Elements of Japanese Damascus Knives

Apart from their striking beauty, Japanese Damascus knives are unique because of their superior performance in the kitchen. The Damascus pattern seen on the blade is not just an aesthetic addition; it is an aesthetic that speaks for the quality of the knife and the ingenuity of the blacksmith. In addition to the aesthetic aspect of having multiple layers in the blade, there are several advantages in its design. The outer layers of softer material that include stainless steel shield the inner steel from corrosion hence the knife is able to resist rusting and staining.

As for the working process, Japanese Damascus knives boast sharp edges that easily glide across various ingredients. The core of the knife is made of high carbon steel, which can be either VG-10 or AUS-10, and it is famous for maintaining a sharp edge, so chefs can easily and skillfully cut food. 

This acumen not only improves the efficiency of food preparation processes but also protects the integrity of delicate ingredients like fishing for sushi or vegetables for sashimi.

Also, Japanese Damascus knives have multiple steel layers making them harder and more resistant than knives with a single steel layer. There are several layers of steel pieces in these knives that make them effective for cutting thin slices as well as cutting joints of meat or poultry. These attributes make knives made of Japanese Damascus steel very valuable in professional kitchens, as well as among amateurs who are interested in the craftsmanship of these knives for various culinary activities.

Types of Japanese Damascus Knives

Japanese Damascus knives come in various types, each tailored to specific culinary tasks:
Gyuto (Chef’s Knife): The gyuto is a versatile, all-purpose knife suitable for slicing, dicing, and chopping meats, vegetables, and herbs. Its curved blade allows for a rocking motion, making it ideal for mincing garlic or herbs with ease.

Santoku: Translating to “three virtues,” the santoku excels in slicing, dicing, and mincing. Its straight edge and rounded tip facilitate precise cuts, making it a favorite among home cooks and professionals alike for general kitchen duties.

Nakiri: Designed specifically for vegetable preparation, the Nakiri features a straight-edged blade that excels in push-cutting vegetables. Its thin blade ensures clean, uniform slices without crushing or tearing delicate produce.

Petty Knife: A smaller knife used for intricate tasks such as peeling fruits, deveining shrimp, or performing detailed cuts and garnishes. Its compact size and precise control make it indispensable for delicate kitchen work.
Each type of knife exhibits variations in blade length, thickness, and handle design, catering to diverse cooking styles and preferences.

Materials and Construction

The construction of Japanese Damascus knives is a labor-intensive process that starts with selecting high-quality steels and ends with meticulous craftsmanship. The core of the knife is typically made from high-carbon steel, known for its hardness and ability to maintain a sharp edge. Surrounding this core are multiple layers of softer stainless steel, which not only protect the core from corrosion but also contribute to the blade’s resilience and flexibility.

The forging process involves heating the steel to high temperatures, followed by repeated folding and hammering to create the layered pattern visible on the blade’s surface. This technique not only enhances the blade’s strength and durability but also ensures that the knife can withstand rigorous use without compromising its sharpness or structural integrity.

Modern advancements in metallurgy and forging techniques have allowed manufacturers to experiment with different steel combinations and layering methods, resulting in Japanese Damascus knives with increasingly intricate patterns and enhanced performance characteristics.

While traditional methods honor centuries-old craftsmanship, contemporary approaches incorporate scientific precision to achieve blades that are not only functional but also works of art in their own right.

Performance and Versatility

The performance of Japanese Damascus knives is unparalleled in the culinary world. Their razor-sharp edges effortlessly slice through ingredients with minimal resistance, ensuring clean cuts and preserving the integrity of delicate foods. The hardness of the steel core enables prolonged edge retention, reducing the need for frequent sharpening compared to conventional knives. Furthermore, the balanced construction and ergonomic designs of these knives minimize hand fatigue during prolonged use, making them comfortable and efficient tools in the kitchen.

Maintenance and Care

Maintenance of Japanese Damascus knives is a significant factor to enhance their longevity and efficiency. It is advised that the knives be washed by hand in warm water and mild soap each after use and then dried immediately in order to avoid water stains and rust formation. Refraining from washing the knife with acidic foods and abrasive soaps maintains the sharpness and luster of the appliance.

Stroking the knife while holding it against a sharpening steel or honing rod keeps the knife sharp in between sharpening. When it is time to sharpen, use a whetstone or the sharpening system geared towards Japanese knives in order to regain the edge of the blade while preserving the metal integrity.

Storing the knives in a knife block, magnetic strip or protective sheath not only protects the knives from getting damaged but also displays it safely and conveniently in the kitchen.

Choosing the Right Knife

Choosing the right Japanese Damascus knife is depends on some criteria such as taste, frequency of use and the amount of money that is willing to spend. This involves conducting studies to identify reliable brands associated with good workmanship and quality materials. Further, touch and feel, such as weight and balance, as well as how the knife feels in your hands, are best experienced firsthand.

Conclusion

Authentic Japanese Damascus kitchen knives are not only works of art and pieces of history but also essential tools needed by lovers and users of knives and professional cooks. Whether it is the stylish Damascus patterns or the enhanced acuity and sturdiness of these knives, these cuts enhance kitchen adventures while embracing the culture and history of Japan in blade making. In this way, enthusiasts will not only appreciate the type of work and detail possessed by the Japanese Damascus knives but also provide the right care for them.

Read More:

Best Japanese Cookbooks

Japanese Snacks You Must Try

Japanese Tea: Everything You Need to Know

The world of tea is a fascinating subject, with a long history that few are aware of unless they take the time to explore it. Japanese tea is diverse in its own right and has remained an incredibly important part of Japanese culture through the ages. In Japan, tea drinking developed over time into an art form and ethical practice that lives on to this day.

Here, you will learn a little about where tea originally came from, how it made its way to Japan specifically, and the types of Japanese tea you can try right now at home or on your next trip to Japan.

You will also find a selection of informative tea culture and tea making books that I read to learn more about tea at the bottom of this article to continue your own tea education!

How is tea grown?

A fun fact that many people don’t realise is that all teas (excluding herbal and floral) come from the same plant. Black, oolong, yellow, green, and white teas all come from the leaves and buds of the Camellia Sinensis, a plant which is regularly plucked for the buds and top leaves before going on a delicate journey of grinding, steaming, and oxidisation.

While other infusions made from herbs and flowers often come under the umbrella of tea, the only true teas are the ones derived from this adaptable plant, which has two distinct varieties: assamica and sinensis. The first, assimica, thrives in wet climates with high humidity, such as India and Sri Lanka. It provides a hearty yearly crop that undergoes a long production process, resulting in, most commonly, black teas and oolong. 

The second, sinensis, thrives at higher altitudes with cool temperatures and is most associated with the mountainous regions of China. The growing season is shorter, and the leaves are smaller and more delicate, lending themselves to green and white teas.

“Tea began as medicine and turned into a beverage”

— Okakura Kakuzo, The Book of Tea

A Brief History of Tea in Japan

There are many stories about how tea came to Japan, all of which can be traced back to around the 8th century. One of the most widely accepted being that Buddhist monks brought tea leaves back after studying in China during the Tang Dynasty. The first record of tea in Japan was found in the Heian period in Nihon Kôki (The Chronicles of Japan), which was written in 815.

The Buddhist monks Eichû, Kūkai, and Saichō (who are mentioned in Nihon Kôki) may have been the first to bring tea seeds to Japan. Over three hundred years later, the notable monk Eisai is often described as the ‘father of Japanese tea culture’.

After bringing seeds back from China, he planted them in the Sefuri Mountains (Saga Prefecture, Kyushu) and also gave seeds to the Kanzaji Temple in Kyoto. These seeds were then planted in Uji, Kyoto by the high priest Myoe. Uji later became the center of tea production in Japan.

Tea became notably popular with the gentry in the 12th century after Eisai’s publication of Kissa Yōjōki (How to Stay Healthy by Drinking Tea), which became popular with the Samurai in 1214. His practices became the basis of chanoyu, or tea practice, going forward to this day.

In particular, his knowledge and technique of producing powdered tea drawn from the methods used in tenth-century China, during the Song dynasty, became incredibly influential.

Eisai helped to spread tea as a healthy drink, one that could balance the body’s constitution and enhance health. The tea ceremony was developed around Zen Buddhist philosophy, with a focus on ritual, being present and aware in the moment, and becoming cognizant of the ephemerality of life.

Tea culture was influenced further by Murata Shuko in the fifteenth century. Shuko simplified the tea practices of the gentry and created a specific tea room design infused with the spirit of Zen Buddhism.

Read More: A Guide to Japanese Kokeshi Dolls

This caught the attention of wealthy merchants but the widespread popularity of tea came with Sen no Rikyû, a tea master who served two of Japan’s warlords (Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi) during the feudal era. Rikyû, during the sixteenth century, simplified the tea ritual further, creating a tea practice for the general population called wabi-cha based on seven rules using locally sourced brewing equipment.

Tip: If you’d like to learn more about Rikyû and wabi-cha, then you can read this fascinating journal.

In the 18th century, the creation of distinctive new styles of green tea, such as sencha, emerged which dominated tea consumption in Japan. It has a legacy which lasts to this day.

Tea drinking in Japan still plays an important role, despite the ever-increasing list of beverages available, including coffee (which has its own fascinating history in Japan). The phrase ocha wo suru in Japanese means to have tea together but also refers to the important social aspect of talking and bonding over tea.

Fun fact: Tea rooms in Japan are called kissaten which translates to ‘tea-drinking shop’.

Types of Japanese Green Tea

The most commonly enjoyed tea in Japan is green tea, and there are many varieties to familiarise oneself with. Here are the green tea options that you will most likely come across in Japan.

Fun Fact: Uji tea is a common name for all Japanese green tea produced from Uji, Kyoto, an area known for brewing some of the best tea in the world.

Matcha

Essential for the Japanese tea ceremony, Matcha is an energy provider which is bursting with health benefits and especially aids digestion.

Ceremonial-grade matcha is made from leaves that have been shaded from direct sunlight (similar to Gyokuro tea below) while growing and quickly steamed and dried after harvesting. The stems are then removed before the leaves themselves are gently and slowly ground between stone or ceramic plate.

This gentle production requires a lot of attention, meaning this is one of the more expensive teas available. It pairs very well with sweet treats, which are traditionally dry artistic sweets called higashi or moist sweets called omogashi in the tea ceremony.

How to make matcha: Making matcha is a satisfying process and is often considered to be a meditative experience. The basics of making matcha are to add two spoonfuls of matcha, ideally using a bamboo chashaku spoon, into a matcha bowl and add 10ml of boiled water (70 – 80C) to the powder before whisking vigorously.

Ideally, you should use a bamboo whisk, known as chasen, and whisk in an ‘M’ shape until all lumps are gone and a paste has formed. Top up with water to your desired level. Purchase a starter matcha-making set to make your matcha as traditionally as possible.

Tip: To make a matcha latte, just add warm milk to your matcha paste rather than water.

Hōjicha

A type of Japanese green tea which is typically roasted in a porcelain pot set over charcoal. The tea is fired at a high temperature, which alters the tea leaf’s colour from green to reddish-brown.

Gyokuro and Kabusecha

This is a valuable tea that differs from Sencha due to the condition in which it’s grown. The plant is shaded under tents for the last few weeks (around twenty days) before harvesting and being meticulously steamed and pressing the leaves. It’s made from a similar leaf used for ceremonial grade matcha. Kabusecha green tea is cultivated using a similar method but only shaded for approximately seven to ten days.

It’s also shaded at around fifty percent, whereas Gyokuro requires heavier shading from the sun at around seventy to ninety percent.

How to brew Gyokuro tea: The ideal temperature of water for Gyokuro should be 50 – 60C (70C for Kabusecha), using 3g (more for a higher intensity) per 150ml of water. 

Sencha

Uplifting and refreshing, sencha is the most popular tea in Japan and probably the first thing that comes to mind when we think of green tea. Unlike our previously mentioned teas, it’s grown in the sunshine before being harvested and steamed immediately to prevent oxidization.

How to brew Sencha tea: The ideal temperature of water for Sencha should be 70C, using 3g (more for a higher intensity) per 150ml of water. 

Genmaicha

This blend is instantly soothing. It combines Sencha green tea (often the smaller, broken bits, but not always) with puffed, toasted rice. The result is a wholesome and comforting flavour (reminiscent of popcorn), which is particularly lovely in the winter months.

Kukicha

A mild, smoky, creamy tea that is made of a blend of stems, stalks, and twig plants that are excluded from most teas, making for a unique flavor and aroma. Very easy to drink with no trace of bitterness, a great tea for relaxing with.

How to brew kukicha: Add 2 teaspoons of tea to 250ml of fresh water per person in a pan. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer for three minutes before serving.

Tip: Get started with Japanese green tea with this sampler set.

Other Types of Japanese Tea

These are teas typically made with infusions of grain rather than from the tea plant itself. They are mostly caffeine-free and provide some invigorating alternative beverages.

Mugicha

Particularly refreshing, especially in the summer when you can chill your own or buy ready-made bottles in the convenience store, this tea made from roasted and infused barley grain is drunk widely across East Asia and commonly served in restaurants.

How to Brew Mugicha: Boil your desired amount of water and add half a teaspoon of roasted, toasted barley grains per cup. You can leave it to chill in the fridge for iced mugicha.

Sobacha

Similar to Mugicha, Sobacha is also a grain-based tea, this time made with buckwheat tea. Also drank across East Asia, it’s known as memil-cha in Korea, soba-cha in Japan, and kuqiao-cha in China. Drank hot and cold, it’s also very much beloved during the summer months.

How to Brew Sobacha: Boil your desired amount of water and add half a teaspoon of roasted buckwheat grains per cup. You can leave it to chill in the fridge for iced buckwheat tea.

Gyokuroen Ume Kombu Cha

No, not kombucha, but tea made with kombu (or kelp), green tea, and ume (Japanese plum). A nutrient-filled tea (including high levels of iodine, calcium, and iron) for people who love deep umami flavours. The plum makes the tea pink and more acidic and the green tea provides depth and balance. You can find many different variations of this kelp tea.

How to Brew Kombu Cha – You can buy an instant powder mix of this tea, which can be made quickly and easily. Otherwise, you can buy dried kelp online or from your local Asian store, which you can then boil and leave to soak for several hours (or use powdered kelp) and keep in the fridge to mix with green tea and sour plum.

Loquat leaves tea (Biwa Cha)

A traditional Japanese herbal tea with earthy, sweet tones, made from dried and cut loquat leaves, is loaded with health benefits and is a traditional medicine for treating and preventing respiratory illnesses.

How to Brew Biwa Cha: Add two teaspoons of leaves (or to taste) to four cups of cold water and bring to a boil. Then, turn the heat down and simmer for ten to fifteen minutes. Finally, let it cool for ten minutes and drink.

Kuromame Cha

Also known as black soybean tea, this sweet drink is well-balanced with a savory roasted aroma and is full of antioxidants and iron. The tea has a distinctive dark purple colour and can be enjoyed hot or cold. It’s normal to find this tea bottled and chilled in convenience stores which is just perfect for sunny walks.

5 Books to Learn More about Japanese Tea

Interested in learning from the tea experts? Here are some wonderful books to get lost in the art of Japanese tea making.

1) Infused by Henriette Lovell

Written by the ‘tea lady’ herself, Henrietta is a tea expert and owner of the Rare Tea Company based in London. Advising some of the most prestigious hotels and restaurants on the art of tea making, her fascinating journey across the world in search of the best tea is recounted here, with each chapter teaching you about tea, production, and culture.

I learned a lot about proper brewing techniques from this book, which has improved my own tea drinking and helped with this article. Henrietta is also an advocate for responsible trade relationships, which really shows in her writing as we get to know the farmers that she works with through her writing. Adventures in tea absolutely sums up this book.

Buy a copy of Infused by Henriette Lovell

2) The Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzo

A classic piece of literature on tea, this is one of the go-to books if you want to learn more about the tea ceremony and the ancient art of tea in Japan. It’s a slender, beautifully written piece of literature that every tea enthusiast should dip into. 

Buy a copy of The Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzo

3) The Wisdom of Tea: Life Lessons from the Japanese Tea Ceremony by Noriko Morishita

This charming book tells the story of the author on her twenty-five-year journey studying the intricacies of the Japanese tea ceremony. A simple and moving story of how tea has been present in her life from an early age, Morishita teaches you a lot about Japanese tea in an informal and friendly way.

Buy a copy of The Wisdom of Tea by Noriko Morishita here

4) Tales of the Tea Trade by Michelle and Rob Comins

This fascinating book delves deep into the cultivation, production, and history of tea, taking you around the world. Providing in-depth information in a friendly and accessible way, the authors give a story to those who work hard to give us the tea we love. I learned a lot about the history of Japanese tea from this article from this book, and it barely scratches the surface of what’s on offer here.

They also offer their perspectives on how Eastern tea rituals can find a place in our increasingly busy Western lives. Co-founders of Comins Tea which has tea houses in Bath and Sturminster and an online store.

Buy a copy of Tales of the Tea Trade by Michelle and Rob Comins

5) Good & Proper Tea

While it does include a lovely introduction to tea and correct brewing, including individual brewing guide recipe cards for all major teas, this book really shines when it comes to its creative tea recipes.

Whether you’re hoping to make your own tea desserts such as matcha cake, tea cocktails, or other exciting drinks, the options are endless. You can also visit Good & Proper Tea in London to try some of their recipes firsthand or buy tea.

Buy a copy of Good & Proper Tea here

Read More about Japanese tea and culture:

Learn About the Japanese Tea Ceremony

The History of Bubble Tea and How to Make it at Home

The Healing Power of Japanese Literature

Japanese literature is everywhere. The nation’s stories and novels get turned into manga, anime, and movies. Their authors are as famous and legendary as Hollywood’s actors and directors. And Japanese literature is big across the world.

The best Japanese books are often quick to be translated and, no matter how niche they may seem, they will find an audience. We at Books and Bao love the literature of Japan more than that of any other country, and Japanese authors have swum in the deep waters of every single genre.

Whether you’re looking for literary fiction, Japanese horror books, or Japanese mystery novels, you’ll find a few new favourites here amongst some of the best Japanese books of all time.

If you’ve always wondered where to start with Japanese literature, especially if you usually prefer a specific genre like romance, mystery, or fantasy, this guide to Japanese fiction will help you find the perfect book for you, whatever the genre.

Here, you’ll find twelve genres of Japanese literature, each with at least two unique Japanese book recommendations from us personally. Enjoy, and happy reading! If you want to stay up-to-date with the best new Japanese books every year, we’ve got you covered!

Classic Japanese Fiction

There are two meanings of the word ‘classic’ when it comes to fiction. There’s the official meaning, which is ‘any book that’s over 100 years old’ and then there’s the colloquial meaning which is, ‘anything the zeitgeist deems a classic’. So, for classic Japanese fiction, let’s have a bit of both.

Here, you’ll find some classic Japanese novels from times and eras long gone, and others from the last century which are now hailed as unparalleled modern classics of Japanese literature not to be missed. These, unsurprisingly, represent some of the best Japanese books around, full stop.

The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu

Translated by Kencho Suematsu

The Tale of Genji has quite the legacy. Not only was it the first Japanese novel, but it is widely considered to be the first novel ever written anywhere in the world. That alone makes it one of the most important and best Japanese novels to read right now.

Written by the Kyoto noblewoman Murasaki Shikibu in the 11^th century CE, The Tale of Genji takes us on a journey alongside the son of an emperor: Hikaru Genji. Genji is no longer in the line of succession and spends much of the novel’s story forming and then ruining relationships with various women in Kyoto.

The novel is a fascinating insight into the lives of Japan’s nobility back when Kyoto was the capital of Japan. It’s also a witty and smart novel that still holds up as one of the great works of classic Japanese fiction.

Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata

Translated by Edward G. Seidensticker

Many of his novels have the feel of a bell chime, opening with a loaded image that continues to resound throughout the rest of the story before drawing to a close with the final pages of the book.

For example, in his most famous work, Snow Country, the novel opens with a train ride through the mountainous countryside in which the narrator, staring out the window, superimposes the reflected face of a beautiful female passenger onto the darkening night sky and landscape outside.

Kawabata’s sparse yet wholly poetic opening is a masterstroke of foreshadowing in a novel that will confront the relationship between art, beauty, lust and love, in a near ethereal landscape, shown through a fragmented and sometimes drunken narration in which the main character finds himself unable to truly feel present and real before the beautiful geisha he has an affair with.

It reaches a harmony in the way the final image of the novel is of a brilliant moon hanging above that same night sky and illuminating the shocking climax. If you know anything about Japanese literature, you’ll know that Kawabata penned some of the best Japanese books of all time, and Snow Country may be his finest work.

(Taken from our Author Spotlight on Yasunari Kawabata)

The Silent Cry by Kenzaburo Oe

Translated by John Bester

Oe’s writing stems from his interactions with his own Japan, but while Ishiguro’s Japan is one somewhat fantastical, Oe’s is one of political turmoil, social struggle, and the fight for change. The Silent Cry tells the story of two brothers, the narrator and introverted academic Mitsusaburo, and his borderline-eccentric younger brother Takashi, who has just returned to Tokyo from New York.

After Mitsu and his wife make the choice to leave their handicapped infant child in an asylum, and Mitsu struggles with learning about the suicide of a friend (in a particularly and oddly erotic manner), he and his brother Takashi return to the village of their youth.

There, they do business and battle with a Korean slave-turned-CEO known as ‘the Emperor of Supermarkets’ who wishes to expand his empire. Just like Kawabata above, this Nobel Prize winner has authored some of the best Japanese books of the 20th Century, and The Silent Cry is the best place to start reading him.

(Taken from our article on Japan’s Nobel Prize Winners)

I Am a Cat by Natsume Soseki

Translated by Graeme Wilson

Natsume Soseki might be the most popular name in Japanese literature. When it comes to living authors, many first think of Haruki Murakami, but Soseki is certainly Japan’s most beloved author. He was a cynical man in many ways, and wrote novels that got to the faulty hearts of people in a sometimes earnest and sometimes cheeky way.

His cheekiest novel is a work of satire written from the perspective of a cat – I am a Cat. The cat spends the novel relaying to us the events that go on in his house, which mostly concern his owner, a teacher who does his best to appear proud and to fit in with the noble middle classes of early 20^th century Japan.

If you want a real classic of Japanese fiction, any book by Soseki will do the trick, but I Am a Cat is without a doubt his most light-hearted and witty piece of fiction, though it is a bit on the long side.

As early 20th Century Japanese literature goes, I Am a Cat is one of the best Japanese books you can buy.

Read More: The Best Japanese Books of 2020

Japanese Literary Fiction

Literary fiction means different things to different people, but generally it is mature, thought-provoking, grounded fiction based in reality. And Japan has literary fiction to spare. Let’s look at some of the best Japanese books in the literary fiction genre by some of the best authors in Japan writing today.

Honeybees and Distant Thunder by Riku Onda

Riku Onda, author of The Aosawa Murders and Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight, explores the unique power of music to move the soul, bring out the best in us, and build community in her literary novel Honeybees and Distant Thunder.

This Japanese novel takes place over a single classical music competition, and we follow several protagonists — competing pianists and their judges — as they get to know themselves, each other, and their music. Riku Onda has crafted here a love letter to music itself. She shows us, with stark beauty, how music enriches and moves us, how it brings us together, and how it shows off the human capacity for creativity and artistic expression.

Our protagonists are young musicians with personal baggage, hopes and dreams, insecurities, and talents to explore. We come to feel so much for each of them, while developing a deep appreciation for the art they create. One of the most aesthetically beautiful Japanese novels you’ll ever read, Honeybees and Distant Thunder is a real masterpiece of Japanese literature.

Mild Vertigo by Mieko Kanai

Translated by Polly Barton

Mild Vertigo is a small but dense literary Japanese novel, originally written in the late ’90s, that presents us with a protagonist who is deeply compelling in her unremarkability. Natsumi is a middle class Tokyo housewife with two sons. Her life is defined by her routines, her familial and neighbourly connections, and her physical space.

We follow her along in these routines as she gossips, makes private observations, and loses herself in long trains of thought. Reminiscent of Lucy Ellman’s Ducks, Newburyport, this is a novel that invites readers to become lost in the mind of an extraordinarily ordinary woman who takes pride in her busy but simple life.

It’s an intense read, demanding an incredible amount of focus as long paragraphs stretch across multiple pages and thoughts blur into one another, and then into actions and even conversations. It’s often difficult to tell where Natsumi’s interior and exterior worlds begin and end, as we become almost too intimate with her thoughts and behaviours, whilst also remaining at arm’s length.

As we get the feeling that we can never really know Natsumi, we have to wonder if she knows herself at all either. A staggering work of literary fiction, Mild Vertigo is one of the most unique and rewarding Japanese books of recent years.

Buy a copy of Mild Vertigo here!

The Premonition by Banana Yoshimoto

Translated by Asa Yoneda

Banana Yoshimoto is a revered mainstay of Japanese literature, her books cherished by readers around the world. Her 1988 literary novella The Premonition is a perfect example of why she is so beloved. This 100-page book follows a teenager named Yayoi, who has lived in peace and bliss with her parents and brother for, as far as she knows, her whole life.

But she also has a wayward and free-spirited young aunt whom she often likes to sneak out and visit. This aunt, Yukino, is a music teacher who has lived alone and lived her own way for several years. While visiting her aunt, Yayoi recovers hidden memories that reshape what she has come to understand about her childhood and her family.

This is a story not so much about an unreliable narrator, but a narrator with unreliable memories and perspectives. It’s also a story of love, compassion, and the malleability of relationships. A stunning piece of short literary fiction from the author of many of the best Japanese books of our time.

Buy a copy of The Premonition here!

In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami

Translated by Ralph McCarthy

Ryu Murakami is often, unfairly, and unflatteringly referred to as ‘the other Murakami’. He also happens to have written some of the darkest and best Japanese books of our time. His books are intensely clever and cynical examinations of the dark underbelly that always exists in Tokyo but rarely gets discussed in public or in the news. In The Miso Soup is a perfect example of exactly this.

Most of Murakami’s novels are set in and around the popular neon district of Shinjuku, where people shop, eat, and drink at all hours of the day. If you’ve ever played the Yakuza video games, this district is what Kamurocho was based off of.

As for In The Miso Soup, the novel concerns a young man named Kenji who works as a guide in Shinjuku, showing visitors all the best hangouts and nightlife. He sacrifices a night with his girlfriend in order to show around a strange foreigner who pays well but may harbour a dark secret.

Read More: Discover Kobe Abe – Japan’s Master of Surrealism

The Factory by Hiroko Oyamada

Translated by David Boyd

The Factory follows three protagonists who all work at an unspecified factory in Japan. The factory seems to make and distribute all manner of things and consumables, and its mass spans miles and miles.

A character remarks how the factory “really has it all, doesn’t it? Apartment complexes, supermarkets, a bowling alley, karaoke … It’s like a real town. It is. Much bigger than your average town, really … We’ve got our own shrine, with a priest and everything. All we’re missing now is a graveyard.”

And so, the factory has successfully become an inescapable place where humans live and work. Soon enough, they will die and be buried there. No longer can they separate home from work. No longer can they escape work. Work provides everything for them. The metaphor here is clear; it’s clever, it’s frightening, it’s Kafkaesque.

For fans of the surreal and the strange, as well as the works of Franz Kafka, The Factory is one of the best Japanese books you can get your hands on.

(Taken from our review of The Factory)

Tokyo Ueno Station by Yu Miri

Translated by Morgan Giles

Yu Miri was born in Japan to Korean parents, and as such is a South Korean citizen and occasional recipient of racist bias and abuse in Japan. Despite this, she has had a phenomenally successful career in Japan as both a playwright and a writer of prose.

Although born in Yokohama, Japan’s second largest city, she now lives in a small town in Fukushima, close to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant which suffered a meltdown following the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami which claimed thousands of lives.

Kazu, the Tokyo Ueno Station’s protagonist, was born in the same year as Japan’s emperor, and both men’s sons were born on the same day. While the emperor was born into the height of privilege, Kazu was born in rural Fukushima, a place that would later be ravaged by destruction in 2011.

While the emperor’s son would go on to lead a healthy life, Kazu’s son’s would be cut short, and Kazu himself would live out his final days as one of the many homeless barely surviving in a village of tents in Ueno Park. The narrative of this exceptional novel tells the life of Kazu after death; his ghost haunts Ueno Park and often quietly observes the movements and conversations of strangers passing by.

These overheard conversations work as distractions which lead Kazu into, and then bring him back out of, flashbacks and memories of his wife, his son and daughter, and key events in his own life which are frequently tied to Ueno Station and the park. Honestly, Tokyo Ueno Station is one of our favourite Japanese books. It also happens to be one of the very best Japanese books every written, end of.

(Taken from our review of Tokyo Ueno Station)

Heaven by Mieko Kawakami

Translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd

Written by the author of the Japanese feminist masterpiece Breasts and Eggs (found below), and translated by the same outstanding translation team, Heaven is a monumental piece of Japanese literary fiction, and arguably one of the best Japanese books ever written.

The protagonist of Heaven is a nameless fourteen-year-old schoolboy who is bullied endlessly and viciously. He soon finds companionship in Kojima, a female classmate who is also bullied. The two form a friendship that is, in itself at times, toxic and problematic.

Heaven is a difficult read; it shines a light on the aggressive behaviour of children, the hostile world that is middle school and high school, the discomfort of loneliness and isolation.

Heaven is harrowing, distressing, difficult, and so much more. But it demands the reader’s attention and respect nonetheless. It encourages kindness by showing us how difficult life can be, especially for helpless young people who must go to school, and are charged with surviving it like an injured soldier on a battlefield.

Mieko Kawakami pulls no punches here. She exposes the dark hearts of bullies, and warns us of the cruelties of life. But learning the lessons she teaches us can encourage empathy, kindness, and community.

Heaven is a true masterpiece and one of the best Japanese books by one of the best Japanese authors in existence.

Watch our full review of Heaven here!

Finger Bone by Hiroki Takahashi

Translated by Takami Nieda

Novels about World War II are everywhere these days. Some are excellent; some are forgettable and even offensive. Finger Bone is one of those rare novels that transcends its genre. It’s a masterpiece of Japanese war fiction that encourages us to wrestle with that age-old question: where is the good in warfare?

It’s 1942, and our nameless protagonist is a young, Japanese soldier in Papua New Guinea. As this short novel progresses, we watch him make and lose friends, connect with frightened locals, and shrug off injury and illness. Taking place half in a field hospital and half in the thick of the jungle, Finger Bone is beautifully, harshly reminiscent of the poems of Wilfred Owen. A raw tale about the darkest, bleakest aspects of warfare.

This is about innocent men suffering fatal wounds, struggling to overcome malaria, forging bonds, and watching those bonds get severed without warning. At no point are politics discussed in real detail, and that’s what makes us ponder the grand purpose of war. All we see here are men suffering, and trying to keep their spirits high, as well as those of their friends and comrades.

Few war novels have such a raw, powerful, painful effect on the reader as Finger Bone does, and it does so in such a short space of time. Read it in one sitting, and it’ll change you forever.

Buy a copy of Finger Bone here!

The Woman in the Purple Skirt by Natsuko Imamura

Translated by Lucy North

Reminiscent of the Tom Waits song What’s He Building, this is a novel of paranoia told from the perspective of the paranoid person. The titular Woman in the Purple Skirt is our protagonist, but our narrator is someone known only as the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan.

Our narrator works at a Tokyo hotel, and she spends her days observing the life of the Woman in the Purple Skirt. Desperate to know her better, she uses social puppetry to land the Woman in the Purple Skirt a job at her hotel.

From here, we watch the Woman in the Purple Skirt flourish professionally and socially, while our narrator remains paranoid, envious, and invisible. She dreams of knowing, loving, and maybe even being, the Woman in the Purple Skirt.

Living in our narrator’s head is intoxicating and stressful in equal measure; increasingly so as this short Japanese novels grows and builds. You wonder how a book like this one can possibly end; what kind of conclusion it could possibly reach. This need drives you ever forward to reach the insane conclusion of one of the best Japanese books in translation of 2021.

Watch our full review of The Woman in the Purple Skirt here!

The Color of the Sky Is the Shape of the Heart by Chesil

Translated by Takami Nieda

The Color of the Sky Is the Shape of the Heart is an illuminating and heartbreaking novel inspired by the author’s own childhood. It tells the story of a Zainichi Korean (Korean citizens and their children, living and growing up in post-empire Japan).

Beginning in Oregon, where protagonist Ginny Park now lives, we are quickly taken back in time to her days at elementary and middle school in Japan, back when she was Jinhee. Jinhee was born of Zainichi Korean parents in Japan. She speaks Japanese and no Korean. She went to a Japanese elementary school and faced discrimination. At a Korean middle school, trouble finds her again.

Through short vignette-style chapters, we learn about Jinhee’s youth, her experiences, and the hardships endured by Zainichi Koreans in Japan every single day.

The Color of the Sky Is the Shape of the Heart is not an easy book to read, but it encourages so much love and empathy from the reader. It also sheds light on a subculture of Japanese people that are so seldom talked about, or even given a voice of their own.

What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama

Translated by Alison Watts

This is an incredibly sweet, charming, and wholesome novel about feeling lost, and finding your way with the help and support of others.

Five chapters tell the stories of five people who all live in the same ward of Tokyo. A young sales assistant from the countryside, a man who dreams of owning his own business, a forty-year-old mother, an unemployed NEET, and a newly-retired man.

During each of their tales, these protagonists will visit their local library and meet Sayuri Komachi, a patient and kind librarian who will give them what books they want, as well as one extra book that will help them get unstuck.

These books always have nothing to do with the jobs, interests, and personalities of our characters. For example, our man who dreams of owning a business will be given a biology book on earthworms. But, upon reading these books, our protagonists will find inspiration and motivation; just enough to push them out of the fog they currently feel lost within.

The diversity of personality, situation, age, and background of each character adds so much variety and intrigue to this novel, and we are provided enough time to get to know them intimately. We become attached to them, worry for them, and hope that they will find a better life. With Sayuri’s help, we know that they will.

Thanks to some outstanding, funny, dynamic translation work from Alison Watts, What You Are Looking For Is in the Library is a truly unique, compelling, sweet, kind, and wholesome Japanese novel.

Buy a copy of the book here!

The Tatami Galaxy by Tomihiko Morimi

Translated by Emily Balistrieri

Across four acts, The Tatami Galaxy invites its readers to retread the same year in the life of a third-year university student in Kyoto. This is a Groundhog Day narrative that explores the what-ifs and maybes of life.

Each act begins in the same way, with the same opening page of description, and then the subtle changes come. The same supporting characters exist but his relationship to them is always different. In a way, we are searching for happiness or contentedness, or the secret to a “good” life. We watch him make mistakes and miss opportunities and then watch his life play out differently.

What remains the same throughout is him; he is still himself and his personality informs his decisions and actions. The Tatami Galaxy is a novel that is at once ambitious and simple. The characters and events are easy to follow, and yet there is a dreamlike quality to the narrative (and an actual god shows up early on). This is a book about life and what it means to live properly; and, of course, if any of that is even possible.

Idol, Burning by Rin Usami

Translated by Asa Yomeda

Written by a university student, this short and powerful Japanese novel won the 2020 Akutagawa Prize (Japan’s most prestigious literary prize). Idol, Burning is told from the perspective of a high school girl whose favourite idol, a member of an all-male idol group, has been hit with enormous social backlash after punching a female fan.

Her idol, Masaki, is Akari’s entire life. Her own mediocre existence offers her nothing special and her grades aren’t great, and so she projects every bit of excitement onto Masaki Ueno. This is a novel about idol culture and what it offers its fans. Idol, Burning examines cancel culture from several different sides and also shines a light on the healthy and unhealthy aspects of life as a dedicated idol fan.

Honest and transparent, Idol, Burning does a fantastic job of spotlighting the life of a young fan who has put her own life aside to focus all her love and attention on her oshi, her idol. A bold and unique book that stands as one of the best Japanese books of the century so far.

The Boy and the Dog by Seishu Hase

Translated by Alison Watts

If you’re a dog person and you want to enjoy a wholesome, heart-rending Japanese novel about the relationship between people and their pets, this is the book for you. The Boy and the Dog is a novel in six parts which traces the journey of a dog named Tamon, first found in the car park of a convenience store in Sendai following the devastating 2011 Tohoku earthquake.

Tamon clearly belongs to someone but they have presumably died or vanished, and yet the dog continues to look south. Over the course of the novel, Tamon passes through the lives of several different people as he slowly makes his way south. These people’s lives are irreversibly changed by Tamon’s presence, and each person is vastly different from the last.

This is a charming Japanese novel that beautifully demonstrates the power of a dog’s (or any pet’s) bond with its owner, and with the people who come into its life.

Cannibals by Shinya Tanaka

Cannibals is an undeniably difficult novella. Though it won the Akutagawa Prize and was adapted to film, it remains a harsh and triggering story of abuse that many readers will, understandably, be unable to struggle through. Our protagonist, Toma, was raised by his father—a serial abuser of women—and Toma’s great fear is becoming like his father; being swallowed up by an inescapable fate. It’s a raw novel that explores cycles of masculine abuse.

Toma’s mother is all but a stranger to him; she sits on the riverbank just across the water from her son, and cleans freshly-caught fish using a prosthetic arm. They interact like polite neighbours and all she talks about is what a monster Toma’s father is. And make no mistake; he is one. His current girlfriend is pregnant and considering running away at last. And Toma has a girlfriend of his own whom he is afraid he will soon hurt with his own hands.

This is a subtly surreal novel full of strange imagery. It is a claustrophobic fever dream of a story. The river cuts through their lives; phallic and aggressive imagery plagues Toma’s waking moments; he fears his fate, and when it comes for him, can he be redeemed? Cannibals poses large questions, and asks the reader to sit with them. But it is not an easy read by any means. Tread lightly.

Buy a copy of Cannibals here!

Japanese Memoirs

Japanese authors are famous for their memoirs, as are many of the world’s great authors. Accomplished authors are able to take their artful flair for writing and language, and use those skills to imbue their own life stories with poetry and lyricism.

In Japanese literature , a popular genre of the 20th Century was shishosetsu (私小説), commonly translated as the I-novel; a form of autofiction which blends fact and memoir with embellishments and the rules of fiction.

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami is Japan’s most successful living author, both in his homeland and internationally. While he is best known for his surrealist, urban fantasy fiction, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is a grounded, enlightening memoir.

This isn’t an I-novel, but rather a thin, yet broad, meditation on Murakami’s life, key events, and the things he holds most dear. As the title suggests, running is the book’s strongest focus. He discusses marathons he has run and why running has been such an integral part of his life for so long.

The book also recaps his former life running a jazz bar, his adoration for jazz music, his love of American literature, his work as a translator, his years spent living in the US, and so much more. It’s a wonderful journey through the life of a fascinating writer, and one of the best Japanese books within the memoir genre.

An I-Novel by Minae Mizumura

Translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter

As the title suggests, this is a perfect example of the aforementioned shishosetsu (I-novel) genre. Mizumura’s An I-Novel is set during a single day but uses the rules of fiction to trace her life up until that point, jumping between moments as they become relevant. Mizumura was born in Tokyo but her parents moved the family to New York City when she was twelve.

After twenty years living in the US, Mizumura one day makes the decision to become a writer and to return to Japan. She wishes to write a book in Japanese about her own life: this very same book. An I-Novel is a book about writing itself.

As for its contents and events, An I-Novel paints a vivid picture of Mizumura’s relationship with her sister, Nanae, and recounts various experiences of life in New York, as well as memories of her childhood in Japan.

This is a book about language, translation, personal expression, family, and belonging. It’s a comforting and uplifting read that gets to the heart of one person’s attachment to people and place. When it comes to the genre of shishosetsu, this is one of the very best Japanese books.

Watch our full review of An I-Novel here!

No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai

Translated by Donald Keene

While Osamu Dazai’s final book, No Longer Human, is technically a novel, but it is also famously autobiographical and so falls comfortably under the umbrella of “I-novel”.

Inspired by his own life events, childhood, family dynamics, work, relationships, and most importantly, his way of seeing the world and people around him, No Longer Human is a heartbreaking masterpiece of autofiction, written shortly before Osamu Dazai committed suicide.

No Longer Human begins with a man finding three photos and describing them to us. The photos are of another person — our protagonist — at three different stages: childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Each of these stages makes up a section of the novel.

Our protagonist, a stand-in for Dazai himself, sees ordinary society as something impossible to navigate. He paints horrifying pictures, eventually turns to drink, and becomes entirely destructive as an adult — towards himself and those around him.

This is a novel about a desperately sad person, ill equipped for even surviving daily life. He doesn’t understand people and people don’t understand him. He is selfish, gross, and unlikeable. But at his core, he is desperately sad and doomed to die.

No Longer Human is beautifully written, and a masterpiece of exposure: detailing the harsh reality of a life so difficult to live.

Japanese Horror Books

This category was tricky to fill in for the simple reason that, in Japan, horror often crosses over with other genres. Most horror novels are also political, feminist, speculative, or literary. Japan approaches horror with sharp wit and a political mind a lot of the time.

With that in mind, a few of the books in other categories on this list, such as Out and Japanese Ghost Stories, could also be considered horror books. The best Japanese books don’t always care about genre boundaries.

There is one writer in Japan who does horror better than anyone else. And, as well as being a writer, he is also an artist. Junji Ito is one of Japan’s greatest living mangaka and he is the country’s master of horror. So, let’s take a look at two of his finest works.

Read more with our list of essential horror manga that will make your blood run cold.

Shiver by Junji Ito

Shiver is Junji Ito at his finest. It isn’t a long-form manga story or an adaptation. Instead, Shiver is a collection of Junji Ito’s best short stories. And it’s in these stories where Ito is at his finest, narratively and artistically.

Most of Junji Ito’s stories introduce a terrifying concept like a swarm of balloons with human faces that hunt down the people they resemble and hang them, or a supermodel who may or may not eat people alive. They’re bitesize, eerie, grotesque, and heart stopping stories of absolute terror. If you love manga and horror, Junji Ito has written most of the best Japanese books in that genre.

Read More: Terrifying Junji Ito Manga, Books, and Short Stories

Frankenstein by Junji Ito

Junji Ito is Japan’s master of aesthetic horror. His stories are wholly his own, and the frightening power that they have is greater than that of most of the world’s most successful horror writers. Ito has managed to disturb and shock me with greater effect than any horror writer I’ve ever read, and he deserves to be better known across the globe.

Maybe this adaptation of Shelley’s novel, created with real heart and soul, will be the thing to make him more of a household name. I certainly hope so; it’s bloody perfect.

(Taken from our review of Frankenstein)

Read More: Reading Manga: 11 Places to Begin

Japanese Fantasy Novels

When Japan approaches fantasy, it is often through manga and anime. There are a lot of incredible fantasy manga out there to enjoy, with my personal favourite being Kentaro Miura’s Berserk.

When it comes to Japanese novels and fiction, the border around the fantasy genre isn’t so clear cut. It is often more strange and abstract.

Here are two very different Japanese fantasy novels. One is a lesser-known historical fantasy sci-fi hybrid that is full of intrigue and fan. The other is a celebrated novel by Japan’s most famous author but is still undeniably a fantastical tale.

Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura

Translated by Philip Gabriel

Crossing a few genre boundaries, this is a piece of YA fantasy fiction that feels satisfyingly grounded and carries a strong, pertinent message.

Lonely Castle in the Mirror feels, at times, very Murakami-esque. It begins in Tokyo, with a young girl repeatedly finding excuses to avoid going to school because she’s being mercilessly bullied. One day, her bedroom mirror begins to shimmer; through it, she passes into the titular lonely castle.

In the castle, she finds six other Japanese teenagers, all of whom are avoiding school for their own personal reasons. They have been brought here by a girl in a wolf mask who tells them they have six months to find the key to a room. Find the key, and your wish will be granted.

Lonely Castle in the Mirror is a slow burn of a novel, focussing on its characters and their relationships more than on the plot and the grains of sand that fall away each day. It’s this focus on relationship that makes it such a unique and satisfying read.

Automatic Eve by Rokuro Inui

Translated by Matt Treyvaud

Automatic Eve is unbridled fun distilled into a Japanese fantasy novel. Set in an alternate history where the empirical line of succession is female rather than male, a technological marvel known as Eve is tangled in the lives of the various men we meet and follow as this political and personal novel ebbs and flows.

The fun of this novel comes in its unique setting of steampunk automation amongst samurai, shogun, and ancient castles. That, and the way the novel’s narrative shifts, twists, and turns page after page. An exciting and engaging book, and one of the best modern Japanese fantasy novels around.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

Translated by Jay Rubin

It’s no secret that Haruki Murakami has written some of the best Japanese books of all time. And in his library, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle stands out as one of his finest. It might just be our favourite Murakami novel.

In The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle we are lost in the life of Toru Okada, a thirty-year-old suburban husband. Having recently left his job with a positive attitude toward change and a fresh start, it is jarring and contradictory to see that Toru’s attitude towards life is entirely passive and apathetic.

Toru has no plan and has seemingly taken to not caring as a means of coping with what may create in many others a deep and palpable anxiety.

This novel is an enormously abstract journey, taking place in a dry and still world. Toru Okada, our unsuccessful and futureless protagonist, is constantly at odds with his brother-in-law, the obviously psychopathic and hugely successful intellectual, Noboru Wataya.

Read More: Early Murakami – Why You Should Read the Rat Series

The Beast Player & The Beast Warrior by Nahoko Uehashi

Translated by Cathy Hirano

Since we haven’t put in a YA genre, count this pair of novels by Nahoko Uehashi as the best Japanese books in the YA genre. But they’re also outstanding Japanese fantasy novels.

The Beast Player is a 500 page YA fantasy epic from Japanese author Nahoko Uehashi. It tells the story of Elin, a young girl who grew up in a village full of caretakers who train and look after a herd of dangerous beasts known as Toda.

Elin’s mother, originally from a distant and mysterious tribe, is sentenced to death after the most elite beasts in the village all suddenly die at once under her care. After escaping the village, Elin is raised by a wandering beekeeper and subsequently grows into adulthood at a sanctuary for another kind of dangerous creature: Royal Beasts.

The Beast Warrior is set roughly ten years after The Beast Player’s conclusion, with Elin now around thirty years old, married to a supporting character from the first book, and mother to an eight-year-old boy named Jesse. The book begins with Elin being called to investigate a slew of Toda deaths which closely mirror those that drove the story of the first book. Here, we finally get an answer to these strange Toda deaths.

If you’re looking for the best Japanese books in the fantasy genre, and you love YA fantasy in particular, these books are what you’re looking for.

Read our full review of The Beast Warrior here!

Japanese Mystery Novels

If you’re an anime fan, you’ll know that Japan does mystery and crime fiction really, really well. Manga and anime like Death Note and Monster are beloved amongst fans of the mystery and crime genres. But what about Japanese novels?

In the 20^th century, many fledgling Japanese authors fell in love with the popular European crime fiction that had swept the world, especially the works of Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle. Their charming detectives and locked-room mysteries sparked the imaginations of many Japanese writers. Here are three Japanese mystery novels born from the fires of that spark.

Japanese mystery novels represent some of the best books in the mystery genre and some of the best Japanese books, full stop, at least in terms of plotting and sheer entertainment. And here are some of the mystery genre’s finest. If you want more, you can read our detailed list of Japanese mystery novels right here.

The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji

Translated by Ho-Ling Wong

Paying homage to what many consider Agatha Christie’s magnum opus, And Then There Were None, Yukito Ayatsuji’s The Decagon House Murders is one of the finest, purest, smartest Japanese mystery novels available in translation.

The Decagon House Murders follows a group of university students who are all members of a murder-mystery club, in which they read classics, discuss them, and write/read their own mystery tales. One day, they visit an island off the coast of Japan which was the site of a recent tragedy, as well as the former home of a very wealthy man.

After a night spent on the island, they wake up to an elaborate setup which promises that they will die one by one. This novel also flits between the island and a friend left behind on the mainland who is attempting to piece together what is happening by contacting relations of the island’s former owner/architect. If you’re a fan of classic mystery novels, The Decagon House Murders is one of the best Japanese books in that genre.

The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo

Translated by Louise Heal Kawai

Seishi Yokomizo, who died in Tokyo back in 1981, carved out a real legacy with his series of detective stories. In the character of Kosuke Kindaichi – first introduced here in The Honjin Murders (originally published in 1946) – Yokomizo invented his own Sherlock Holmes.

The Ichiyanagi family are a proud, wealthy, high-class family, and one of their sons, Kenzo, is due to marry the young Katsuko. On the night of their wedding, they are murdered by a mysterious assailant who flees into the night, leaving nothing but a handprint and a bloodied katana in the snow.

The mystery of The Honjin Murders is, of course, finding out whodunnit. Who killed the newlyweds; is it someone we know or a stranger; what is their motivation; how did they get in and out? One of the first and also one of the best Japanese books in the fantasy genre, The Honjin Murders is a mystery masterpiece.

(Taken from our review of The Honjin Murders)

Read More: The Best Japanese Mystery Novels

Murder in the Crooked House by Soji Shimada

Translated by Louise Heal Kawai

Both this and the above novel were translated by Louise Heal
Kawai and published by Pushkin Vertigo, who reliably put out the very best of
international literature, especially Japanese mystery novels. Murder in the Crooked House is a locked room mystery which, also like The Honjin Murders, is set in the snowy wilderness of rural Japan.

This is another novel with a near superhuman detective capable of solving any mystery. But this house of dead ends and secrets may just prove too much for him when an impossible murder needs to be solved. If you’re looking to build a collection of the best Japanese books in the mystery genre, this book needs to be in that collection.

Strange Pictures by Uketsu

Translated by Jim Rion

You may know the name Uketsu as the wildly popular YouTuber who posts surreal videos while disguising their face and voice. Strange Pictures is their debut book: a collection of four interconnected mystery stories, all of which work like puzzles and orbit around pictures which offer clues to the puzzles’ solutions.

The first story, for example, follows a university student who stumbles upon an innocuous blog by a man whose wife is expecting. The final post, however, is cryptic. In it, he says that he solved the mystery of the three pictures, that he will never forgive the person who made them, but he will always love them. Our protagonist sinks deep into this blog and the referenced pictures, in order to solve this bizarre mystery.

All four stories follow this formula, but they are also tangled together in alluring ways. The book is a puzzle box with smaller puzzles inside. These puzzles are simple crime stories on the surface but the nuances of how they’re connected come together towards the end, and all of it culminates in something shockingly brilliant.

Japanese Feminist Literature

There is a strange dichotomy in the world of Japanese literature: novels by men are often picked up and translated into English faster than those by women. And yet, most of Japan’s best writers are women and, therefore, most of the best Japanese books are feminist.

Of course, not all of these Japanese women writers write explicitly feminist literature, but many of them do. The most legendary example being the fierce and fantastic Natsuo Kirino. Here is one of Kirino’s finest books (you’ll find another further down), and another two books that — honestly and without any hyperbole — may go down in history as two of the best Japanese books ever written.

Diary of a Void by Emi Yagi

Translated by Lucy North and David Boyd

Diary of a Void is a sarcastic, witty, hilarious short novel about the ways in which society’s treatment of women depends on their situation and their worth. Our protagonist, Shibata, is a twenty-something office worker who, by virtue of being the only woman in her office, is treated like a dog’s body who must fetch coffee for the men.

Driven to breaking point, she one day lies and says she can’t do this anymore because she’s pregnant (which, in reality, she isn’t). However, committed to this new lie, Shibata starts noticing her life improve. Men treat her with more kindness; she is given permission to gain weight and look after herself.

She makes new friends, joins a yoga class, and spoils herself because she suddenly feels worthy of something; accepted and useful and given a reasonable amount of respect. Written and translated with humour, Diary of a Void is a Japanese novel with teeth and claws.

Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami

Translated by Sam Bett & David Boyd

Inarguably one of the best Japanese books of modern times — perhaps even of all time — Breasts and Eggs is an absolute feminist masterpiece. Originally a novella, the English translation of Breasts and Eggs took the original and its longer sequel, and mashed them into one sizeable novel.

Breasts and Eggs follows the story of Nastsuko, an Osaka-born resident of Tokyo who has spent her adult life trying to make it as a published author. The first book focusses on a short visit by Natsuko’s more extroverted sister and that sister’s daughter. The daughter has fallen mute and her mother is in Tokyo for breast implants.

The frustrations of what is said and not said here make for a compelling family drama. In the book’s second story, Natsuko has made it as an author but now dreams of being a mother, though she has no real wish for a partner to share her life with. Both stories explore how womanhood is defined and how we find purpose in our lives, especially as modern women.

Breasts and Eggs is one of the great Japanese feminist masterpieces, our favourite novel of 2020, and one of the best Japanese books you can read in English right now.

All the Lovers in the Night by Mieko Kawakami

Translated by Sam Bett & David Boyd

As David McNeill said in a Guardian interview with the author, “Kawakami has made her name articulating womanhood in Japan better than any living author.” After the enormous international success of Breasts and Eggs, Kawakami then brought us All the Lovers in the Night; another feminist critique of modern Japanese life.

All the Lovers in the Night tells the story of Fuyuko, a woman in her thirties who works from home as a freelance proofreader and doing very little else with her time. She is burdened with childhood trauma and unsure of how best to fit into ordinary society.

Fuyuko is given direction by her one colleague, Hijiri, a girlboss type who tells Fuyuko the right way to succeed as a modern woman. Fuyuko attempts to enrol in evening classes, to drink socially, to dress differently, but all of this puts enormous strain on her mental and emotional wellbeing.

Like the protagonist of Sayaka Murata’s Convenience Store Woman, Fuyuko struggles to understand and cope with the patriarchal expectations put upon modern women, whether they be professional or social. All the Lovers in the Night demonstrates the pain that comes from trying to fit into a world that doesn’t work for you. A biting and powerful Japanese feminist novel by one of modern Japan’s great writers.

Watch my full video review of All the Lovers in the Night

Out by Natsuo Kirino

Translated by Stephen Snyder

As I’ve said, there’s no writer of Japanese feminist literature like Natsuo Kirino, and Out is one of her most ferocious, unrestrained novels. It’s also another contender for one of the best Japanese books of modern times. Out follows the story of a group of women who all work the same dead-end job in a factory, exhausted by also having to be mother and wives to useless, unfaithful husbands.

When one of our four women protagonists snaps and murders her husband, she turns to her fellow factory worker for help covering her tracks. Soon enough they will need to fend off not only the police but the local yakuza crime family. Out is an angry, exhilarating Japanese crime novel and a masterpiece of Japanese feminist literature.

A Woman of Pleasure by Kiyoko Murata

Translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter

Set in 1903, during the Meiji Restoration of Japan, A Woman of Pleasure is a feminist novel that paints a vivid picture of the lives of courtesans. The novel primarily follows Aoi Ichi, a girl from a poor island community sold, like so many girls her age, by her impoverished parents. Through Ichi’s eyes, we learn about the world of courtesans in post-Sengoku Japan, and we meet women who struggle, fall, and fight back.

The entire novel is building towards a courtesan strike, following other workers’ strikes which are taking place around the country. But until then, Ichi will learn to read and write, will make friends and learn from her elders. She will write beautiful letters, diary entries, and poetry. She will prove herself to be sweet, endearing, and hopeful. She will ride the waves and wait for her time to break free.

A Woman of Pleasure is an eye-opening story; dark but full of angst and vibrancy, with so much knowledge to impart on the reader. One of the great feminist Japanese novels.

Buy a copy of A Woman of Pleasure here!

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

Translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori

Keiko Furukura is thirty-six and has worked part-time in the same convenience store for eighteen years (as, in fact, has her creator). She has seen eight managers – whom she refers to only by their numbers – and more co-workers than she could count. She is entirely content with her life, and has never asked for anything more; not a better job, more money, nor even a partner to share her life with.

Read More: Books to Read Before You Visit Japan

She is a cog in the convenience store machine, as much a part of the furniture as the fluorescent bulbs and door jingles (even the Japanese title, ‘Konbini Ningen’ or ‘Convenience Store Human’, reflects this with clarity: Keiko is not a woman, she is a human part of the store machine). As a result, this cog has never managed to fit the greater machine we call ‘modern life’.

Convenience Store Woman is an astonishing novel and the new gold standard for the best Japanese books.

(Taken from our review of Convenience Store Woman)

Black Box by Shiori Ito

Translated by Allison Markin Powell

This is one of those Japanese books that could fit into a few different genres. It’s Japanese non-fiction and a Japanese memoir, but it is most importantly one of the best Japanese books to inspire change in the patriarchal system of Japan, and the world at large.

In 2015, journalist and world-traveller Shiori Ito was assaulted by a prominent TV journalist. The two went out for food and drinks, she passed out suddenly, and when she awoke she was in a hotel room being attacked.

In Black Box, Ito takes this traumatic experience and turns it into a rallying cry for justice, change, and equality. The book sparked Japan’s #metoo movement; it exists to encourage positive change in the judiciary system, in laws, in police behaviour, and in public discussion about assault.

While this is a difficult read, Black Box ultimately exists as a kind of manifesto for change. It spotlights the sexism at the heart of our legal and political systems, and it uses a heartbreaking, tragic personal story to demonstrate how these systems are broken, while also suggesting how they can be fixed.

First Love by Rio Shimamoto

Translated by Louise Heal Kawai

First Love is a fantastic feminist drama with a wonderful hook: a young woman named Kanna leaves a job interview, travels to the college where her father works, and stabs him to death. Now, in the lead up to her trial, psychologist protagonist Yuki has been tasked with writing a book about the events. In order to research the book, she takes with Kanna and interviews the people in her life—present and past—to paint a picture of who she really is.

As the day of the trial draws nearer, we learn not only about Kanna’s childhood and her relationship to her parents, but also about Yuki’s marriage and her college years. We grow intimate with these women, and the dark stories they harbour. This is a story about abuse and misogyny, about the objectification and commodification of women’s and girls’ bodies. It’s also a story about truth and how difficult it is to find when we contain multitudes.

Butter by Asako Yuzuki

Translated by Polly Barton

Butter is a deceptively deep novel. On the surface, it presents itself as a thriller, but its darker waters hide provoking themes of isolation, gender roles, societal expectations, body image, and autonomy. Our protagonist, Rika, is a thirty-something journalist who is attempting to get an exclusive interview with a woman who is on trial for the murder of three men—all former lovers.

Rika manages to get that interview by appealing to Kajii’s love for good food. They gradually get to know one another as they bond over recipes, culinary history, and restaurant recommendations. But Rika soon falls under Kajii’s spell, enthralled as she is by this woman who claims to hate feminism and yet uses her femininity and her social savvy to get what she wants, especially from men.

While it isn’t nearly as literary as the works of Mieko Kawakami, or as subversive and radical as those of Sayaka Murata, Butter is a smart and thought-provoking work of feminist fiction that encourages the reader to consider the role of the woman under our patriarchal and capitalist systems.

Buy a copy of Butter here!

Japanese Queer Literature

While LGBTQ+ literature in Japan is often relegated to manga and light novels (at least in terms of what we get in translation), that’s all slowly changing. More and more great queer Japanese lit is coming out in all manner of forms. Here is some of the best queer Japanese literature you can get your hands on right now.

Solo Dance by Li Kotomi

Translated by Arthur Reiji Morris

Li Kotomi is a Taiwanese, Tokyo-based author who writes in both Mandarin and Japanese. Her novel Solo Dance (originally written in Japanese) tells the story of a Taiwanese woman in her late twenties, currently working a corporate job in Tokyo. Cho Norie is a lesbian; she is also depressed and obsessed with death. She reads Chinese and Japanese authors who also struggled with their mental health and often committed suicide.

She left Taiwan for Japan after a series of traumatic experiences, but she remains herself. She remains troubled, burdened, and broken. Solo Dance is about the damage done by modern-day homophobia. It’s about the fear and paranoia we live with, and the invisible scars we wear.

Norie is an incredibly empathetic character that many of us will understand deeply. She is moving through life like someone crawling through brambles. She is frightened and barely hanging on. As we learn more about her past and her present, we learn to love and care for Norie, and we urge for her to go on living, to learn and love and heal.

My Brother’s Husband by Gengoroh Tagame

Queer literature is big in Japan. You just need to know where to find it. And where is that? In manga. Queer manga is everywhere, and it ranges from literary to romantic to pornographic and everything in-between. For the bulk of his career, fifty-four-year-old manga artist Gengoroh Tagame has focussed his creative energy into producing gay erotica.

He has been a driving force for gay men in the world of Japanese art, influencing countless gay writers and artists. My Brother’s Husband exists as an allegory for Japan’s traditionalist views of the other, specifically LGBTQ+ people.

The manga tells the story of a Japanese man who, after his brother died, is visited by his brother’s husband: a friendly Canadian man named Mike. With the help of his jolly daughter, our protagonist must learn to get over his homophobia and learn to love in a way he never has before.

(Taken from our review of My Brother’s Husband)

My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness by Kabi Nagata

My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness is the story of Kabi, a woman who decided against attending university, and spent her early twenties in a haze of depression, drifting through jobs at stores and bakeries and, when she finds the energy to do so, she writes manga. She neither avoids nor seeks out friends, companionship, or sex. She simply exists.

She begins with one eating disorder, and moves onto another. She loses her job, and finds another. She lives with her parents, and often fails to find the will to leave her bedroom. Eventually, as we see in the flash-forward opening pages, she arrives, age twenty-eight, at a turning point.

She decides to hire a female escort and a room at a love hotel, in order to learn and understand all that she believes she has missed out on in her youth. These sexual desires and experiences which she has distorted into fear and anxiety in her mind.

(Taken from our review of My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness)

Japanese Dystopian Fiction

Dystopian fiction has had something of a renaissance in recent years. Perhaps it has something to do with the times we’re living through. Japan is no different. Some of the smartest, most insightful and introspective dystopian novels are coming out of Japan right now, and here are two of our favourites.

The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa

Translated by Stephen Snyder

The Memory Police is set on a nameless island of almost entirely nameless people — a popular practice in modern Japanese literature. On this island, things disappear at random.

What this means is that people on the island will often wake up to find something either vanished out of existence, like roses, perfume, or ribbons; or things still physically exist but they no longer work or be used, like the only ferry which can leave the island.

Once something has disappeared, it is soon after forgotten by almost everyone on the island, and then they may go on with their lives, unburdened by the loss of the disappeared thing. Two kinds of people do not forget, though: the Memory Police, and a small minority of civilians who are taken away by the Memory Police if it is discovered that they are failing to forget what has disappeared.

Our protagonist is an author whose mother kept mementos of things that have disappeared and was eventually taken away by the Memory Police. Our author, however, does forget and lives in fear of what may vanish next. Yoko Ogawa is one of our favourite Japanese authors and hers are some of the best Japanese books out there. The Memory Police is nothing short of a masterpiece.

(Taken from our review of The Memory Police)

The Last Children of Tokyo by Yoko Tawada

Translated by Margaret Mitsutani

In recent years Japan has become known globally for its aging population, a generation living longer than that of any other nation (mostly due to its healthy foods and lifestyle trends) and also for its rapidly declining birth rates (thanks to, well, a lot of things – long and stressful working weeks and a disinterest in sex among young people are often cited as two popular reasons).

These rising and falling figures make for scary reading in the papers, and even scarier stories. As The Last Children of Tokyo begins, Yoshiro, a retired author, has passed his hundredth birthday and still spends every morning out jogging with his rent-a-dog (there are few animals left in Japan, and certainly no wild ones).

His great-grandson Mumei, however, was born, like every member of his generation, with grey hair and failing health. His life expectancy is poor, and his bones will likely fail him before he exits his teens. If you’re looking for excellent dystopian fiction, this is one of the best Japanese books in that genre.

(Taken from our review of The Last Children of Tokyo)

Japanese Historical Fiction

Many Japanese writers choose to write in the present, whenever their own present might be or have been. It’s in the world of manga where you find a lot more historical fiction (such as Vinland Saga, Vagabond, and Kingdom).

That said, here are two of the best Japanese books within the genre of Japanese historical fiction for you to enjoy. One was even recently made into a beautiful and moving film by Martin Scorsese, and the other is by my personal favourite author of all time.

An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro

Some readers familiar with Ishiguro’s work might immediately want to call me out by pointing out that he is, in fact, a British author. And that’s true, but Ishiguro is also Japanese; he was born there and lived his early years there before moving to the UK.

So, while he does write in English, he is Japanese and has an authority to write about Japan, which makes this book one of the best Japanese books of all time. Ishiguro is also, as I’ve already mentioned, my favourite author, and An Artist of the Floating World is my favourite Ishiguro novel. It’s a complex piece of historical fiction set after the events of World War II.

Our protagonist, Ono, was once a great painter, but during the events of WWII he began making right-wing propaganda art which, after the war ended, discredited him as a traitor to the ideals and morals of Japan. This novel is an intense exploration of personal politics, moral duty, and betrayal. It follows Ono closely and allows us time to live with him and his decisions, as well as how his family and friends now treat him.

An absolute masterpiece of Japanese historical fiction.

Silence by Shusaku Endo

Translated by William Johnston

Western religious is not popular in Japan, but it is not unheard of. Shusaku Endo was a Japanese Roman Catholic who wrote a definitive piece of Japanese historical fiction about faith and religious discrimination in Japan which was later adapted to film by Martin Scorsese.

That novel is Silence, which is set during the Shimabara Rebellion of the 17^th century. It tells the story of several religious European men in Japan who were all based on real historical figures. Our protagonist is Sebastiao Rodriguez, a Portuguese priest who has come to Japan to help the Christian population who have been forced underground.

It’s a moving tale of Japanese historical fiction that builds in intensity and does a great job of staying dynamic as its writing style shifts from journals to letters to traditional narration. For many, Martin Scorsese included, Silence is one of the most compelling and best Japanese books in the historical fiction genre.

Read More: Goodnight Punpun: A Masterpiece of Millennial Fiction

Japanese Romance Novels

Japanese authors approach love in myriad ways, much of it complex and unique. The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa, for example, is less about romance but very much about love.

If you’re looking for Japanese romance novels that stand apart from the rest — romance novels that are smart, witty, charming, and beautiful — these two novels will absolutely not disappoint. When it comes to romance, they are the best Japanese novels around.

At the End of the Matinee by Keiichiro Hirano

Translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter

As romance novels go, this is one of the best Japanese books on the shelves. Keiichiro Hirano’s At the End of the Matinee is a book that spans a lot of time and a lot of ground. It is warming, dynamic, and satisfying. This Japanese romance novel tells the story of two successful people who live very different lives but have found themselves in love.

He is a classical guitarist with multiple albums and world tours under his belt. She is a globe-trotting journalist based in France with her American husband. Both of our protagonists are around the age of forty, and At the End of the Matinee bucks a lot of romance trends with these characters.

Their age, work, life situations, backgrounds, are all atypical when it comes to traditional love stories. This is also one of the few Japanese romance novels written by a man, and with such detail and delicacy to boot. It takes its time and deserves to be enjoyed slowly. A wonderful love story.

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

Translated by Megan Backus

Mikage’s youth is spent in a shroud of death. We are hit with the death of Mikage’s grandmother and an offer to be taken in by a young man of whom her grandmother was a great admirer: Yuichi Tanabe. Yuichi lives with his mother, though it is quickly revealed that Eriko was in fact, at one time, Yuichi’s father.

And so here we have a love story. But one that reads like a puppet show, with Mikage tied to death’s right hand, and Yuichi to his left. Kitchen shines brightest as an elucidation of the awful transience of life in its every facet. So much of what we do slips through our fingers without us ever being aware of it.

We are enormous fans of Banana Yoshimoto and Kitchen is one of her best, making it one of the best Japanese books of modern times.

(Taken from our review of Kitchen)

Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami

Translated by Allison Markin Powell

Strange Weather in Tokyo is a cultural examination of post-war Japan packaged into a touching, life-affirming love story for the ages. Deep in the trench which separates the old and the new, our protagonist Tsukiko is reunited with her old high school Japanese teacher.

She refers to this man only as ‘Sensei’ and through the course of the novel it’s difficult not to become truly invested in the individuals you meet. Kawakami creates distinct, memorable, and charming characters who you are truly rooting for throughout the novel.

Strange Weather in Tokyo is a clash of modern and classic Japanese culture and customs, and of modern and weathered dating methods. The writing is clean, to the point, and surprisingly fast-paced. There are some real memorable points of this novel that make for a completely engrossing narrative.

Hiromi Kawakami has written some of the best Japanese books of the past few decades, and Strange Weather in Tokyo is certainly one of them.

(Taken from our review of Strange Weather in Tokyo)

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

Translated by Jay Rubin

Easily Murakami’s most accessibly and narratively straightforward novel, Norwegian Wood lacks all the otherworldly strangeness and violence that he is known for, and instead offers us a novel inspired by his own life – think of it as his David Copperfield.

Set during the university years of a young man named Toru, this novel recounts his love affair with the girlfriend of his own late childhood friend, lost to suicide; all the while, she is struggling with her own depression and her time living in a kind of mental health retreat.

(Taken from our guide to reading Murakami)

Japanese Folklore Books

Japan has some of the richest folklore in the entire world. Or, at least, the best documented and most accessible folklore. With ghost stories, yokai, and folktales that have been passed down and recorded for a hundred generations, Japanese folklore is an obsession for many people.

Here is one collection which documents some of the most legendary works of Japanese folklore, and another that is a clever modern feminist folktale by an author we’ve already covered but who has diversity in her work to last for years.

Japanese Ghost Stories by Lafcadio Hearn

Lafcadio Hearn was an extraordinary man. Born in Greece, raised in Ireland, he spent much of his adult life as a writer in the United States. Eventually, far later in life, he arrived in Japan and found such a fascination in the folklore of the country that he enlisted the help of local friends to compile a collection of Japanese ghost stories.

Japanese Ghost Stories is the perfect place to start if you’re looking for some Japanese folklore books to read all about the ghosts, fantastical beasts, and yokai of Japanese history. It’s a beautiful collection of eerie, strange, romantic, unsettling ghost stories from across Japan’s history, recorded here in English for us to enjoy.

Read More: Ten Classic Japanese Ghost Stories

The Goddess Chronicle by Natsuo Kirino

Translated by Rebecca Copeland

This is not strictly a book of Japanese folklore. Rather, it is a beautiful modern fairy tale written by one of modern Japan’s greatest feminist authors. I’ve already sung Kirino’s praises as the author of Out, but here she delivers a very different story indeed.

The Goddess Chronicle has the tone, fantastical nature, and narrative tropes of a Greek myth, and is today regarded as one of the best modern Japanese folklore books. The novel tells the story of two sisters born on a strange island. One sister is selected to become the island’s next Oracle, while the other, Namima, is forced to serve the dark realm.

It’s a novel about fighting fate, as Namima breaks away from the island and her destiny to venture out into the world of darkness and danger.

Japanese Children’s Books

I don’t claim to be an expert in children’s literature, but I do know a smart and imaginative book when I see it. Below are two beloved works of Japanese fiction, one that has been transformed into one of the biggest and best anime movies of all time, and the other is a manga loved by children across the planet.

Read More: Must-Read Japanese Children’s Books

How Do You Live? by Genzaburo Yoshino

Translated by Bruno Navasky

Written in the 1930s by Genzaburo Yoshino, How Do You Live? is the inspiration for the Studio Ghibli movie of the same name, directed by the legend himself: Hayao Miyazaki. How Do You Live? was Miyazaki’s own favourite book growing up, and so he has chosen to adapt it into an animated film.

Set in the same 1930s in which it was written, How Do You Live? follows the fifteen-year-old Copper. Copper’s father has passed away and he is being raised by his mother, as well as by an uncle to acts as a kind of moral compass for the young and growing boy.

With each chapter, Copper encounters a situation or a problem; he has a chance to grow, be kind, make mistakes, and learn.

Between these chapters, we get a letter from Copper’s uncle that inspires him or teaches him a specific message. Copper can then apply these lessons to his life as he continues to grow as a young man.

As children’s and YA books go, How Do You Live? is one of the best Japanese books for teaching good morals, kindness, and the power of unity amongst people, whatever their age or circumstance.

Kiki’s Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono

Translated by Emily Balistrieri

Best known as one of Studio Ghibli’s most beloved movies, directed by Hayao Miyazaki back in 2003, Kiki’s Delivery Service, much like Howl’s Moving Castle, began its life as a children’s novel. But while the novel of Howl’s Moving Castle was written by a beloved Welsh author, Kiki began her life in Japan, created and written by Eiko Kadono in 1985.

Coinciding with the release of the film in the West, an English translation of the novel hit shelves in 2003. Now, however, we have a fresh new translation for 2020 by Emily Balistrieri. And what a heartfelt, warm, and sweet translation it is. Kiki, with all her tenacity, sensibility, and cleverness feels more alive than ever, and through Balistrieri’s translation Kiki’s attitude is truly infectious.

Case Closed by Gosho Aoyama

Few manga are as beloved as Case Closed and few protagonists as adored as Detective Conan (named after the legendary Sherlock Holmes author Arthur Conan Doyle). This long-running manga series tells the story of a teenage genius detective who has been forced to drink a potion that transforms his body into that of a little boy while still retaining his genius mind.

There haven’t been many stories with a premise so perfect for young boys with a love of mystery to enjoy. It reminds me of just how perfect the once popular DC comic Captain Marvel (now known as Shazam! Due to a long-running legal dispute) was for American boys in the early 20^th century.

This, of course, also extends to music. Bands and musicians around the world have taken inspiration from Japanese art, music, language, aesthetics, landscapes, urban spaces, fashion, and more to write fantastic songs inspired by Japan.

Beautiful & Diverse Songs Inspired by Japan

Every song, EP, and LP featured on this list of songs inspired by Japan is just that: inspired by Japan. That means these artists are not Japanese, but rather non-Japanese artists whose songs are inspired by the cityscapes, language, and culture of Japan.

If you want to discover some new Japanese music, check out our playlist of Japanese LoFi

The Lonely Harps Club – Nommunication

Nommunication is a term used in Japan to describe the need for alcohol to get a conversation going. It combined the Japanese verb nomu (to drink) with the English word “communication”.

The mere existence of this word says a lot about both drink culture and communication in modern day Japan.

The formerly Tokyo-based British singer-songwriter Julia Mascetti, who performs as The Lonely Harps Club, took this term, blended it with her own experiences of living, working, and performing in Japan, and composed an ethereal track with Nommunication as its title.

We were lucky enough to see The Lonely Harps Club perform this song live in a Tokyo club, and it proved to be just as hypnotising live as the dream-like atmosphere of the recorded track would have you believe.

The Lonely Harps Club’s debut album, Long Game, also features other songs inspired by Japan, including the track Left, which describes leaving Japan, and the track In Bloom, which actually features a shamisen in its instrumentation.

Sithu Aye – Senpai (EP)

Scottish math-rock-guitar-boy Sithu Aye (pronounced C2A) makes no bones about how much the world of anime has inspired his music. Sithu Aye’s running series of Senpai EPs mimic the sound and tone of slice-of-life anime to great effect.

The titles of these tracks often reference anime tropes, and every single one is a happy, bouncy, guitar-led banger.

Sithu Aye is an instrumental project comprised of electric guitars, drums, bass, piano, and synths. Though metal-inspired, the songs that Sithu Aye puts out are jolly, groovy, summer tunes, and the Senpai EPs are essential listening for anime fans.

A few listens of the Senpai EPs, a glance at the cover art, and a scan of the track names shows just how much of an influence Japanese anime has had on Sithu Aye’s imagination and approach to music.

Cartoon Theory – Yokai Orchestra (LP)

Within the same blend of scenes and genres as Sithu Aye, you’ll find the French musical project Cartoon Theory. With heavy emphasis on synths, pianos, and drums, this is an instrumental mix of djent and synthwave.

Cartoon Theory’s Yokai Orchestra LP, as evidenced by its name, album art, and track titles like Kitsune, is another collection of tracks inspired by Japanese culture and folklore.

This goes beyond the words and art, however, with Japanese instruments and compositions being sampled by Cartoon Theory to create an atmosphere reminiscent of the soundtracks to Japanese video games and anime, especially those set in worlds inspired by Japanese history and mythology.

This is a wordless concept album that takes us on a sonic journey through the myths and tales of Japanese folklore, played with staggering effect and mixed beautifully. A treat for the ears from beginning to end.

Phoebe Bridgers – Kyoto

Kyoto is a hugely popular track by American singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers.

The song’s video places Bridgers in front of a green screen, on which typical tourist photos of Japanese landmarks and common urban objects can be seen, as well as footage of and from city trains and shinkansen.

While the track is, allegedly, about Bridgers’ relationship to her father, the lyrics bring the streets and common sights of urban Japan to life in a vivid and satisfying manner.

Kyoto’s opening lyrics describe a Buddhist temple, a 7-11 convenience store, and the shinkansen bullet train. It’s simple but paints a clear image of the common sights seen by first-time visitors to Japan.

In a press release, Bridgers remarked:

“This song is about impostor syndrome. About being in Japan for the first time, somewhere I’ve always wanted to go, and playing my music to people who want to hear it, feeling like I’m living someone else’s life. I dissociate when bad things happen to me, but also when good things happen. It can feel like I’m performing what I think I’m supposed to be like.”

Lianne La Havas – Tokyo

UK singer-songwriter Lianne La Havas discussed with Billboard how:

“The song ‘Tokyo’ is about the loneliness you feel when you’re going from place to place. Tokyo seemed like the best place to discuss that: It’s such a bustling city, but you can feel so alone there.”

She captures the dizzying, endless concrete jungle of the world’s largest city in her lyrics, and dwells mystically on how the size and density of such a city can make one feel far more alone than they would be anywhere else on Earth.

Having felt this exact feeling myself on more than one occasion in Tokyo, I can relate to these lyrics with a near uncomfortable intensity:

“I’m out of sight

I’m out of mind

Alone in Tokyo

You’re out of reach

Wrong place, wrong time

Alone in Tokyo”

The Cure – Kyoto Song

From their 1985 album The Head On The Door, The Cure’s Kyoto Song is sonically inspired by the titular Kyoto, Japan’s historic capital. In the opening instrumental segment of the track can be heard a Japanese string instrument being plucked (it sounds like a koto but I’m not 100% sure).

As for the track’s lyrics, they are surreal, creepy, and dream-inspired (very on-brand for Robert Smith). The lyrical ties to Kyoto are unclear but the instrumental connection is subtle and runs deep.

Read More: Must-Read Books About Life

Alphaville – Big in Japan

Released in 1984 on their album Forever Young, Big in Japan is perhaps the most famous pop song inspired by Japan you’ll ever hear.

Though, in this instance, “inspired by Japan” isn’t entirely accurate, but it is culturally interesting. As Marian Gold remarked on the lyrics:

“As you know, there’s a considerable musical market in Japan. If you wanted to become famous, what you should do was to form a hard rock group and then release an album over there; it would definitely sell well… so the story went …”

Big in Japan is actually about washed-up people dreaming about being drug-free. The link to Japan being that, like Gold said, you might be a loser in your real life, but you can find success in another world.

The idea of Japan being a whole other world that offers new opportunities and successes for some people is an old tale, and one that Gold explores here in a clever allegory.

While Japan’s own music and art did not inspire the song, there is a fascinating cultural link between the West and Japan that Gold is referencing; one that really gets the cogs turning.

The Wonder Years – Raining in Kyoto

The opening track to The Wonder Years’ album Sister Cities takes listeners on a tour of Kyoto.

Dan Campbell wrote the song after finding out that his grandfather, back in Philadelphia, had died. Campbell learned this as he boarded a plane for his band’s Japanese tour.

While in Kyoto, a kindly old man guides Campbell around a Buddhist temple to conduct what Campbell calls a “makeshift funeral” for his grandfather. Campbell explains in the lyrics that he doesn’t understand the symbolism of it but the act is an attempt to find some closure.

Other lyrics in the song make reference to vending machine coffee, paper cranes, and Japan’s monsoon season. It paints a haunting picture, as do the shots seen in the song’s music video.

These shots reveal close-ups of local people and places in cities like Osaka and Nara, as well as Tokyo and the titular Kyoto.

Agent Fresco – Mono no Aware

Mono no Aware is a Japanese concept which can be translated as “the pathos of things”. It’s a term used to capture a person’s awareness of impermanence. A classic example being the quick and brief life of a cherry blossom.

The closing track of Icelandic prog rock band Agent Fresco’s album Destrier uses mono no aware as its title, encapsulating the themes, tone, and message of that song.

The lyrics of the song describe a person riding his horse (destrier) across a shifting landscape awash with death. It evokes images of a battlefield and a melding of life and death.

This hearkens back to the concept of mono no aware, making the track one of the more unique songs inspired by Japan you’re likely to come across.

Enter Shikari – Shinrin Yoku

Shinrin yoku (forest bathing) is an increasingly popular concept and activity in the West, inspired by the practising of that same activity in Japan. Books have been written on the subject, attempting to capitalise on the trend.

Cynicism aside, shinrin yoku is a healthy and beneficial thing. It simply involves taking yourself out into a forest and losing your body and mind to the colours and sounds of the forest. It’s an easy way to find peace and feel strong.

UK alternative rock band Enter Shikari took this concept and described it in the lyrics to their track of the same name. In his lyrics, Rou Reynolds walks listeners through the sensation of shinrin yoku:

“Surrounded

Sunk deep in the dense embrace of the forest

I imagine this is the polar opposite of suffocation

My lungs seem to gain extra capacity here

And I feel like an empty inbox

As I contemplate the ultimate assault course

The roots, the stumps, the branches”

They have changed a lot over the years but several details remain, including their limbless physique and vibrant hand-painted bodies. Find out everything about kokeshi dolls, from their history to how they are made, and learn where to buy your own.

What is a Kokeshi Doll?

The everlasting Japanese souvenir, kokeshi dolls (or dento-kokeshi) have become a cultural icon, and currently exist in so many different creative forms that it’s easy to forget their simple origins. Just one of the many types of Japanese dolls, they are made out of various types of seasoned wood, in particular the wood of cherry and mizuki trees.

Ranging between five and ten inches tall, they traditionally consist of a handcrafted thick wooden body with a ball attached for the head. The doll is then painted with facial features, clothing, and hair, and they traditionally don’t feature limbs, thus quickly separating them from most other dolls. 

These features and styles vary depending on which region the doll originated from. The minimalist design of the clothing and facial features are also a unique factor of the dolls, though this is what has most markedly evolved with the modern iterations of kokeshi doll in a revival of the art which took hold from the 1940s onwards.

These contemporary dolls featured more elaborate wooden hairstyles, colourful clothing, and detailed facial expressions. Today, you can find kokeshi dolls in almost any theme, including popular characters from film and anime, making them collector’s items and still beloved by children.

The History of Kokeshi Dolls

Though a traditional folk art, kokeshi dolls are not as old as they may first appear, becoming commonplace towards the end of the Edo period (1603 – 1868). There are very few records documenting their origin but they are believed to have originated in northern Japan, specifically Shinchi Shuraku in the Tohoku region.

Woodworkers who had a knowledge of pottery (known as  kijishi) began making simple wooden dolls as souvenirs for those visiting the onsen.

Spas across the region then started making their own and the kokeshi dolls spread, becoming incredibly popular, especially during the Meiji period, as toys for children. The dolls varied subtly across the different regions and were typically named after the onsen in the area.

These are the eleven traditional types of doll from regions around Japan:

Tsuchiyu Dolls from Fukushima and Nihonmatsu —  Using a reverse-lathe technique, these dolls are difficult to create. Featuring a cylindrical body with a larger bottom and a smaller head than other types of doll with a black coiled pattern on the head.

Yajirō from Miyagi —  The head is slightly larger than the body on this doll which is a distinctive concave shape. Carvings are overlapped on the head to create a beret style appearance.

Tōgatta from Tōgatta Onsen in Miyagi — The head is much larger than the body on this doll and features a distinctive red pattern. The doll’s face is always subtly smiling and the body will be decorated with blossoms.

Naruko from Naruko Onsen in Ōsaki —  The head of this doll is attached with a peg and makes a distinctive squeaking sound. The body is  typically decorated with maple leaves and blossoms.

Sakunami or Yamagata-Sakunami from Miyagi —  A slimmer, longer doll that is easy to hold for children and decorated with petals. Hiraga Kokeshi Shop is the only place where you can still find these dolls.

Zaō Takayu from Yamagata —  This doll features a thick body that tapers at the end with the end being decorated with overlapping cherry blossoms and other flowers.

Hijiori from Hijiori Onsen in Ōkura —  The facial features of this doll sets it apart as the crescent moon shaped eyes make for a peaceful expression. Squared off shoulders five it a more realistic body shape. There is only one master kokeshi maker still working here making these a particularly rare doll.

Kijiyama from Yuzawa —  This is a longer doll with a particularly elongated head. They will often be found wearing a kimono with vertical stripes.

Nambu from Morioka and Hanamaki Onsen in Hanamaki —  This doll, rather than a squeaking head, has a loose head which rattles around slightly making a distinctive knocking sound. They were originally left plain but some are painted with simple designs.

Tsugaru from Nuruyu Onsen in Kuroishi —  These dolls often feature a flared out skirt, a bobbed hairstyle, and narrow waist. They will often have daruma painted on them or the Tsugaru clan crest.

Yamagata Style —  Made in the city itself, rather than in a hot spring town, they have a slim body and head and are painted with blossoms and occasionally safflowers which are Yamagat’s official flower.

How Are Kokeshi Dolls Made?

Made from solid wood, these traditionally made dolls are testament to the craft of woodwork being expertly made by hand using a lathe and knife. Watching the process of making the dolls is a soothing and therapeutic process as observed in this video.

The signature stripes are also painted while on the lathe before the head is fitted into a cavity carved into the top of the doll making the signature squeak the dolls are known for. The fine features of the doll and patterns are then painted on by hand.

Places to Visit if You Love Kokeshi

Miyagi Naruko Kokeshi — The most widley known styke of kokeshi dolls are made in the town of Naruko which can be found in Miyagi Prefecture. Along with neighbouring towns and cities, it has now merged into the city of Osaki.

However, the village of Naruko, along with several others, is still a popular hot spring resort, as well as a place famous for its wood artisans. In the late 19th Century, these artisans became known for the creation of kokeshi dolls. The combination of kokeshi and onsen make this a popular tourism destination.

Tsuchiyu Onsen — An unassuming and quiet town in Fukushima, Tsuchiyu Onsen is another hot spring resort town with strong ties to the creation of kokeshi dolls.

It’s common for visitors to come for the onsen and enjoy the peace and tranquility of the place, before returning home with a kokeshi doll as a souvenir. The Tohoku region is said to be the place where kokeshi dolls originated, and Tsuchiyu Onsen takes pride in its declaration that the artisans here are the only ones who still carve kokeshi dolls in the original method.

Yajiro Kokeshi Village — Kokeshi dolls are such an important icon of Japanese tradition that a competition, known as the Japan National Kokeshi Doll Competition, is frequently held.

Artisans from Yajiro Kokeshi Village have been known to take home the gold from this contest on multiple occasions, so famed are these craftsmen at the art of making kokeshi dolls. Situated at the foot of Mt. Fubosan, Yajiro is located close to Kamasaki Onsen. The entire location is a picturesque place steeped in tradition.

Miyagi Zao Kokeshi Museum — At the foot of Mount Zao, you can visit the Kokeshi Museum. This is a museum that showcases over 5,000 examples of traditional and contemporary kokeshi dolls from the past two centuries, thus demonstrating the evolution of the kokeshi doll, as well as the original designs and crafting techniques used to make them. You can also visit a studio and meet the artisans who create these beautiful dolls.

Where to Buy Authentic Kokeshi Dolls

Usaburo Kokeshi, based in Gunma Prefecture, are the largest makers of kokeshi dolls in Japan. They were one of the leading craftsmen of the kokeshi revival during the 20th Century and pioneered new production methods which modernised kokeshi crafting.

You can also visit the Usaburo Kokeshi Factory if you’re hoping to make your own doll one day or simply take a tour of their vast range of designs.

Here are some of their pieces which you can buy online:

Usaburo Japanese Kokeshi Doll, Hiro The Junior Samurai – This samurai doll is a perfect example of the creativity which came with contemporary doll craftsmanship with a separate top knot hairpiece and vibrant green maori jacket. Subtle detailing like the sword at his side brings the character of this doll to life. 

Usaburo Japanese Kokeshi Doll, Yuki’s Red Kimono – A classic style of kokeshi doll that we’re most familiar with today, reminiscent of a geisha with big wooden hair, delicate red bow, and vibrant kimono and obi. This eye catching kokeshi doll makes it a perfect Japanese souvenir and will  undoubtedly brighten up your home.

Usaburo Sosaku Kokeshi Doll Yukigeshou – While many dolls showcase beautiful clothes and accessories, many display a stunning Japanese scene across their body like this Sosaku doll. Depicted here is a typical winter scene of Japanese roofs and snow-covered trees using gorgeous deep oranges and blues. A doll that transports you to another world whenever you look at it.

Usaburo Sosaku Cherry Blossom Kokeshi Doll – Take the spring everywhere with you and think of hanami right through the year with this cherry blossom doll. Wearing a pink yukata, detailed sakura are painted onto the front of the piece.

Usaburo Wassyoi Festival Doll – Wearing a detailed blue hanten jacket and hachimaki headband, this doll is ready for the summer festivities and celebrations. With its happy expression, this kokeshi doll will remind you of the joys of summertime.

Seifu Ghono Sakura Cherry Blossom –  Made by Japanese designers Seifu Ghono, this cherry blossom painted doll comes in a longer, thinner shape reminiscent of the more traditional style of kokeshi doll but with contemporary hair and design. Finished with lacquer from wood that has been sun-dried for six to twelve months, this beautiful Kokeshi doll is a wonderful example of Japanese craftsmanship and art.

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• An Intro to Japanese Lofi Music
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For music lovers of all stripes, lofi music offers a unique kind of bliss. Every listener’s experience with lofi is unique. Personally, it puts me in the mood to grab a blanket, cradle a hot brew in my hands, and simply think. Japanese lofi offers me the space to think and feel, calmly and clearly.

Whether you’re looking for a perfect accompaniment to a gripping read, something to get you in the mood to tackle your work, or you simply want something to help you lie back and let your imagination run wild, these Japanese lofi playlists are everything you need.

Read More: Our custom playlist of songs inspired by Japan

What is Lofi music?

The term ‘lofi’ actually stands for ‘low-fidelity’. Named for its imperfect sound quality, lofi music has become a global sensation in recent years.

The repetitive beats found in lofi music have become the calming background hum of modern times: perfect for studying, cooking, sleeping, school lessons, early morning coffee, late-night unwinds… you
name it.

Lofi listeners are storming YouTube and Spotify to get their latest dose of quality lofi music, mesmerised by the infinite range of memories, imaginations and emotions evoked by these sounds.

The Lofi Community is also a nice, chill space on the internet full of great recommendations and welcoming, friendly people. Toxicity in the lofi internet space is at an all-time low, which is reason enough to get invested in chill lofi beats right now.

Also called lofi hip-hop, jazzhop, and chillhop (depending on the type of sounds), lofi is often characterised by grainy audio and the occasional sound of a vinyl record scratch or cassette type.

Since lofi music celebrates imperfection as an aesthetic choice, lofi artists throw in any type of noise they feel like: sounds of rain, birds chirping, busy streets. A quiet, calming atmosphere is the name of the game when it comes to good lofi music.

Meaningful quotes from anime, TV, and film often infuse a unique atmosphere into lofi beats. To gain a taste of lofi’s popularity, lofi producer Chilled Cow’s lofi hip hop live stream (featuring the iconic lofi study girl) recently ran for 13,000 hours straight – picking up a staggering 218 million views in the process.

Nujabes – Japan’s Lofi King

Lofi was born in the 1980s when DIY ‘bedroom’ musicians made unique sounds without the use of specialist recording equipment. After Japan’s Nujabes – famed as ‘the King of Lofi’ – created the lofi soundtrack to the action anime Samurai Champloo in 2004: Lo-fi exploded.

By incorporating jazz influences and synthesising different samples, melodies, and beats together, Nujabes created the kind of immersive lofi beats that many flock to for good feelings to this day.

As a result of his efforts, lofi became inextricably tied up with Japan and Japanese anime: mirroring the calming, other-worldly feel of anime beautifully. This is why many Japanese lofi playlists boast, hand-drawn or animated backgrounds and moving graphics.

Inspiring nostalgia, creativity, focus, bittersweetness, life-altering reflection, and more, Japanese lofi playlists have boomed during the pandemic.

Top Six Calming Japanese Lofi Playlists

Looking for something new that you can put on right now? Then let our top six calming Japanese lofi playlists provide the blissful backdrop to whatever you’re doing next.

1) Lofi & Jazz hiphop – by Café Music BGM channel

Japan-based Cafe Music BGM channel record lofi music every day, ‘to make people pleasant at any time, anywhere and any scene in everyday life by our music’. This sentiment epitomises Japanese lofi music. A pianist, guitarist, bassist, and drummer make up their core group — with saxophonists, trumpeters, and vocalists occasionally coming in for extra texture, melody, and variety. Enjoy.

2) Reminisce… [Jazz Hop / Chillhop / Nujabes Style Beats] – by The Jazz Hop
Café

Japan’s lofi hiphop king Nujabes was tragically killed in a car crash in Tokyo on 26th February 2010. To celebrate his legacy, The Jazz Hop Café bring us a vibrant Nujabes-style beats described as ‘adventurous melodies to accompany you on sentimental journeys’.

3) 5AM IN ＴＯＫＹＯ – Mellow chill ‘ jazz hip hop beats – by Stay See

Dive into an immersive state of reflection and quiet, calm feeling with this chillhop/jazz/downtempo Japanese lofi mix. Imagine yourself strolling the neon-lit streets of late-night Tokyo and embark on your own unique journey.

4) RAINING IN ＯＳＡＫＡ (Lofi HipHop) – by the bootleg boy:

The bootleg boy is a master of atmospheric Japanese lofi. Drink in the sounds of nature, the chirping of birds, and the falling of rain. This is the ultimate sleepy/rainy lofi mix that will throw your imagination into a different world.

5) Ghibli Chill Music Collection – by LOOPYLOOPS.

Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli have enchanted anime-watchers worldwide with the soothing film soundtracks of iconic and beloved animated movies like My Neighbour Totoro (1988), Spirited Away (2002), Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), and many more.

This Japanese lofi playlist contains the best Japanese lofi anime music that will make your heart swell with delight and soar above the clouds.

6) Samurai Japanese Lofi HipHop Mix – by the bootleg boy:

An enchanting Japanese lofi hip hop/chill beats mix featuring the background image from Japanese anime Samurai Champloo: the very starting point of Japanese lofi. Favourites include tracks like ‘Sunday vibes’ by wünsche and ‘drunk off the liquor’ by Doze. Tune in and let your thoughts run free as this core lofi mix takes a hold of your heart and your imagination.

Interested in Japanese culture?

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• A Complete Guide To Japanese Izakaya

Spend time with your colleagues after work; sip on cheap local drinks (like Japanese beer, sake, and cocktails); and share platters of irresistible finger food. The definition of post-work pleasure. Wander in, take a seat, and let your laughter and conversations fade into the background noise of carefree socialisers. Ahh… a cold beer after a busy day of working or exploring. Perfect. 

Much like how the English word ‘pub’ derives from ‘public house’, the Japanese word ‘izakaya’ (居酒屋) consists of the kanji for ‘stay’, ‘drink’, and ‘place’, and that’s exactly it is: a place to stay and drink — and to let life’s troubles melt away. 

Back in Japan’s Edo Period (1603-1868), people first used to drink and eat outside liquor shops, forming a place where different classes would mingle; from samurai to commoners. Today, this inclusive feel lives on in the Japanese izakaya. Everyone is happy and equal: eating, drinking, and laughing together.

Read More: Where to Drink in Tokyo – 25 Bars and Izakaya by District

After-work Drinking Culture in Japan

Izakaya are famed as a heavenly post-work stop-off for Japanese workers craving some much-needed and much-earned refreshment.

However, amid Japan’s initial coronavirus restrictions in April 2020, izakayas were faced with a potential existential crisis due to the need for remote working to fight the spread of infection. No longer was the routine of ‘work – izakaya – home’ the norm for many people.

However, a September 2020 survey revealed that only 34.4% of businesses implemented a work from home policy, while a further 22.85% implemented one during the outbreak but discontinued it as restrictions lift. As a result, the enduring importance of the office in Japan’s working culture and the sustained life of the Japanese izakaya come hand in hand. We can certainly expect izakayas to live on going forward.

Japanese Izakaya: fit for (almost) every occasion 

In Japan, izakaya aren’t just for thirsty salarymen. These drinking spots can often range from a hole-in-the-wall to private rooms — making them fit for multiple occasions.

Some locals pop in for a quick beer and plate of tempura, while others sit there from 5pm till the last train home, perhaps making use of the all-you-can-drink option (known as nomihoudai): ranging from ¥1000 to ¥2000 for 90 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the izakaya.

Japanese izakaya provide hungry and thirsty visitors with the perfect place to catch-up with family and friends; share meaningful conversation; celebrate a birthday; host nomikai: (corporate or college parties); or simply get downright drunk. These last two often go hand-in-hand.

The only thing we would advise against is an intimate date or meeting someone for the first time since izakaya tend to boast a loud and unapologetically relaxed atmosphere.

Where can I find a Japanese izakaya?

From bustling metropolises like Tokyo to small provincial towns, izakaya are everywhere in Japan. They can be found within train stations, dotted throughout entertainment districts, shopping areas, and the restaurant floors of department stores across Japan.

Stroll down narrow alleyways (yokocho) and drink with locals in cramped cubbyholes. Look for red and white lanterns and drapes that signal you’re in the right area. If you’re in Tokyo, izakaya are perfect for exploring the local food and drink options.

Hoppy Street in Asakusa is overflowing with lively izakaya, as are the arches under Yurakucho Station (called ‘Yurakucho Gado Shita’), and the Kabukicho entertainment district in Shinjuku. Unsurprisingly, Tokyo has a few special izakayas up its sleeve.

Read More: What to Eat in Tokyo (+ Ramen Guide)

What to expect in an izakaya?

On entering an izakaya, you may be required to place your shoes in a shoe locker (or you may not). You are seated at either a regular table, lower table with tatami mats (where you can sit or kneel), a seated bar, or a standing bar (tachinomi), which is more common in smaller izakaya.

Next, you are handed a towel (oshibori) to clean your hands with — which will be hot or cold depending on the season. 

Expect a tasty appetiser upon being seated (called an otoshi), eaten with your first drink and designed to get you licking your lips in anticipation for the night ahead. These are compulsory snacks, but they only set you back around ¥300-600.

Depending on where you’re sitting, you may be able to see and smell delicious food, sizzling away in front of your very eyes.

In large chain izakaya (like Uotami and Torikizoku — look for the yellow logo with red kanji), picture menus and service call buttons (set into the table) are common. In more understated independent izakayas, manual menus and call-the-waiter service is the norm.

Unlike in countries like the UK, calling out for table service is normal in a Japanese izakaya. Simply raise your hand and confidently yell, “sumimasen!” (excuse me) and someone will happily assist you.

It has always been ordinary, when visiting an izakaya, to be engulfed in a cloud of cigarette smoke. However, in an effort to help create a tobacco-free Olympics, Japan’s new smoking law (from April 2020) has prohibited smoking in izakaya restaurants. Today, you’ll find many izakaya with a separate smoking room.

Read More: Useful Japanese Phrases Every Traveller Should Know

What is found on a typical izakaya menu?

When visiting a Japanese izakaya, you can expect to send your taste buds into overdrive with rounds of scrumptious, mouth-watering local foods and bar snacks. Expect to find these fantastic foods on a typical izakaya menu:

• Kushiyaki (grilled meat or vegetable skewers)
• Kara-age (deep-fried chicken)
• Tamagoyaki (fluffy Japanese omelette)
• Grilled fish such as hokke (grilled mackerel)
• Tempura (deep-fried vegetables)
• Izakaya sushi
• Sashimi (raw fish)
• Hotpots/nabemono
• Ochazuke (steamed rice drenched in green tea)
• Yakisoba
• Age-dashi tofu (tofu deep-fried in soup)
• Motsu nikomi (boiled meat intestines)
• Pickled cucumbers
• Edamame beans

This style of eating is incredibly addictive, which is part of the reason why so many Japanese salarymen eat dinner this way (also because they’re too tired and busy to cook). You’ll wash down these tasty treats with another drink — and then be in the mood for more! It’s a fun but vicious spiral. Typical izakaya drinks include:

• Beer
• Sake
• Cocktails
• Menshu (plum liquor)
• Highballs
• Sours and shōchū (a spirit from rice and sweet potatoes)

Since rounds of drinks and sharing foods are ordered, it’s common courtesy in Japan to split the bill evenly (unless someone has eaten and drunk significantly more than the rest). In Japan, tipping is not customary and no tip is required. In fact, tipping is typically seen as offensive and patronising, so avoid tipping even if your instincts are telling you that you should.

Read More:

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Types of Sushi and How to Eat It – A Guide

Have we got you excited about visiting a Japanese izakaya and sampling from an izakaya menu? Start planning a trip to Tokyo to achieve your ideal izakaya experience.

Guest Post courtesy of Osusume Books

The narratives found in Japanese literature have a unique power to heal the minds of its readers. A tough day of work ends. It’s time to flush the stress out of your system. ‘I need to relax’, you tell yourself. But how? For some, relaxing might mean meeting up with some friends; for others, it’s exercising or enjoying a glass of wine. Maybe it’s a long soak in a warm bath that does the trick.

For others, relaxing means opening up a Japanese book and welcoming the warm, comforting escape of the world found within.

Reading just a few pages of any novel allows us to exit our real lives, set aside our anxieties, and welcome in a soothing, mesmerising atmosphere that gets us purring with pleasure through the night.

Known as healing novels (iyashi-kei shōsetsu), certain Japanese books stand out for their soothing qualities. Reading authors like Haruki Murakami, Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Kurita Yuki, Kinae Minoto, Hiromi Kawakami, and Banana Yoshimoto, in particular, will half your heart rate as you sink into their stories.

Words of healing for a wounded Japan

Where do these Japanese healing novels come from?

The collapse of Japan’s bubble economy, which the nation enjoyed throughout the 1980s, sparked a catastrophic recession from February 1991 that, to this day, means Japan’s Lost Generation struggle to get their foot in the door of the job market.

On the other hand, those in work have to deal with a brutal working culture that carries the risk of karoshi (death by overwork), and the pressures of pulling your weight in a small workforce caused by Japan’s ageing population. Saying that, Kanae Minato’s Confessions seems to speak to a wounded Japan. The novel’s narrator tells the reader:

‘If the place in which you find yourself is too painful, I say you should be free to seek another, less painful place of refuge. There is no shame in seeking a safe place. I want you to believe that somewhere in this wide world there is a place for you, a safe haven.’

Wise to the situation, perhaps Japanese writers wanted to place a comforting hand on the shoulders of its people by handing them this anti-anxiety, low stress style of fiction.

Read More: Japan History and Culture Books

But what makes Japanese books so calming? There’s meaning in the mundane.

Many Japanese authors give us reflective, calming, and meaningful narratives (rather than frantic ones) by grounding them in the mundane of everyday life. See the unemployed Toru in Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle:

‘I let the phone ring three times and cut the sandwich in half. Then I transferred it to a plate, wiped the knife, and put that in the cutlery drawer, before pouring myself a cup of coffee I had warmed up. Still the phone went on ringing’.

There’s something therapeutic here. Toru’s food ritual is sacred to him, and takes priority. In contrast to fast-paced, action-packed plots, it’s these methodical page-turners that reel us in. (Also see Killing Commendatore, a 704-page story of an artist who spends most of his time thinking, cooking, and painting).

Wrapped up in our hectic lives, there’s something healing about reading a narrative that does not rush and has nowhere to be.

Similarly, Banana Yoshimoto’s The Lake shows an aspiring graphic artist who spends most of her time staring out of the window. She says: ‘I love feeling the rhythm of other people’s lives. It’s like traveling.’ This is patient and tranquil writing. Japanese literature enjoys the presence of empty space in a way most other forms of literature do not.

This approach to space can be see in classical Japanese sumie ink painting, in which the empty white space has its own definition: yohaku no bi (the beauty of extra white). What is left empty matters as much as what is filled in. This is evident in the novels of Haruki Murakami, Yuko Tsushima, Yasunari Kawabata, and many others. The quiet space, the slow tempo, and the calmness of these Japanese authors’ stories can be felt and lived in as we read them.

Soothing, dream-like reality

So many books within the world of Japanese literature is packed full of ordinary, everyday people: waitresses, artists, office workers, writers, the unemployed. Not only do we relate to these characters immediately, through their jobs alone, but we become wrapped up in the weightless, dream-like feel of their lives.

Many of these protagonists are struck by loneliness, but a beautiful solace comes from getting to know them because all of us, deep down, know what it’s like to feel alone.

‘That’s why I left the flat. Out on the street, I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t the only one here, that I wasn’t the only one feeling lonely.’

— Tsukiko, Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami)

A hint of hope

Despite their slow, soothing, gentle pace, in these Japanese novels we can often find a subtle mystery and hint of hope that warms us. In Yoshimoto’s The Lake, for example, our protagonist Chihiro reflects:

‘But I have my life, I’m living it. It’s twisted, exhausting, uncertain, and full of guilt, but nonetheless, there’s something there.’

Similarly, in Yoshimoto’s Kitchen, our narrator Mikage says:

‘In the uncertain ebb and flow of time and emotions, much of one’s life history is etched in the senses. And things of no particular importance, or irreplaceable things, can suddenly resurface in a café one winter night’.

Like Mikage, perhaps we wish to stumble across our own unique, irreplaceable things, and find great consolation in the possibility.

The Healing Literature

It’s no surprise, then, to hear of Tokyo psychiatrist, Machizawa Shizuo, who reports that his depressed patients find ‘an optimism and brightness absent in their own lives’ by reading Banana Yoshimoto. The author is no stranger to death, and she deals with it in her works with bluntness, honesty, and even humour. She makes us feel comfortable with all sides of life and, like a therapist, offers us the chance to accept it.

But more than this, the booming popularity of translated Japanese authors across the globe hints at special kind of quality that drives readers across the globe to immerse in the soothing bubble of their stories. This is the healing power of Japanese literature. And we recommend you embrace it.

Did you enjoy this article? Keen to read some Japanese books? Head over to Osusume Books and browse their Book Packages. They send the very best of translated Japanese literature straight to your doorstep!

Osusume Books send translated Japanese books to their subscribers every month. It is the place to go to read Japanese books in English, and discover more about Japanese literature and authors.

Japanese ghost stories are a deep well of fantastical, terrifying wonders. They have inspired writers, animators, and filmmakers across Japan and beyond, from Junji Ito to Hayao Miyazaki. Here are ten such captivating Japanese ghost stories, all of which originally appeared in Haunted Japan by Catrien Ross.

If any of these ten tales, rewritten here, captivate you and leave you wanting more Japanese ghost stories, more supernatural tales, more spiritual history and context, consider picking up a copy of Ross’ brilliant book.

Parlour Children

Before we begin this, one of the most famous Japanese ghost stories, a note on the Japanese ghosts known as zashiki warashi (parlour children): In Japan’s Tohoku region, poor families would often abandon children they could not afford to raise, leaving them to die.

Those abandoned, dead children would eventually come to haunt homes in the region as zashiki warashi. Now, on with the story.

Many, many centuries ago, in an unassuming Iwate village, there lived a kind, lovable man named Masaimon. Masaimon was beloved by the other villages for his friendly, sweet nature. He lived well, and his family had a home and enough money to live.

But one day, a travelling monk approached Masaimon and warned him that he would soon fall into complete ruin, with no money left for his family. Masaimon was left feeling shaken, confused, and frightened. The monk’s words wouldn’t leave him and, soon, his dread and anxiety turned to fever and sickness. Bedridden, Masaimon was visited by the sound of light and quick footsteps from above. Perhaps those of a child.

When they at last fell silent, the footsteps were replaced by a voice. It also came from above and asked Masaimon: “Are you dead? Are you dead?” Droplets of water fell on Masaimon’s head and the voice warned him: “Limbo is very cold”.

When the ghost child showed itself, it was soaking wet from top to bottom, dripping water onto the floor. Masaimon passed out from the shock. When he woke, the shoji screens on every side were quaking, followed by echoes of childish laughter and the question repeating itself: “Are you dead? Are you dead? Are you dead?”

The fear consumed the sick and weak Masaimon, and he fell dead from the shock, leaving the house silent and unwanted. When nobody would even visit the home, much less buy it, his family fell into ruin, just as the monk had warned. This is one of the most popular and renowned Japanese ghost stories ever told.

Old Mountain Woman

Many of the yokai to populate Japanese ghost stories are those of women, and one popular rural yokai takes the shape of a man-eating ogre (oni) woman who is said to reside in the wild mountains.

This is one of many Japanese ghost stories about one such mountain-dwelling ogre woman.

At the base of a large mountain lived a family with three sons. One day, the mother tells her sons that she must go away for a short while, and that they must keep the door closed, no matter who comes knocking. It was known to everyone in the area that a man-eating ogre woman lived in the dense forest near the mountain’s peak. If she knows that the boys are home alone, she will come knocking.

Once the mother has given her warning, she leaves. That night, there comes a knock at the door. When the oldest son reaches the door, he asks: “Who’s there?” The ragged voice of a woman says: “I am your neighbour and I desperately need help.” The oldest son refuses to open the door, believing it to be the ogre woman in disguise.

The next night, there comes another knock at the door. When the youngest son asks: “Who’s there?” A silky, soft woman’s voice answers: “I am a friend of your mother’s, here to deliver a message.” “Show me your hand”, says the youngest son.

Through the crack in the door, the son spies a weathered hand with long fingers, covered in coarse hair. He refuses to answer the door. On the third night, there is one more knock at the door. The middle son asks: “Who’s there?” The voice of a woman answers: “It’s your mother. I have come home.”

When the middle son asks to see her hand, he sees through the crack only a soft, delicate white hand. Satisfied, he opens the door.

There, filling the doorframe, is the ogre woman. She reaches out and snatches the middle son, devouring him quickly. The two remaining sons flee the house and gather up armfuls of stones before climbing a nearby tree, so tall it might reach the heavens.

When the ogre gives chase and makes it halfway up the tree, the boys rain down stones on her head. The ogre loses her balance and crashes to the ground, her blood seeping into the roots of the tree.

The Eyes

A classic yokai of Japanese ghost stories is the mokumokuren (or “many eyes”) whose origin may be traced back to scholar, poet, and artist Toriyama Sekien.

The mokumokuren yokai is said to haunt the shoji screens and tatami mats of Japanese homes and temples. This is one of many Japanese ghost stories about the mokumokuren yokai.

The Mokurenji (Temple of Many Eyes) had been abandoned for as long as anyone could remember. No monk tended the temple, but there were frequent whispers of a fox, or perhaps a tanuki, roaming the temple grounds. More whispers were told about the temple and why it had been abandoned.

It soon became a place of legends and local myths, with children claiming that any man brave enough to last a night alone in Mokurenji would be rewarded with an evening of pleasure with the most beautiful woman in the village. During one autumn festival, a travelling peddler by the name of Yoshimaru passed through the village.

After the festival, a group of local merry drunks made a bet with the peddler that he couldn’t last the night inside the temple. With a full bottle of sake in hand, Yoshimaru enters the temple, gets comfortable, and begins to drink.

Once night falls, the screaming begins. From outside, the local drunks can hear the vivid wailing of the peddler as he howls: “The eyes! The eyes!” All around him, peeking out from the old shoji screens of the temple, countless eyes appear and twist Yoshimaru’s mind. Come dawn, the village men peek inside to find nothing left of the peddler but a blood-soaked rag and a pair of eyes.

Read More: Best Books on Mythology

Chrysanthemum Promise

A brotherhood was formed out of the deep friendship between the monk Sanmon and the military scholar Soyenmon. The two showed one another complete loyalty and shared their days together. When Soyenmon told the monk that he had to return home, the monk waited for his return. Eventually, the scholar did return to his friend, but in the form of a spirit. The spirit of Soyenmon explained his story to Sanmon.

When he returned him, his cousin had Soyenmon arrested and detained in prison. Unable to escape and return to his friend, Soyenmon commits suicide in order to free his spirit and allow the spirit free passage back to Sanmon. Upon the completion of the spirit’s story, Sanmon journey’s to his friend’s home and murders his cousin in revenge for his lost friend, before vanishing himself, never to be seen again.

P.S. It pains me to not write Sanmon and Soyenmon as gay lovers (which they obviously and definitely were) because that’s not how the story is traditionally told.

But you and I both know they were obviously and definitely gay. When you tell the story, make them gay. Japanese ghost stories were made to be embellished.

Shadow Woman

At the distant edge of a quiet village, a man named Sakube is sleeping. Under the cloak of night, the shape of a woman appears at his door and knocks to be let in. Still half asleep, Sakube shuffles to the door and finds the woman there, holding in her arms a child. The woman pleads with Sakube, explaining that the night is cold, she cannot feed her child, and they have nowhere to go.

She asks only for a bed for the night, but she doesn’t explain where she has come from, how she found her way to his village, or even who she is. Still, Sakube gives in to her request and lets her and the baby into his home. He unburdens the tired woman of her baby, but immediately watches in horror as the woman fades into shadow and disappears back into the night air.

He glances down at the babe to find it now covered with black fur and sprouting fangs. In his shock, he drops the child but it, too, fades away. Each night, when the air is cold and the wind is blowing, the woman returns to the house with her child, and demands to be let in; until, eventually, Sakube is driven mad and abandons his home, never to be seen again.

Simple Dwelling

This is one of the Japanese ghost stories to have originally appeared in the Ugetsu Monogatari (Tales of Moonlight and Rain)

Ugetsu Monogatari is a collection of supernatural tales and Japanese ghost stories by author Ueda Akinari, first published in 1776. It might be one of the classic Japanese ghost stories, but it is also a love story.

At the start of summer, a silk merchant named Katsuhiro breaks the news to his wife, Miyagi, that he must travel to the capital of Kyoto in order to do business and sell his wares. Though she is dismayed and worried for him, he promised to return when the season changes and autumn begins. When the leaves begin to change colour, however, there is no sign – not even a whisper – of Katsuhiro.

Miyagi must spend the cold months alone as her husband is trapped in a city that has fallen into civil unrest and violence. She writes poetry that captures her upset and her depression.

When Katsuhiro thinks he might be free to leave Kyoto, a toll is raised and he has no papers for travel. Back home, Miyagi is robbed by a fleeing servant and, soon enough, must begin to fight off eager suitors, which she does time and time again.

Seven long years pass and, at last, Katsuhiro is able to secure passage home to his wife. When he arrives, his home is still standing in an abandoned village, and his wife remains as beautiful and cheerful as she was the day he left. Relieved and overjoyed, Katsuhiro spends a night with his life but wakes up the next morning to find her gone.

A local beggar informs him that Miyagi passed away some time ago; what had greeted him was the faithful ghost of his wife who, after holding up her promise to wait for him, had at last passed on in peace.

Muddy Rice Field

It is said that an untended or abandoned rice field is the perfect home for a yokai. And so it was, in Okayama, that a quiet village’s rice paddy became whispered about as the nesting place of a dangerous yokai. Despite it being untended, and everyone in the village keeping their distance from it, the field produced a rich rice harvest year after year. Stories about the rice paddy spread, claiming that the water in the field was bottomless.

One calm day, an unassuming monk – a traveller from far away – passed through the village. He stopped in his tracks when he heard the faint ringing of a temple bell.

When he stepped too close to the rice paddy, the yokai, which had only been whispered about until that moment, emerged from the field and snatched the monk, dragging him quickly down into the depths of that bottomless water. From that moment on, the rice flowers which blossomed each year turned from white to a permanent blood red.

Ancient Tree

Two rural Japanese legends involving woodland spirits:

1. It is said that a tree which reaches the age of one thousand transforms into a spirit that may be good and protective or may be evil and malevolent.
2. It is also said that any woodcutter who dies while working in the forest will be transformed into a woodland yokai.

In a dense Japanese forest, a woodcutter known as Musabi no Gen selects an old tree to be felled. After going at his work for a time, the woodcutter hears a sudden and panicked voice warning him: “Watch out! I am about to fall down!”

He looks up at the tree and sees nothing; nobody is there. And so, he continues with his work. Soon enough, the voice returns with the exact same message. Assuming it to be a prank, the woodcutter looks around but sees nobody there, and the tree is not yet ready to fall. And so, he continues to chop at the tree until night has fallen.

Once it is dark, the tree begins to morph and change: eyes and a mouth grow out of its trunk, and from its roots rises a glowing blue light. Unable to move, paralysed with fright, the woodcutter is easy prey for the tree, which snatches Musabi no Gen and devours him, leaving not a single trace of the woodcutter.

Read More: 11 Terrifying Junji Ito Manga, Books & Short Stories

Blue Mask

Note: Depending on how you read and tell it, this is one of the most darkly funny Japanese ghost stories.

One cold day, a travelling Zen Buddhist monk by the name of Kaian visits a Tochigi mountain village. There, the locals recoil at his presence, fearing him to be a malevolent yokai. When he asks why they would think that, one villager explains that another monk resides in a nearby mountain top temple.

This other monk went mad with grief at the death of a boy – so mad, in fact, that he ate the corpse of the child and now resides in the temple as a man-eating yokai. Kaian decides to pay the other monk a visit. Upon reaching the temple, the monk-turned-yokai attempts, but fails, to attack and devour Kaian.

After failing to eat him, the yokai begs Kaian for his help. Kaian responds by gifting the man-eating monk a blue mask and a unique sutra which the yokai must recite. The following winter, Kaian returns to the temple to find the man-eating monk still there, still reciting the sutra, only now he is little more than a bag of bones in paper-thin skin.

Kaian approaches the monk and, with a swing of his stick, thwacks the monk and reduces him to ash, leaving nothing but dust, bones, and the blue mask. Kaian, it seems, was playing the long game.

Princess Hashi (Hashihime)

Yamadazaemon Kunitoki had driven his wife to the brink of madness by taking a concubine. Her jealousy led to many sleepless nights and, ravaged with frustration and anger, she eventually visited the local shrine to pray for the chance to become a vengeful demon.

She prayed for seven nights until, finally, the shrine priest informed her that he had a dream in which she might become a demon if she followed a series of instructions. First, she must don a red kimono and dye her hair red. She must then place atop her head a crown with three fire-lit prongs. Finally, she must sit and wait in the Ujigawa river for twenty-one days.

When that time had passed, the woman became a demon. Her husband, however, had been kept awake by a horrible nightmare. When he asked an astrologer for help, the astrologer read the signs and warned him that a demon would soon come for him.

The astrologer then told him how to keep himself and his home safe from the demon. When his wife, now a demon, came for him, she was unable to exact her revenge. And so, she took to the streets of Kyoto, taking the form of a beautiful woman in order to seduce and kill innocent men. She also took the form of a handsome man to seduce and murder innocent young women.

When the murders became so high in number, the emperor sent out a hunt for the demon. She surrendered to the hunt and vowed to halt her killing in return for a funeral. When the emperor agreed, she drowned herself in the Ujigawa river, and the emperor kept his end of the bargain, hosting a grand funeral for the woman.

When she later appeared to his servant in the form of a dream, demanding a shrine be built to her at the edge of the river, the emperor agreed to this as well, building the shrine and naming her Princess Hashi of the Ujigawa River.

For this reason, we need to take a step back and look at what the best anime for beginners actually entails. Since anime (and anime fans) come in all flavours, it’s important to try to find an anime that matches your tastes, so here’s a list!

On this list of the best anime for beginners, we will consider different age groups and genders, as well as different genres of anime, what those genres are, and the best examples of those genres. Bear in mind that this list is primarily intended for those new to anime looking for a safe but undeniably solid place to jump in. This list is not for anime fans who already know a lot.

It’s not a list of the best anime of all time. It’s a list of good, solid anime that need no introduction and are perfect for budding anime fans to begin their journey. With all that said, if you’re a potential anime fan who is intrigued by the medium but doesn’t know where to start, you should hopefully find something on this list that will tickle your fancy.

You can also check out these lists if you’re interested in where to start reading manga or where to begin reading Japanese literature in translation.

What are the Genres of Anime?

Before we start throwing classic and modern anime at you in the search for the very best anime for beginners, it’s important to know a little bit about anime genres, because they can get a little confusing.

Most anime fans, no matter how much of the Japanese language they actually know, use a lot of Japanese words when discussing genres of anime, and it is worth knowing the very basics of this when discussing anime for beginners.

Just like how it’s good to know your fantasy novels from your literary fiction, or your sci-fi movies from your Disney musicals, it’s great to know at least a little about anime genres. So, here’s a very quick primer.

Shonen Anime

Sometimes spelled as ‘shonen’, this genre of anime and manga is traditionally geared towards boys or young men, with the name roughly translating to “youth”. However, like all genres of media, shounen anime is more complicated than simply “anime for boys”.

In the broadest terms, shounen anime typically involves male protagonists, and is usually themed around adventure and personal growth. The protagonists are often fighters or heroes, and their goal is clear: defeat the threat. It can go a lot broader and deeper than this, of course, but that’s the basics.

Examples of shounen anime include: Dragon Ball, My Hero Academia, Hunter x Hunter, Naruto, One Piece, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, and Demon Slayer.

Shoujo Anime

For boys, there’s shounen. And for girls, there’s shoujo. Traditionally, shoujo manga and anime are geared towards girls and young women. They primarily feature female protagonists and are themed around love, friendship, and comedy. Shoujo anime often feature romantic story arcs and may or may not feature fantastic or magical elements.

Just like shounen, shoujo anime has its tropes and themes; it also has examples which buck those tropes and themes completely. And the elephant in the room for both shounen and shoujo is the stereotype of what is “for boys” and “for girls”.

As a viewer, you can watch whatever the hell you want, of course, and I encourage you to. But the point here is to simply familiarise yourself with the names “shounen” and “shoujo”, and the themes that often define them.

Examples of shoujo anime include: Fruits Basket, Ouran High School Host Club, Sailor Moon, Yona of the Dawn, Orange, and Cardcaptor Sakura.

Other Anime Genres

Beyond these two heavy hitters, anime is typically categorised by more familiar means. You’ve got sci-fi anime, comedy anime, romance anime, fantasy anime, slice of life anime, and so on.

A lot of these subgenres often fall into the bigger shounen and shoujo categories. For example, you’ll find many fantasy anime that might be called shounen or shoujo (depending often on the gender of the protagonist). Many slice of life anime also fall into the shoujo anime genre.

Anime can also be defined by how philosophical it can get. Anime is not so easily bracketed into age groups, and many anime that look suitable for kids actually carry some weighty and philosophical themes. The classic example of this is Neon Genesis Evangelion, a show with a young male protagonist piloting a giant robot that has some intensely deep philosophy stitched into its narrative.

What you’re going to see now is a list of classic and contemporary anime that fits into some of these genres and offers not only a great place to begin watching anime in general, but also a great place to start watching shounen anime and shoujo anime specifically.

We’re going to start with the classics and the best anime movie for beginners, then move into more modern anime that also offers a great place to start for budding anime fans. These are the best anime for beginners.

Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon

Let’s begin with two of the biggest hitters in anime history. Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon define the shounen and shoujo anime genres respectively. They both aired and found global success in the 1990s and both maintain a colossal fandom to this day. Their legacies have spawned sequels and movies, as well as an absurd amount of merchandise of every kind.

This is where so many anime fans around the world began their journeys (myself included). If you were a 90s kid, you were there for Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon. These are two anime about powered-up protagonists fighting the forces of evil in their own ways. Both have their lovable protagonists, comedy moments, vibrant art, and staple themes of good overcoming evil.

Given that both Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon remain so beloved to this day, they both also remain a great place to begin watching anime. They were the best anime for beginners 20+ years ago, and they remain the best anime for beginners today, as old fans continue to rewatch and new fans continue to discover these giants of the anime genre.

Other classic shonen anime to watch: Naruto, Bleach, Hunter x Hunter

Other classic shoujo anime to watch: Cardcaptor Sakura, Ouran High School Host Club

Cowboy Bebop

While this is not a list of the best anime of all time, it does still feature some of the best anime ever made. And few anime fans would disagree about Cowboy Bebop being one of the absolute greats. What makes Cowboy Bebop one of the best anime for beginners is the fact that it’s only 26 episodes long.

Too many anime series (Dragon Ball Z being a great example) seem to go on forever, and their length serves as an immediate turn-off. But Cowboy Bebop is a contained story of just 26 episodes which can be easily binged over a weekend.

The fact that it remains one of the best anime ever made is another great incentive to begin here. The story of Cowboy Bebop is set in a gritty sci-fi world where the human race as colonised most of our solar system, but crime is everywhere.

Our protagonist, Spike is a Cowboy (bounty hunter) with a lot of personal issues which manifest in a devil-may-care attitude. He’s a rough guy with a heart of gold.

Cowboy Bebop explores some intense themes in a digestible way, and also features some of the most gorgeous art design in anime history. The world-building, narrative, and characterisation is all top-notch, and the show enjoys a lot of established tropes of the western, sci-fi, and pulp fiction genres.

Other classic anime to check out: Neon Genesis Evangelion, Akira, Ghost in the Shell

Your Name

Anime isn’t just about series long and short; it’s also a genre populated by some of the very best films in cinema. Most film buffs with no real knowledge of anime have still at least heard of the movies of Studio Ghibli and their most treasured writer/director, Hayao Miyazaki.

For this reason, we’re going to circumvent Ghibli and their most iconic films (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Howl’s Moving Castle etc) and instead focus on the biggest darling of anime cinema outside of Studio Ghibli. Your Name (Kimi no Na wa) is a 2016 movie written and directed by Makoto Shinkai. It follows an unconventional love story between two highschoolers who wake up in one another’s bodies and live each other’s lives.

Eventually, they learn that they exist in two slightly different time periods, and one must move quickly to save the life of the other. Your Name has an undeniably heartfelt tale of love at its heart, but what really makes it a modern anime classic is the film’s art direction.

Both the design and animation of Makoto Shinkai’s films are unlike anything you’ll ever see. Bursting with light and colour, and directed with a dynamic smoothness that is unparalleled, they are the peak of what anime cinema looks like right now. If you want to start with a film rather than a series, Your Name is the best anime for beginners in that regard.

Other modern anime movies (not made by Studio Ghibli): Summer Wars, Wolf Children, A Silent Voice, Weathering With You

Fruits Basket

While Sailor Moon is an absolute classic of the shoujo anime genre, it does represent one specific style of shoujo: the “magical girl anime” genre. Magical girl anime has all the action tropes of shounen anime, but with female protagonists. Fruits Basket, however, represents the peak of non-action shoujo anime.

Another great reason to start with Fruits Basket is that it just got rebooted, and the reboot is a more faithful adaptation of the original Fruits Basket manga.

The series follows a bubbly and headstrong young girl named Toru who, after losing her mother and having to live in a tent, winds up living in the country home (styled like a gorgeous ryokan) of a strange family, a few of whom are boys who go to Toru’s school.

The charm and fun of Fruits Basket comes from its magical and comedic elements. The members of the house that Toru ends up in are each cursed to transform into an animal of the Chinese zodiac when hugged by a member of the opposite sex.

It’s a silly and sweet element that ends up taking some unexpected and dark turns as the story deepens.

Fruits Basket is a beloved classic, and the best anime for beginners who are looking to explore the shoujo genre but would prefer to avoid the action focus of “magical girl” anime like Sailor Moon.

Nichijou

Let’s make this as clear as possible: Nichijou is unfettered and absolute joy. Sometimes known in English as My Ordinary Life, Nichijou is an anime series based on a manga of the same name. Nichijou aired in 2011 and has a total of 26 episodes, making it another awesome short anime to binge (which you won’t be able to stop yourself from doing).

Nichijou (which translates to “everyday”) is a silly, absurd comedy series centred around a group of middle school girls in an ordinary Japanese school. It blends absurd scenarios and characters with average, mundane day-to-day happening to create some of the finest comedy in all of anime. There are few anime as sweet, funny, and light-hearted as Nichijou.

Another reason why Nichinou is one of the best anime for beginners is that it represents the peak of anime direction. There are “action” scenes in Nichijou that wipe the floor with the biggest and best shounen anime battles, at least in terms of how they’re animated and directed.

When you’re a little more familiar with anime terms, do a quick google search for “sakuga” and then go back and watch the best action/comedy scenes from Nichijou.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

While the debate surrounding the “best anime of all time” will never end, there are countless anime fans who would put the crown on the head of Fullmetal Alchemist” Brotherhood. And it’s very hard to argue against that opinion. Fullmetal Alchemist originally existed as a manga series by Hiromu Arikawa (a woman manga artist creating one of the best shonen manga will always be badass).

It was then adapted into a short anime in 2003 and then rebooted again in 2009. That reboot, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, is the one to watch. The reason why Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is often called the best anime ever is because it’s a show that manages to satisfy every kind of anime fan, regardless of age or gender.

It’s a show of middling length, featuring a pair of brothers who lose their mother and attempt to bring her back using alchemy. The attempt winds up taking one brother’s arm and leg and the other’s life entirely. In order to bring his brother back, Edward stores Alphone’s soul in a huge suit of armour.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is an adventure anime which shifts between a monster-of-the-week formula and a larger overarching narrative.

It features a diverse cast of characters, is set in a medieval/steampunk world inspired by central European aesthetics, features magic and alchemy, gorgeously directed battles, and deeply, darkly intense themes of love, loss, obsession, fear, and death.

It’s political, philosophical, and deeply personal. To put it bluntly, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is a flawless and timeless anime.

What makes this one of the best anime for beginners is that no prior knowledge of anime tropes or genres is required. It’s long but not intimidatingly so; it also has a lot of the same storytelling mechanics and themes of Western media, as well as a recognisably European setting.

It’s a show so dearly beloved by all anime fans, and also one that is entirely welcoming for newcomers to the world of anime. There may be no better place to start watching anime than with Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

My Hero Academia

If you’re looking to start with the biggest anime (and manga) in the world right now, that would be My Hero Academia. While Dragon Ball Z was the biggest shounen anime of the 90s, and Naruto was biggest of the 2000s, My Hero Academia is the crown shounen anime of today.

It’s understandable that a lot of budding fans would want to start with the modern trends and, to that end, My Hero Academia represents the best anime for beginners. My Hero Academia is heavily inspired by American superhero comics (in fact, if you’re a big enough fan, you can notice a lot of fun nods to classic Marvel comics in the pages and covers of the My Hero Academia manga).

Its story is set in a world where almost everyone has some sort of unique power (known as a “quirk”) and those with powerful enough quirks can choose to study at a school for heroes and learn how to use their quirk as a force for good.

Not everyone has a quirk, however, and our protagonist Izuku “Deku” Midoriya is one such quirkless boy. After he finds out that he’s quirkless, Deku’s dream of being a hero is momentarily shattered. That is, until Deku’s role model, All Might – Japan’s number one hero – passes on his unique gift to Deku, thus allowing the boy the chance to study and become a hero himself.

My Hero Academia is the biggest and best shounen anime of today. It’s also a genuinely outstanding show by all accounts. Gorgeously directed action scenes; a varied and dynamic cast of colourful characters (students and teachers alike); and a series of intensely engaging story arcs which tackle some surprisingly deep and complex moral themes. The show almost never misses a step when it comes to story, style, or direction.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba

While the reigning champion of shounen anime is, undoubtedly, My Hero Academia, an up-and-coming contender is Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba.

Which one you should start with really comes down to personal taste. While My Hero Academia is set in an alternate present-day Japan full of costumed heroes throwing punches, Demon Slayer is set in early 20th century Japan at the end of the Meiji Restoration and features a sword-wielding hero cutting down demons.

Demon Slayer is still a very new anime, having aired in 2019 , but it has already made such a colossal splash, and with very good reason. The story follows a young man named Tanjiro whose mountain-dwelling family are slaughtered by demons and his sister Nezuko has been transformed into a demon herself.

Looking to restore his sister’s humanity, Tanjiro studies under a demon slayer to become one himself, before setting out on a demon hunt across Japan. If you’re a fan of Japanese history and folklore, of samurai and ninja and yokai, Demon Slayer is the anime for you.

It’s a show with intensely clever fight choreography, jaw-dropping art direction, and a perfectly unfolding story. Its pacing is solid, its characters lovable, and its world design mouth-watering. Despite how new it is, Demon Slayer is still one of the absolute best anime for beginners.

Violet Evergarden

If you want an easily accessible anime in more than one way, but one that’s also modern and comes highly rated by everyone who watches it, consider beginning with Violet Evergarden.

What makes this show such an easy one to begin with is that it’s a Netflix Original. So many anime are only available on certain anime-specific streaming sites like Crunchyroll or Funimation, but Violet Evergarden can be found on the world’s biggest streaming service, making it delightfully accessible.

So, in terms of accessibility, Violet Evergarden is the undisputed best anime for beginners. But Violet Evergarden shouldn’t just be watched because doing so is simple. It should also be watched because it is drop-dead gorgeous.

Made by the powerhouse animation studio Kyoto Animation, who are renowned for consistently making the very best-looking anime, Violet Evergarden is an absolute treat for the eyes and the ears. What Your Name does for cinema, Violet Evergarden does for TV.

This short 13-episode show defies genre and centres around a protagonist of the same name. Violet Evergarden was an orphaned child who went through a series of traumas, including being engineered as a child soldier.

After the war ends and her commanding officer (a man she dearly cared about) dies — all in the pilot episode — Violet is recruited as an “Auto Memory Doll”, someone who ghostwrites letters for people who cannot write or who cannot express themselves well in writing.

Having lived for war, Violet must now fight to reintegrate into ordinary society (in a beautifully realised world reminiscent of 18th/19th century Britain) while also attempting to understand human emotion — love, most of all.

The world of this show is deliciously and vibrantly realised, with unparalleled character design and writing. Violet Evergarden is a quiet, sweet, sorrowful, and beautiful show full of heart and love.

Conclusion

The secret to finding the best anime for beginners is to pick a genre you already care about (fantasy, sci-fi, romance, comedy) and to find the best anime of that genre. But you also need to make sure that the anime you choose isn’t bogged down with tropes and meta-jokes (which is why there’s no One Punch Man or Konosuba on this list) and isn’t intimidatingly long (hence no Naruto or One Piece).

Every anime on this list of best anime for beginners is a stellar, top-quality show in its own right. All are easy to jump into and enjoy immediately, with no background knowledge required. All are beautiful, fun, well-directed, and well-written. And they are all anime which are popular with the anime community as a whole, meaning you won’t feel out of place when talking about them.

They’re beloved and popular, whether they’re classic or contemporary. So, wherever you choose to start, I hope you have fun!