Travel across Asia with the best Japanese books to read before you go. These books about and set in Japan are sure you take you there.
Many great Japanese novels showcase incredible characters, vast journeys, and magical realism. And, let’s not forget: cats. Lots of cats – some that even talk.
Although not all brief, you can also certainly find the perfect short Japanese book or two when you aren’t looking to read a large tome over the weekend.
But, don’t let that page count fool you; these tales are chock full of meaning and raise larger questions to help improve our lives.
Plus, there are a plethora of fantastic translated Japanese books out there that examine everyday life, love, friendships, artificial intelligence, and women’s bodies.
With so many powerful books about Japan, it’s hard to choose what to read next.
Which books about Japanese culture will teach you more and make you think more deeply?
And, what books set in Japan are sure to take you there and enhance your next trip?
Below, we are sharing just a few of the best Japanese books to add to your growing TBR pile.
Of course, “best” is subjective, and we couldn’t possibly name all of the devour-worthy Japanese novels.
Be sure to let us know your favorites in the comments as you explore Japanese fantasy, fiction, mystery, indie, and romance novels. Let’s get started.
If you enjoy these books set in Japan, be sure to watch these Japanese movies.
Grab the best Japan books here:
1. Book of the Month: Get the month’s hottest new and upcoming titles from Book of the Month. You might snag an early release or debut author. Along with selecting a book a month, find terrific add-ons, both trendy and lesser-known titles.
2. Audible Plus: From Amazon, listen to Amazon Originals, podcasts, and audiobooks. They add new titles every week.
3. Amazon Prime: Don’t miss Amazon First Reads – early access to Kindle books. Get fast delivery as well as movies, music, Originals, shows, and more.
4. Or, start your trial of Amazon Video for movies and tv series on demand.
25 Fantastic Japanese Books
By Sheree Strange
1. Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
Translated into English by Ginny Tapley Takemori
Celebrated Japanese author Sayaka Murata has always used her work to explore the darkness and weirdness of human nature against the backdrop of conformity and taboo in contemporary Japan.
In Earthlings, she turns the dial up to eleven.
The main character, Natsuki, has known she is “different” for as long as she can remember, but cracks in her “normal” facade are beginning to show.
Her sexless marriage fails to produce any children, and the dark shadows of her own childhood are looming.
She seeks out her cousin, Yuu, to see if he’ll be willing to make good on the strange promise they made as children. This Japanese book is not for the faint of heart!
Read Earthlings: Amazon | Goodreads
2. An Artist Of The Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
Kazuo Ishiguro occupies an interesting liminal space, with his English upbringing and his Japanese heritage fusing to produce Nobel Prize-winning literature.
Of all his books about Japanese culture, An Artist Of The Floating World is the most surprising.
Steering away from his more popular dystopian and sci-fi premises, this is a historical fiction story told in four parts, across the seasons, in the life of an aging Japanese artist.
He is forced to reckon with the consequences of his willingness to produce propaganda for the government during World War II.
The choice might have been politically expedient at the time, but in post-war Japan, he faces damage to his reputation that threatens to tear his family apart.
Read An Artist Of The Floating World: Amazon | Goodreads
3. Heaven by Mieko Kawakami
Translated into English by Sam Bett and David Boyd
Two isolated teenagers seek solace and comfort in each other, with devastating consequences.
That’s the premise of Heaven, one of the shortest Japanese books on this list (167 pages). Don’t be fooled, though: it’s a complex, multilayered story that still manages to pack a real punch!
It’s narrated by an unnamed 14-year-old boy who is tormented by his peers for his lazy eye and his shy nature.
He manages to connect with Kojima, a classmate who is also bullied for her dirty clothes and eccentricity, through clandestine letters they pass in secret.
Your heart will break for them, but beware: things are going to get worse for them, and there’s no promise they’ll get any better. Heaven will especially speak to dark academia book seekers.
Read Heaven: Amazon | Goodreads
4. There’s No Such Thing As An Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura
Translated into English by Polly Barton
Haven’t we all dreamed of an “easy job?” One that requires very little of us – ideally, no thinking at all?
That’s what the unnamed narrator of There’s No Such Thing As An Easy Job is after. Each chapter revolves around a different “easy” job she takes on, each with its own unique set of farcical challenges.
As she spins through the revolving door of busy work, she’s forced to confront the possibility that capitalism’s grip on her mental and physical health might not be so easily shaken.
Books set in Japan make for the perfect backdrop against which to interrogate our social and economic realities, and Kikuko Tsumura’s novel is one of the best.
A must-read Japanese book for fans of My Year Of Rest And Relaxation!
Read There’s No Such Thing As An Easy Job: Amazon | Goodreads
5. The Perfect World Of Miwako Sumida by Clarissa Goenawan
Japanese mystery novels don’t (always) revolve around criminals and detectives.
The Perfect World Of Miwako Sumida by Clarissa Goenawan explores a more domestic mystery, that of a seemingly-perfect teenage girl’s suicide.
This “elegantly cryptic Murakami-esque ‘whydunnit’” is told from three perspectives: the boy who loved Miwako, his sister, and her best friend.
All of them are searching for answers, and the reader can’t help but be drawn in to search alongside them. Miwako Sumida herself is notably silent, making the circumstances of her death all the more haunting and mysterious.
Over the course of this carefully plotted novel, Goenawan gradually pulls apart the perfect facade of Miwako Sumida’s life, to reveal the tragic truth.
Read The Perfect World Of Miwako Sumida: Amazon | Goodreads
6. The Phone Box At The Edge Of The World by Laura Imai Messina
The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan, killing nearly 20,000 people and leaving thousands more injured or missing.
Inevitably, books set in Japan after this disaster reflect its huge impact on the lives of Japanese people.
The Phone Box At The Edge Of The World does so directly, through the stories of two characters who lost everything under the waves.
Yui and Takeshi meet at the titular phone box, both grappling with a grief that threatens to overwhelm them; in each other, and the phone box, they find solace and support.
The Phone Box is an actual place, known as the wind phone (風の電話, kaze no denwa) in real life; 30,000 people have visited Ōtsuchi to ‘call’ their lost loved ones over the past ten years.
Read The Phone Box At The Edge Of The World: Amazon | Goodreads
7. My Year Of Meats by Ruth Ozeki
Ruth Ozeki’s award-winning debut novel, My Year Of Meats, is one of the more unusual books about Japanese culture – one that interrogates it by comparison with its American equivalent.
In this story, a Japanese-American documentary filmmaker finds herself working with BEEF-EX, an export business with an unusual idea to promote the sale of American beef in Japan.
They employ her to produce a reality television show, called My American Wife.
Meanwhile, the wife of a BEEF-EX employee finds herself under intense pressure from her husband to start baby-making. He makes her watch the show and mimic the diet it depicts, with dark consequences.
The premise is funny, and the prose is witty, but there are some hard flinty truths at the core of this Japanese book.
Read My Year Of Meats: Amazon | Goodreads
8. The Makioka Sisters by Jun’ichirō Tanizaki
Translated into English by Edward G. Seidensticker: The Makioka Sisters is one of the most fascinating and enduring books about Japan of the 20th century.
Initially published in serial form during World War II (1943-1948), it offers a fascinating window into a unique period in Japanese history.
The Makioka family was once one of the wealthiest in the Osaka region, but with world conflict looming their fortunes have fallen.
Where they once had their pick of suitors for the younger unmarried Makioka sisters, they are now scrambling to secure engagements before the shame of spinsterhood comes for them.
There are multiple marriage plots and family dramas weaving throughout this story of social status – the perfect Japanese book for Jane Austen fans!
Read The Makioka Sisters: Amazon | Goodreads
9. The Tale Of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu
Edition above translated into English by Royall Tyler
Of all the classic Japanese novels, The Tale Of Genji occupies a particularly special place in the canon: it was (very probably) the first novel ever written, anywhere in the world.
As best we can tell, with some certainties lost to the annals of time, it was written in the early 11th century by a noblewoman-slash-lady-in-waiting, Murasaki Shikibu.
She did “write what you know” before it was cool, as The Tale Of Genji depicts the lives of Japanese high courtiers, following the story of an emperor’s disowned successor.
The story wasn’t fully translated into English until the early 20th century, but the translation (by Japanese poet Akiko Yosano) is now widely available.
Read The Tale Of Genji: Amazon | Goodreads
10. The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa
Translated into English by Stephen Snyder
Japanese books often find a second life in their English translation.
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa was published in its original Japanese in 1994, but it didn’t reach the awards shortlists and best-seller status until 2019, when the English translation was published in the U.S. and the Commonwealth.
This dystopian story evokes George Orwell and Franz Kafka: a novelist lives on an island under the control of the titular Memory Police, where people frequently “forget” objects or concepts (like hats, or birds).
It’s a melancholy and chilling Japanese book, one that will someday be held in the high esteem of 1984 or The Trial.
Read The Memory Police: Amazon | Goodreads
11. Breasts And Eggs by Mieko Kawakami
Translated into English by Sam Bett and David Boyd: Breasts And Eggs is the first of Mieko Kawakami’s Japanese books to be translated into English.
The story is told in two parts, with separate plots that are tied together by the narrator (Natsuko, a Tokyo writer) and their themes (womanhood and motherhood in contemporary Japan).
Kawakami has a unique talent for using mundane day-to-day activities – grocery shopping, home decorating, small talk about the weather – to communicate razor-sharp insights about what it means to be a woman.
This is a riveting and revelatory read, one recommended by none other than the master of books about Japanese culture, Haruki Murakami.
Read Breasts And Eggs: Amazon | Goodreads
12. If Cats Disappeared From The World by Genki Kawamura
Translated into English by Eric Selland
The premise of this Japanese book is startling, to say the least. A man finds out his days are numbered when he is diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.
He returns to his apartment only to find the Devil(!) with a special Faustian pact on offer. The Devil says the man can have one extra day of life, in exchange for making one thing disappear from the world.
The man is forced to reckon with the consequences of a monumental decision; what would happen if cats disappeared from the world?
What can we live without, and what makes life worth living? A lot of books about Japan prominently feature cats, and this is one of the best.
Read If Cats Disappeared From The World: Amazon | Goodreads
13. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Pachinko is one of the sweeping epic Japanese books that interrogates race, class, and family against a rich backdrop.
A pregnant teenager discovers that her lover is married, and chooses to marry a minister, against her own father’s and the baby’s father’s wishes.
The complex characters at the heart of Lee’s iconic novel explore bustling markets, university halls, and underworld parlors across Japan – and further afield.
The dramatic saga reaches across continents and generations, with the spiraling fallout of one personal and moral quandary having ramifications for decades to come.
Your heart will soar – and break – for the characters in Lee’s wonderful, profoundly moving novel – the perfect choice if you’re looking for expansive books about Japanese culture throughout the diaspora.
Pachinko is also an excellent selection if you are looking to read more books set in and about Korea.
Read Pachinko: Amazon | Goodreads
14. The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa
Translated into English by Louise Heal Kawai
If you’ve ever met a bookshop cat, you know they live a charmed life.
Each cat is as unique as the shop it calls home, but the one at the heart of The Cat Who Saved Books is… especially so.
Teenage bookworm Rintaro Natsuki is closing up his grandfather’s secondhand bookshop when Tiger, a talking cat, demands his help in a mission of the utmost importance.
This might be a tough read for book lovers who cringe at crimes against books (like the man who cuts books up into manageable chunks, or the man who puts books on his shelves but never reads them).
However, it’s the perfect pick for feline friends who want to immerse themselves in books about Japan with unlikely friendships at their heart.
Read The Cat Who Saved Books: Amazon | Goodreads
15. The Factory by Hiroko Oyamada
Translated into English by David Boyd
Everyone feels like a worker bee sometimes, and the three characters at the heart of The Factory are no exception.
One studies moss, one shreds paper, and the other proofreads documents – all of them work in the factory, in the heart of an unnamed Japanese city.
Slowly, over the course of this short but surreal story, the factory expands and comes to consume everything. Soon, the workers have no way of knowing where the factory ends and their real lives begin.
Japanese novels often incorporate magical realism, and Hiroko Oyamada does it particularly well in this searing critique of late-stage capitalism.
Read The Factory: Amazon | Goodreads
16. Memorial by Bryan Washington
If you’re looking for LGBTIQ+ Japanese books, you can’t go past the 2020 best-seller and #bookstagram favorite: Memorial by Bryan Washington.
In this profound dramedy, a Japanese American chef in a lackluster relationship returns to Osaka to visit his dying father, just as his mother arrives in Texas to visit.
His mother is backed into a corner, staying with her son’s on-the-rocks partner without her son as a buffer. Both men undergo huge personal transformations: one at home, and one in his homeland.
This is a story of becoming, of reckoning with who you really are, and how it tests the bounds of love.
Read Memorial: Amazon | Goodreads
17. Kafka On The Shore by Haruki Murakami
Translated into English by Philip Gabriel
All contemporary books about Japan and books set in Japan owe some debt to Haruki Murakami, the award-winning best-selling author and one of Japan’s most popular literary exports of the past fifty years.
Kafka On The Shore includes all the elements that make Murakami novels iconic: remarkable characters, an odyssey, cats, and magical realism.
A teenager runs away from home to search for his long-lost family members, and an aging man turns to reading Kafka for reasons even he can’t understand.
They are fated to cross paths, and within each other, they will find a new destiny. Murakami has mastered the art of compelling–if sometimes confusing–fiction.
Find even more Murakami books on our ’90s reading list and 1980s book list.
Read Kafka On The Shore: Amazon | Goodreads
18. Klara And The Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
Many dystopian Japanese novels focus on what could happen if the machines rise up against us and we are hoisted with our own technological petard.
In his most recent book, Kazuo Ishiguro explores whether the opposite could be true.
What if anthropomorphized artificial intelligence behaved exactly as it was designed to and served us faithfully, with complete devotion?
Klara is an Artificial Friend, waiting in a store to be selected as a playmate for a family. She sees and hears everything; so, she knows when she is chosen that something isn’t quite right.
Her surprisingly moving narration makes this all-too-plausible story truly unforgettable.
Read Klara And The Sun: Amazon | Goodreads
19. Strange Weather In Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami
Translated into English by Allison Markin Powell
Did you ever see one of your teachers outside of school?
Even as a grown-up, it’s weird; one amazing film memorably described the feeling as “like seeing a dog walk on its hind legs.”
That’s how Strange Weather In Tokyo begins, with Tsukiko – now in her late 30s – running into one of her former high-school teachers at a local sake bar.
Unable to shake the habit, she defaults to calling him Sensei (a Japanese honorific for “person who came before,” one who teaches).
They meet again, and again, and gradually their relationship transitions from that of teacher-student to something else entirely.
It might not be a traditional beginning to a great love story, but the best Japanese romance novels are always a little unconventional.
Read Strange Weather In Tokyo: Amazon | Goodreads
20. A Tale For The Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
A Tale For The Time Being is a story of chance, hope, and the search for belonging. Ruth is a novelist, living on a remote island.
One day, she discovers among the usual flotsam a Hello Kitty lunchbox.
Inside, she finds a collection of artifacts that connect her – across time and geography – to a sixteen-year-old girl living in Tokyo, prior to the 2011 tsunami.
The girl, Nao, had planned to end her own life, but there was something else she felt she had to do first: make a record of the life of her great-grandmother, a centenarian Buddhist nun.
This stunning Japanese book weaves past and present, fact and fiction, and it will have you reaching for the tissues more than once.
Read even more books set on remote islands.
Read A Tale For The Time Being: Amazon | Goodreads
More Japanese books and books set in Japan from Christine
21. Before the coffee gets cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Translated into English by Geoffrey Trousselot
One of our favorite (and shorter) time travel books, Before the coffee gets cold takes place at a cafe in Tokyo, Japan.
Readers and bookstagrammers either love this translated Japanese novel or find it repetitive.
Personally, we think the repetitiveness drives home a point, and the story provides a touch of humor with a beautiful message.
Get the tissue box ready.
Head to a 140-year-old, back-alley cafe that not only serves coffee but allows visitors to travel back in time. We meet four patrons of the cafe who are hoping to time travel to see someone for the last (or first) time.
Be sure to pay attention to the way each person views the cafe – as this says a lot about who they are and their outcomes.
True to its namesake, each time traveler’s trip may only last as long as it takes for the coffee to grow cold. If they don’t finish their coffee before this point, there are ghostly consequences.
Who would you wish to see one last time, and what issues would you address? Along with the many rules of time travel, these visitors are warned that the present will not change.
Would you still travel back knowing this? Can something, anything, still change – even within you?
Explore even more thought-provoking (and scary) books with ghosts.
Read Before the coffee gets cold: Amazon | Goodreads
22. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
Translated into English by Ginny Tapley Takemori
One of the best Japanese books for Women in Translation Month (August) that will also make you think more deeply, Convenience Store Woman follows the life of convenience store worker, Keiko Furukura.
Keiko lives in Tokyo, Japan, and she is a people pleaser. Initially, Keiko subscribes to society’s stifling beliefs that she can only live a ‘normal’ existence if she follows a prescribed way of life.
This includes getting a ‘real’ full-time job, marrying young, and bearing children.
Even though Keiko tries to be the perfect convenience store worker, comically shouting out promotions and making sure the shelves are stocked, she knows that everyone else condemns her lifestyle.
However, when Keiko tries to conform, nothing feels right. She finds herself even more lost and miserable.
Convenience Store Woman is a satirical look at modern society and how we are cogs in it.
Short and simple, for books about Japanese culture and society, Convenience Store Woman packs a big, thought-provoking punch.
You’ll champion Keiko as she comes out on top.
Read Convenience Store Woman: Amazon | Goodreads | Book Information
23. Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean
One of the sweetest YA books set in Japan, Tokoyo Ever After is for fans of Princess Diaries with a Crazy Rich Asians flair. Encounter a fun but heartwarming story of family and love.
Growing up Japanese-American and living in California, Izumi Tanaka doesn’t feel as though she belongs anywhere.
Izumi doesn’t fit in at school, and when she learns that her estranged Japanese father is the Crown Prince of Japan, she quickly realizes that even in Japan, people will always see her as a foreigner.
Izumi jets off to Japan to spend time with her father and determine who she wishes to become.
Most importantly, Izumi realizes that as a leader, she must radiate integrity and inspire new traditions and change. Can Izumi act with her heart to win over an entire country?
For books about Japanese culture and tradition, this is a fun romance as well as a beautiful, feel-good story about exploring heritage and families.
Izumi is courageous and empowering – shining far brighter than any glitzy tiara or perfectly selected outfit.
Read Tokyo Ever After: Amazon | Goodreads
24. In The Realm Of Ash And Sorrow by Kenneth Harmon
For WWII books about Japan, don’t miss indie novel, In The Realm Of Ash and Sorrow, especially if you enjoy magical realism and more lyrical novels filled with atmospheric intensity at a slower pace.
Travel to Japan on the brink of the bombing of Hiroshima.
Micah Lund dies as his bombing plane crashes in Hiroshima. His spirit cannot move on, and it’s time that he learns about the ‘enemy’ that he’s been bombing.
Through a Japanese family and other ghostly friends, Micah comes to understand his misgivings and racism.
Whereas he once wished revenge upon all of the Japanese residents for killing his brother during the war, he soon comes to love one of its mortal residents.
Micah’s transformative and powerful journey is one that everyone can learn from.
Even though we find elements of magical realism, they do not overshadow the hardships of war, including starvation and death.
For books set in Japan, find redemption, forgiveness, and cultural understanding. Explore even more WWII historical fiction novels.
Read In The Realm Of Ash And Sorrow: Amazon | Goodreads | Book Information
25. Flame In The Mist by Renée Ahdieh
Head to Feudal Japan in Flame In The Mist, the first in this young adult series.
Mariko feels powerless in her current role as the daughter of a samurai. Forced into a marriage of convenience, Mariko must either sit back or fight back. She chooses to fight.
A Mulan retelling, Mariko dresses as a boy to fight against the gang who attempts to murder her. Along the way, though, she finds love. Can her new community move past her real identity?
For YA Japanese fantasy novels, Flame In The Mist is one of our favorites where historical fantasy meets feminism.
Read Flame In The Mist: Amazon | Goodreads | Read More
Save Your Favorite Japanese Novels & Books About Japan For Later
Grab your favorite Japanese books here:
1. Book of the Month: Get the month’s hottest new and upcoming titles from Book of the Month. You might snag an early release or debut author. Along with selecting a book a month, find terrific add-ons, both trendy and lesser-known titles.
2. Audible Plus: From Amazon, listen to Amazon Originals, podcasts, and audiobooks. They add new titles every week.
3. Amazon Prime: Don’t miss Amazon First Reads – early access to Kindle books. Get fast delivery as well as movies, music, Originals, shows, and more.
4. Or, start your trial of Amazon Video for movies and tv series on demand.
Thank you to TUL contributor, Sheree from Keeping Up With The Penguins
Sheree (pronouns: she/her) is a writer and book reviewer living on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation (known as Sydney, Australia). She has been reviewing books on her blog, Keeping Up With The Penguins, since 2017. She reads books of all kinds and shares her thoughts on them all across the internet.
What are your favorite books about Japanese Culture? How about your favorite books set in Japan?
What Japanese books have you read and loved?
What are your favorite Japanese romance, mystery, crime, and fantasy novels?
Is there a Japanese book you didn’t enjoy as much? Let us know in the comments.
You may also enjoy these Japanese fantasy movies.
Travel across Asia with these book lists:
India Reading List
Indian Mythology
Indonesia Books
Thailand
The Philippines
Korean Books In English
Carrie Carter
Tuesday 15th of November 2022
I am so excited to find your website. So many good books! I don't know where to start. But trust me, I will start reading through the list.
Christine
Wednesday 16th of November 2022
Hi Carrie, I'm so glad! Welcome!
Rebecca
Monday 31st of January 2022
Confessions by Kinae Minato is fantastic!
Christine
Tuesday 1st of February 2022
Thanks so much for the recommendation!