Peter Carey
Women of the Pleasure Quarters: The Secret History of the Geisha by Lesley Downer
Yoshiwara: Geishas, Courtesans & the Pleasure Quarters of Old Tokyo by Stephen Longstreet
The Salaryman's Wife by Sujata Massey (1st book in series)
House of the Sleeping Beauties And Other Stories by Yasunari Kawabata
Autobiography of a Geisha by Sayo Masuda
Geisha by Liza Dalby
The Roads to Sata: A 2000-Mile Walk Through Japan by Alan Booth
Hear the Wind Sing by Haruki Murakami
Yakuza Moon: Memoirs of a Gangster's Daughter by Shoko Tendo
Yakuza Pride by H.J. Brues
The Box Man by Kōbō Abe
Fruits Basket, Vol. 1 by Natsuki Takaya (1st book of series)
The Sandman: The Dream Hunters by Neil Gaiman
Fruits by Yuya Aoki (1st book of series)
Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words by Jay Rubin
The Printmaker's Daughter by Katherine Govier
Three-Cornered World by Natsume Sōseki
Confessions of a Yakuza: A Life in Japan's Underworld by Junichi Saga
My Yakuza by A.J. Llewellyn
The Decay of the Angel by Yukio Mishima
Hotel Iris: A Novel by Yoko Ogawa
Tokyo Year Zero by David Peace (1st book in trilogy)
Tokyo Zero by Marc Horne
The Concubine's Tattoo by Laura Joh Rowland
American Fuji by Sara Backer
First Snow on Fuji by Yasunari Kawabata
The Face of Another by Kōbō Abe
Ōoku: The Inner Chambers, Volume 1 by Fumi Yoshinaga (1st book in series)
Fudoki by Kij Johnson
The Push Man and Other Stories by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
Diary of a Mad Old Man by Junichirō Tanizaki
The Japanese Mind: Understanding Contemporary Culture by Roger J. Davies
Fires on the Plain by Shohei Ooka
Anthology of Japanese Literature by Donald Keene
Traditional Japanese Poetry: An Anthology by Steven Carter
Modern Japanese Stories: An Anthology by Ivan Morris
Classical Japanese Prose: An Anthology by Helen McCullough
Untangling My Chopsticks: A Culinary Sojourn in Kyoto by Victoria Abbott Riccardi
Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld, Expanded Edition by David E. Kaplan
The Dancing Girl of Izu and Other Stories by Yasunari Kawabata
Quicksand by Junichirō Tanizaki
Tales of Moonlight And Rain by Ueda Akinari
Acts of Worship: Seven Stories by Yukio Mishima
Japanese Inn by Oliver Statler
The Making of Modern Japan by Marius B. Jansen
The Flower Master by Sujata Massey
Villain: A Novel by Shuichi Yoshida
Samurai William: The Englishman Who Opened Japan by Giles Milton
The Lone Samurai: The Life of Miyamoto Musashi by William Scott Wilson
After the Banquet by Yukio Mishima
Inventing Japan: 1853-1964 by Ian Buruma
Pink Samurai: Love, Marriage and Sex in Contemporary Japan by Nicholas Bornoff
The Great Wave by Christopher Benfey
Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness by Kenzaburō Ōe
The Last Concubine by Lesley Downer
If You Follow Me by Malena Watrous
The Pearl Diver by Jeff Talarigo
The Scent of Sake by Joyce Chapman Lebra

More...



Plum Wine by Angela Davis-Gardner
Empire of Signs by Roland Barthes
Barefoot Gen, Volume One: A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima by Keiji Nakazawa (1st book of series)
Death in Midsummer and Other Stories by Yukio Mishima
Death Note Volume 1: Boredom by Tsugumi Ohba (1st book of series)
A Cat, a Man, and Two Women by Junichirō Tanizaki
The Wild Geese by Mori Ōgai
Rain Fall by Barry Eisler (aka "Tokyo Killer". 1st book in series)
Hiroshima Notes by Kenzaburō Ōe
Thirst for Love by Yukio Mishima
The Snow Fox by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer
Pinball, 1973 by Haruki Murakami
Tonoharu: Part One by Lars Martinson
Japan Ai: A Tall Girl's Adventures In Japan by Aimee Major Steinberger
The Last Shogun: The Life of Tokugawa Yoshinobu by Ryotaro Shiba
Madame Sadayakko by Lesley Downer
The Laws of Evening by Mary Yukari Waters
Hitching Rides with Buddha by Will Ferguson
In Ghostly Japan by Lafcadio Hearn
Once Upon a Time in Ghostly Japan by Sayumi Kawauchi
Mishima's Sword by Christopher Ross
The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard
The Silent Cry by Kenzaburō Ōe
The Ruined Map by Kōbō Abe
The Zen of Fish: The Story of Sushi, from Samurai to Supermarket by Trevor Corson
Sayonara by James A. Michener
Abandon the Old in Tokyo by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
Akira, Vol. 1 by Katsuhiro Otomo (1st book of series)
Life of an Amorous Woman and Other Writings by Ihara Saikaku
Gossamer Years: Diary of a Noblewoman of Heian Japan by Michitsuna no Haha
Shadow Family by Miyuki Miyabe
The Japanese Have a Word for It by Boyé Lafayette de Mente
The Secrets of Mariko: A Year in the Life of a Japanese Woman by Elisabeth Bumiller
Angry White Pyjamas by Robert Twigger
Now You're One of Us by Asa Nonami
The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories by Theodore W. Goossen
Das Jagdgewehr. by Yasushi Inoue
A History of Japan by R.H.P. Mason
Japan at War: An Oral History by Haruko Taya Cook
In the Realm of a Dying Emperor by Norma Field
As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams: Recollections of a Woman in 11th-Century Japan by Sarashina
Japanese Tales by Royall Tyler
Supermarket: A Novel by Satoshi Azuchi
Love in Translation: A Novel by Wendy Tokunaga
Kamikaze Girls by Novala Takemoto
The Confessions of Lady Nijo by Nakanoin Masatada no musume
Sanshiro by Natsume Sōseki
The Tokaido Road by Lucia St. Clair Robson
Kappa by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

More Books Set in Japan:


Thank You and Okay!: An American Zen Failure in Japan by David Chadwick
36 Views of Mount Fuji: On Finding Myself in Japan by Cathy N. Davidson
A Ride in the Neon Sun: A Gaijin in Japan by Josie Dew
Turning Japanese: Memoirs of a Sansei by David Mura
Turning Japanese by Cathy Yardley
Chronicles of My Life: An American in the Heart of Japan by Donald Keene
Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest of Times to A.D. 697 by W.G. Aston
The Road Through Miyama by Leila Philip
The Dragon Scroll by I.J. Parker (1st book in series)
Children Of The A Bomb: Testament Of The Boys And Girls Of Hiroshima by Arata Osada
The Last Train from Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back by Charles R. Pellegrino
Stepper by Brian Castro
Tune in Tokyo: The Gaijin Diaries by Tim Anderson
Big in Japan: A Ghost Story by M. Thomas Gammarino
The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura
Samurai Shortstop by Alan M. Gratz
Women of the Pleasure Quarters: The Secret History of the Geisha by Lesley Downer
Letters From Iwo Jima by Kumiko Kakehashi
Hidden Flower by Pearl S. Buck
Big Wave by Pearl S. Buck
The Girl With The White Flag by Tomiko Higa
The Typhoon Lover by Sujata Massey

.


Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan by Jake Adelstein
The Lady and the Monk: Four Seasons in Kyoto by Pico Iyer

I probably missed the ones I'm adding now:
Cranes At Dusk by Hisako Matsubara

And The Doctor's Wife by Sawako Ariyoshi

The Day of the Bomb by Karl Bruckner

Snow by Maxence Fermine

Okinawa: The Last Battle of World War II by Robert Leckie

The Key to Midnight by Dean Koontz

Inside Japan: Wealth, Work And Power In The New Japanese Empire by Peter Tasker

The Roads to Sata: A 2000-Mile Walk Through Japan by Alan Booth

A Year in the Life of a Shinto Shrine by John K. Nelson

Wandering Ghost: The Odyssey of Lafcadio Hearn by Jonathan Cott

Revenge by Yoko Ogawa

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

The Gods of Heavenly Punishment: A Novel by Jennifer Cody Epstein

The 10th book in I J Parker's Sugawara Akitada series came out in November.
The Emperor's Woman
I was surprised it wasn't here... The whole series is really good.

Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff

The Soil by Nagatsuka Takashi

This one's not really set in Japan, but written from the viewpoint of Japanese women sent to the US
The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka

An Exquisite Sense of What is Beautiful by J. David Simons

The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism by Naoki Higashida

A True Novel by Minae Mizumura

The Earthquake Doll by Candace Williams

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami

Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, Emptiness: Tokyo Landscape

Futon Daiko: A Japanese Festival

Japanese Pilgrimage

The first two are by me.

For those interested in Tokyo, I do have a giveaway at Goodreads:

Here Comes the Sun: A Journey to Adoption in 8 Chakras

The Tosa Diary by Ki No Tsurayuki.

The Walking Man by Jirō Taniguchi
Making Love by Jean-Philippe Toussaint

A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding: A Novel by Jackie Copleton

The Silver Spoon: Memoir of a Boyhood in Japan

Be a rice Addict. Real Japanese food at home. You can never stop eating!

The Anatomy of Dependence

Any recommendations for something set in Nagasaki specifically? I am traveling there and love to get an idea of the culture and location through a novel. Thanks all!

Ashley wrote: "Any recommendations for something set in Nagasaki specifically? I am traveling there and love to get an idea of the culture and location through a novel. Thanks all!" Hi Ashley. A great one to get a feel for the history of Nagasaki and for foreigners in Japan specifically is The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet Enjoy! And sending you all the best from Tokyo.

Tracy wrote: "Ashley wrote: "Any recommendations for something set in Nagasaki specifically? I am traveling there and love to get an idea of the culture and location through a novel. Thanks all!" Hi Ashley. A gr..."
Thank you Tracy! That is one I found on my own search so it is great to hear it is recommended!

Ashley wrote: "Tracy wrote: "Ashley wrote: "Any recommendations for something set in Nagasaki specifically? I am traveling there and love to get an idea of the culture and location through a novel. Thanks all!" H..."
It's a great read--totally captivating--as well as being a really interesting glimpse into Nagasaki and Japanese history. Hope you love it as much as I did!

The Boy in the Earth by Fuminori Nakamura

Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami

The Great Passage by Shion Miura

Inheritance from Mother by Minae Mizumura

Diane wrote: " Inheritance from Mother by Minae Mizumura"
Thanks for this, Diane! I loved Mizumura's "A True Novel" and am so excited to hear about this forthcoming book. (Esp. as an American mother, wife, and daughter-in-law living in Japan and married into a Japanese family.) So glad to hear this is forthcoming.

Cats Hatsumode

A stylish and cute picture book set in Japan.

The Great Passage by Shion Miura

Diane wrote: " The Great Passage by Shion Miura"
Hey, thanks for this, Diane! Love the description of this, and love the translator, whose translations I've read before. Excited to start reading this!

The Emissary by Yōko Tawada

Territory of Light by Yūko Tsushima.

Ms Ice Sandwich by Mieko Kawakami

Dandelions by Yasunari Kawabata

Record of a Night Too Brief by Hiromi Kawakami

Spring Garden by Tomoka Shibasaki

Manazuru by Hiromi Kawakami