Recommended Reading
Not everyone wishes to do some ‘homework’ before their holidays but for those with the time and inclination any of the following books provide interesting and useful background on Japan for your tour.
Modern Fiction
Convenience Store Woman, Sayaka Murata
Translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori (Granta, 2018). Quirky, thought-provoking tale of a single woman working as a cog in the iconic institution of modern life in Japan: the convenience store.
Butter, Asako Yuzuki
Translated by Polly Barton (Ecco, 2024). Food and feminist themes are weaved into this bestseller about a woman accused of seducing wealthy men with her cooking then killing them.
Pachinko, Min Jin Lee
(Head of Zeus, 2017). Rollercoaster tale charting the trials of a Korean woman migrating to Japan in the pre-war period and the fate of her descendants.
The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories, Edited by Jay Rubin
(Penguin Classics, 2020). Magical mix of works from modern and classic writers including Yoko Ogawa, Haruki Murakami, Ryunosuke Akutagawa and Junichiro Tanizaki.
An artist of the floating world, Kazuo Ishiguro
(Faber and Faber, 1986). Celebrated novel by Nobel Prize winner about an artist in 1948 reflecting on his life and his links to militarist tendencies in the early 20th century.
Travelogues
Sushi and Beyond: What the Japanese Know About Cooking, Michael Booth
(Vintage, 2010). Opinionated British chef challenges his own negative views of Japanese food with a family trip around the archipelago. Humorous and informative.
Where The Dead Pause And the Japanese Say Goodbye, Marie Mutsuki Mockett
(W.W. Norton & Company, 2015). Meditations on mourning and grief in modern Japan told with tenderness and beauty by a woman of Japanese heritage. Based on a trip around Tohoku shortly after the 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster.
Travels with a Writing Brush: Classical Japanese Travel Writing from the Manyoshu to Basho
Selected and Translated by Meredith McKinney (Penguin, 2020). A rich range of diary entries, songs and poems cherry-picked from the treasure trove of centuries of Japanese travel literature.
Things Become Other Things, Craig Mod
(Random House, 2025). A solo walk along the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage trail during Covid leads the author to reflect on painful parts of his past in rural America. Powerful prose with striking photography.
Walking the Kiso Road, William Scott Wilson
(Penguin, 2015). Historian of old Japan narrates his own 21st century walk through the Kiso region. Enhanced with colourful stories of the history of the trail.
Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, Isabella L. Bird
(Dover Publications, 2005). Intrepid 19th century traveller, Isabella Bird records her remarkable adventures walking through the wilds of the remote Tohoku region in letters to her sister.
Society, Culture and Religion
In Praise of Shadows, Junichiro Tanizaki
(Penguin Vintage Classics, 2019). Short but powerful meditation on the beauty of traditional Japanese art and architecture from one of its greatest novelists.
The Japanese Myths: A Guide to Gods, Heroes and Spirits, Joshua Frydman
(Thames and Hudson, 2022). Fascinating guide to the powerful myths and the collectively imagined characters that have influenced Japanese thinking for centuries. Richly supported with illustrations.
Dogs and Demons: Tales from the Dark Side of Japan, Alex Kerr
(Hill and Wang, 2002). Passionate polemic on the dramatic environmental and structural changes made during Japan’s supersonic-speed post-war development.
Bending Adversity, Japan and the Art of Survival (2nd Edition), David Pilling
(Penguin, 2020). Insightful and entertaining reporting into troublesome issues in contemporary Japanese society by an experienced journalist.
Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, Lafcadio Hearn
Originally Published in 1894 (Tuttle, 2016). Striking stories on 19th century culture and beliefs told by one of Japan’s most fondly treasured foreign residents.
Pure Invention: How Japan’s Pop Culture Conquered the World, Matt Alt
(Crown, 2021). Enjoyable insight into how gadgets and games turned Japan into a cultural superpower and changed how we all spend our days.
Alone in Japan: A Journey Into the Future, Tom Feiling
(Allen Lane 2026). A compelling and engaging narrative drawn from first-hand experience and thorough research about Japan’s ageing and declining population, the already apparent issues resulting from these and sobering future implications for the nation.
Personal Takes
A Beginner’s Guide to Japan: Observations and Provocations, Pico Iyer
(Vintage, 2020). Strong opinions and spicy anecdotes reveal unusual aspects of life from the global travel writer and long-term Japan resident.
How Kyoto Breaks Your Heart, Florentyna Leow
(Emma Press, 2023). Beautiful prose and rich insights into Kyoto, the nature of friendship, and life as a non-white foreign woman living and working in Japan.
Fifty Sounds, Polly Barton
(Fitzcarraldo, 2021). Absorbing and deeply personal account of the translator’s time as an English teacher on the remote island of Sado as she embarked on a lifelong love affair with the Japanese language.
Confessions of a Yakuza, Junichi Saga
(Kodansha, 1989). The poignant reflections of an ex-yakuza boss told to his doctor as he neared the end of his life.
The Widow, The Priest and The Octopus Hunter, Amy Chavez
(Tuttle, 2022). An American writer living for 25 years on a tiny island in the Inland Sea creates a rich cast of characters in this lively and loving account of their lives.
Chronicles of My Life: An American in the Heart of Japan, Donald Keene
(Columbia, 2009). Memoir of a New York-born man’s relationship with Japan, beginning as a soldier in WW2 and ending as an award-winning scholar and adopted Japanese citizen.
Sankyu Japan, Paul Madden
(The Kawauso Press, 2022). A fascinating personal account by a former British Ambassador to Japan - and now senior adviser to Walk Japan - on his clear liking for the nation and its people.
Abroad in Japan, Chris Broad
(Penguin, 2024). A personal and quirky take on modern Japanese culture by prolific YouTuber and podcaster.
History
Japan Story: In Search of a Nation, 1850 to the Present, Christopher Harding
(Tuttle, 2020). Lively account of over a century of immense social and political upheaval enriched by a colourful cast of characters who personify the enormous cultural changes.
Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Aftermath of World War II, John Dower
(Penguin, 1999). A vivid description of the impact of the US Occupation of Japan after WW2 richly supported by powerful contemporary photographs.
A Brief History of Japan: Samurai, Shogun and Zen: The Extraordinary Story of the Land of the Rising Sun, Jonathan Clements
(Tuttle, 2017). Pacey, entertaining accounts of key episodes and eras in Japanese history.
Pre-Modern Japan: A Historical Survey (2nd Edition), Mikiso Hane and Louis G. Perez
(Routledge, 2014). An engaging, wide-ranging analysis of political, cultural and social developments in Japan’s pre-modern period.
A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present (4th Edition), Andrew Gordon
(Oxford University Press, 2020). A classic, comprehensive piece on modern Japanese history told by a Harvard historian.
Inventing Japan: From Empire to Economic Miracle, Ian Buruma
(Phoenix, 2005). An insightful, opinionated account from a renowned writer into Japan’s dramatic century of change.
Classic Literature
Narrow Road to the North, Basho
Translated by Nobuyuki Yuasa (Penguin Classics, 2005). A classic of both literature and travelogues, this tale of the haiku poet’s journey around the north of Japan in the late 17th century is loved around the world.
Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories, Ryuunosuke Akutagawa
Translation by Jay Rubin (Penguin Classics, 2006). Rashomon is one of the early works on moral ambiguity by Japan’s greatest exponent of the short story form. The film of the book was made by the legendary Akira Kurosawa.
Naomi, Junichiro Tanizaki
Originally published 1925 (Vintage International, 2001). A comic and at times startling depiction of Japan’s fascination with western ways in the 1920s in this tale of a salaryman and a teenage girl.
Kokoro, Natsume Soseki
Originally published 1914. Translation by Meredith McKinney (Penguin, 2010). Meditative mournful tale on loneliness and isolation told against a backdrop of Japan’s rapid modernisation.
The Book of Five Rings, Miyamoto Musashi
Translated by William Scott Wilson (Kodansha, 2002). A book about the strategy and combat of feudal Japan that has now found application in business around the world.
The Snow Country, Yasunari Kawabata
Originally publisheed 1948. Translated by Edward G. Seidensticker (Penguin, 2011). The Nobel Prize winning author’s most famous work, a tale of love between a dilettante and a geisha in a provincial resort town deep in Japan’s snow country.
