Read Japanese Literature

The Luminous Fairies and Mothra Check out The Luminous Fairies and Mothra - <p><b>The original story that hatched Mothra, one of the most beloved monsters in the "kaijuverse"--available in English for the first time</b> <p/> Mystica...

You can also pick up a copy of Jeffrey Angles’s awesome new translation of The Luminous Fairies and Mothra.

Episode 48—Japanese Monster Stories on the Big Screen - Read Japanese Literature In this episode, we look at the writers behind two of Japan's greatest movie monsters—Godzilla and Mothra. We'll start out by looking at Godzilla—its context, author, and story—before we turn to Moth…

Happy birthday to Mothra co-author Shinchiro Nakamura. If he were still alive, he would be turning 108 today.

You can learn more about Nakamura, his co-authors, and why the book was co-written to begin with with the RJL podcast.

Scorpions Check out Scorpions - <p><b>A shocking and transgressive work from one of the key figures of postwar Japanese fiction</b></p><p>Yumiko Kurahashi's 1963 novella <i>Scorpions</i> takes the form of a tra...

Happy UK+ pub day Thursday (3/5) to Yumiko Kurahashi's 1963 novella Scorpions (trans Michael Day).

This one actually came out in January in N America.

Scorpions "takes the form of a transcript of a one-sided interview with L following the arrest and institutionalization of her twin brother K."

One of my points of pride in my life is that I've met Tawada Yoko multiple times and have a few books signed by her, including a Japanese copy of The Bridegroom Was A Dog where her vertical signature bends because the taxi we were in swerved as she was writing it

The front cover of Japanese Folklore. A book on the Oni, Yokai and Kami of Japan.

Still going through @uncannyjapan.bsky.social's Japanese Folklore, Yokai by Kami. Wonderful read to dip into when needing that release from, well... this world and personal stuff.

Scorpions Check out Scorpions - <p><b>A shocking and transgressive work from one of the key figures of postwar Japanese fiction</b></p><p>Yumiko Kurahashi's 1963 novella <i>Scorpions</i> takes the form of a tra...

Happy UK+ pub day Thursday (3/5) to Yumiko Kurahashi's 1963 novella Scorpions (trans Michael Day).

This one actually came out in January in N America.

Scorpions "takes the form of a transcript of a one-sided interview with L following the arrest and institutionalization of her twin brother K."

Happy N American pub day (yesterday) to Kanako Nishi's Sakura (trans Allison Markin Powell).

This novel, remarkably about DOGS! (not cats!), debuts in the UK+ in April. (It appears to be available on Kindle in the UK+ now.) 🐶

"Sakura is the story of a family who is happy, until it isn’t..."

Happy N American pub day yesterday to @jimrion.com's translation of Uketsu's Strange Buildings!

Happy N American pub day (yesterday) to Seicho Matsumoto's Suspicion (trans Jesse Kirkwood).

"Onizuka Kumako is a fierce woman: tall, beautiful, and not afraid to speak her mind. In Tokyo bars, she seduces customers and commits petty crime, using her connections to the local yakuza to get by..."

Happy N American pub day (yesterday) to the 1st unabridged translation of Eiji Yoshikawa's Musashi (trans Alexander Bennett). This bruiser is almost 1700 pgs in 3 vols!

The novel "reveals the exploits and inner life of a man who finds not only his true purpose but also his humanity."

Bluesky was down yesterday for several hours when I was attempting to do publication day congrats!

When Persistence Pays Off: On Translating and Publishing the Work of Kanako Nishi This is one of those publishing stories where the author—and in this case the translator too—waited for years, certain that their work deserved a wider audience, and was forced to stand patiently b…

Allison Markin Powell recounts the experience of translating and publishing the work of Kanako Nishi.

MONKEY: New Writing from Japan, Vol. 6 Horror – Your Host of Ghosts! | JapanSocietyOfBoston No one does psychological horror better than Japan, and horror is the theme of the new issue of MONKEY: New Writing from Japan! Join for a literary discussion with authors Kaori Fujino and Hideo Furuk...

TODAY

Mar 03, 2026, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Online

Join us to celebrate the worldwide launch of MONKEY: New Writing from Japan, Vol. 6 – Your Host of Ghosts!

This free, hour-long session will include presentation and opportunities for audience Q&A. Pre-registration is required.

Texts of the Heisei Era This volume with contributions on the literature of the Heisei era (1989-2019) contains analyses of contemporary Japanese literature. It presents authors such as Shimada Masahiko, Abe Kazushige, Tawad...

New book: "Texts of the Heisei Era: Readings of Contemporary Japanese Literature," ed. Lisette Gebhardt and Christian Chappelow (De Gruyter).

www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

Please DM me if you know a lot about rakugo and are interested in a paid writing gig.

2026 New and Upcoming Japanese Fiction Releases - Read Japanese Literature Check out Read Japanese Literature's regularly-updated list of books we can look forward to in 2026.

Happy UK+ release day to Shotaro Ikenami's The Samurai Detectives, Volume 2: The Killer on the Streets (trans Yui Kajita).

I don't believe either Samurai Detectives novel is available in North America.

For a full list of new and upcoming releases from Japan, see RJL's list of New JLit Releases!

Strange Buildings: A Novel A Novel

Happy UK+ release day Uketsu's Strange Buildings (trans @jimrion.com). This creepy mystery is expected out in North America next week.

“Eleven strange buildings. One terrible secret.

“Each of the buildings in this book tells a chilling story. Each one is part of a puzzle...”

The Calico Cat at the Chibineko Kitchen: The heartwarming Japanese cat novel about fate and the healing power of food The heartwarming Japanese cat novel about fate and the healing power of food

Happy North American release day to Yuta Takahashi's The Calico Cat at the Chibineko Kitchen, translated by Cat Anderson.

This novel, out in the UK+ in the fall of last year, is part of the Chibineko Cafe series.

Hot Chocolate on Thursday Check out Hot Chocolate on Thursday - <strong>Across a bridge in a quiet neighborhood in Tokyo, a seasonal cherry blossom sits on the river. Nearby is the Marble Cafe, where a woman writes in a notebo...

RJL missed a week!

Happy release last week for Michiko Aoyama's Hot Chocolate on Thursdays (trans E. Madison Shimoda).

"Hot Chocolate on Thursday is a tapestry of slice-of-life moments that each open and close with a woman ordering her regular hot chocolate at the mysterious Marble Cafe."

Nothing on the Booker long list translated from Japanese. 😭

This is what I’ve been trying to say for years… the Japanese have been coping with the end of “Japan is #1” for decades. It’s no coincidence American readers suddenly started finding these stories so compelling en masse in the past 10 years. There is so much richness and relevant cultural critique.

Bestselling Women Writers in Japan Defy Cliché Mieko Kawakami, Asako Yuzuki, and other novelists offer fewer cats and cafés, more cultural critique.

“Yuzuki believes that books about the struggle of insecure work, including Sayaka Murata’s Convenience Store Woman (translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori) and Kikuko Tsumura’s There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job (translated by Barton), opened doors to Western readers.”
#translation #booksky #japan

‘Wrong in 1942. Wrong now.’ Local Japanese Americans tie WWII incarceration to Trump’s immigration crackdown se American groups held a vigil at the Broadview ICE facility on the Day of Remembrance, which commemorates the 1942 order spurring mass incarceration of those of Japanese ancestry during World War…

Shareable link: www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/22/j...

Animals in Premodern Japan This Open Access book is presented with an outlook on current developments in Japanese Animal Ethics and how Andō Shōeki's depictions of non-human animals.

New book (free open access): Melissa Ann Kaul, "Animals in Premodern Japan: The Encyclopaedia of Andô Shôeki 安藤昌益 (1703-1762)" (Springer).

link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

You can also learn about Lafcadio Hearn with RJL!

I love this review! Grace is a brilliant scholar of contemporary women's literature in Japanese, so I was so excited that she turned her attention to Yamamoto 🥰

Nested quote tweet, but I felt the need to shout out how amazing it is to hear from both @brianbergstrom.bsky.social AND @janeismundane.bsky.social!

Waiting in line for king cake? Have I got some entertainment for you!

Half of Japan’s samurai were women, groundbreaking exhibition at British Museum says ‘Samurai’ explores over a thousand years of Japanese history related to the elite warrior class

There isn't a sigh hard enough for these dumbass headlines. Warriors were a SOCIAL GROUP, and later a legal classification. Gender was not relevant to whether one was part of a warrior group/family/etc. You might as well write: THIS JUST IN: WOMEN EXISTED! www.the-independent.com/asia/japan/b...

This episode of the @readjapaneseliterature.com provides some really interesting historical & literary context for those only acquainted with the later filmic versions of these kaiju.