My 5 Japanese Books-to-Read List
A list of books which gives a glimpse into Japanese society and life.
When I am not working or busy going about my daily life, I spend whatever free time I have left, reading. I love reading fiction as it provides a cheapest and convenient form of escapism and travel, and I love reading non-fiction as it provides a gateway into the world of knowledge to satisfy my curiosity.
I have been reading different types of books at different points of my life, depending on my “mood” or what I went through at that point in time. Lately, I have been reading books relating to Japanese philosophy and culture ever since my first spiritual trip to Japan in 2019 in search of inner peace.
I set up a book review page on Instagram, where I connect with fellow book lovers to share our love of books, discuss the books we read and recommend to each other what we may like, although it is hard for me to recommend because I know we all have different taste, perspective and life experience.
“Books aren’t just arbitarily being recommended. If that book doesn’t suit your taste, it would be agonising to continue reading it.”
The quote from a Japanese Drama titled, ‘After the Rain’ best described what I feel as the same applies to every other things such as food and films. However, out of the those that were being recommended to me, five of them stood out to me as they appears to have compelling life stories and characters.
1. Soul Lanterns by Shaw Kuzki
The haunting and poignant story of how a young Japanese girl’s understanding of the historic and tragic bombing of Hiroshima is transformed by a memorial lantern-floating ceremony.
Twelve-year-old Nozomi lives in the Japanese city of Hiroshima. She wasn’t even born when the bombing of Hiroshima took place. Every year Nozomi joins her family at the lantern-floating ceremony to honor those lost in the bombing. People write the names of their deceased loved ones along with messages of peace, on paper lanterns and set them afloat on the river.
This year Nozomi realizes that her mother always releases one lantern with no name. She begins to ask questions, and when complicated stories of loss and loneliness unfold, Nozomi and her friends come up with a creative way to share their loved ones’ experiences. By opening people’s eyes to the struggles they all keep hidden, the project teaches the entire community new ways to show compassion.
Soul Lanterns is an honest exploration of what happened on August 6, 1945, and offers readers a glimpse not only into the rich cultural history of Japan but also into the intimate lives of those who recognize–better than most–the urgent need for peace.
Review by Penguin Random House
2. How Do You Live by Genzaburo Yoshino
Anime master, Hayao Miyazaki’s favourite childhood book, translated in English, for the first time.
First published in 1937, Genzaburō Yoshino’s How Do You Live? has long been acknowledged in Japan as a crossover classic for young readers. Academy Award–winning animator Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro) has called it his favorite childhood book and announced plans to emerge from retirement to make it the basis of a final film.
Copper, fifteen, who after the death of his father must confront inevitable and enormous change, including his own betrayal of his best friend. In between episodes of Copper’s emerging story, his uncle writes to him in a journal, sharing knowledge and offering advice on life’s big questions as Copper begins to encounter them. Over the course of the story, Copper, like his namesake Copernicus, looks to the stars, and uses his discoveries about the heavens, earth, and human nature to answer the question of how he will live.
This first-ever English-language translation of a Japanese classic about finding one’s place in a world both infinitely large and unimaginably small is perfect for readers of philosophical fiction like The Alchemist and The Little Prince, as well as Miyazaki fans eager to understand one of his most important influences.
3. Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami
Shortlisted for the 2013 Man Asian Literary Prize, Strange Weather in Tokyo is a story of loneliness and love that defies age.
Tsukiko, thirty–eight, works in an office and lives alone. One night, she happens to meet one of her former high school teachers, “Sensei,” in a local bar. He is thirty years her senior, retired, and presumably a widower. Their relationship develops from a perfunctory acknowledgment of each other as they eat and drink alone at the bar, to a hesitant intimacy which tilts awkwardly and poignantly into love.
As Tsukiko and Sensei grow to know and love one another, time’s passing is marked by Kawakami’s gentle hints at the changing seasons: from warm sake to chilled beer, from the buds on the trees to the blooming of the cherry blossoms. Strange Weather in Tokyo is a moving, funny, and immersive tale of modern Japan and old–fashioned romance.
Review by Penguin Random House
4. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
Convenience Store Woman is the heartwarming and surprising story of thirty-six-year-old Tokyo resident, Keiko Furukura. Keiko has never fit in, neither in her family, nor in school, but when at the age of eighteen, she begins working at Hiiromachi branch of “Smile Mart”, she finds peace and purpose in her life.
In the store, unlike anywhere else, she understands the rules of social interaction ― many are laid out line by line in the store’s manual ― and she does her best to copy the dress, mannerisms, and speech of her colleagues, playing the part of a “normal” person excellently, more or less.
Managers come and go, but Keiko stays at the store for eighteen years. It’s almost hard to tell where the store ends and she begins. Keiko is very happy, but the people close to her, from her family to her coworkers, increasingly pressure her to find a husband, and to start a proper career, prompting her to take desperate action…
A brilliant depiction of an unusual psyche and a world hidden from view, Convenience Store Woman is an ironic and sharp-eyed look at contemporary work culture and the pressures to conform, as well as a charming and completely fresh portrait of an unforgettable heroine.
5. There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura
Convenience Store Woman meets My Year of Rest and Relaxation in this strange, compelling, darkly funny tale of one woman’s search for meaning in the modern workplace.
A young woman walks into an employment agency and requests a job that has the following traits: it is close to her home, and it requires no reading, no writing — and ideally, very little thinking.
She is sent to a nondescript office building where she is tasked with watching the hidden-camera feed of an author suspected of storing contraband goods. But observing someone for hours on end can be so inconvenient and tiresome. How will she stay awake? When can she take delivery of her favourite brand of tea? And, perhaps more importantly — how did she find herself in this situation in the first place?
As she moves from job to job, writing bus adverts for shops that mysteriously disappear, and composing advice for rice cracker wrappers that generate thousands of devoted followers, it becomes increasingly apparent that she’s not searching for the easiest job at all, but something altogether more meaningful…
Thoughts
The first two books strike me more of a deep philosophical discussion of life and death, and the ultimate question of what is the purpose of life, how to live our life meaningfully and find peace in letting go of the sorrows of the past. Something which we all have problems with in staying in the present.
The other three books appeals to me as a relatable slice of life stories of characters who struggles to be “normal” like everyone else in having a “good” job and starting your own family. They ask questions like why do we have to conform to society’s expectations on what it means to be successful or happy.
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