As is the case with most cultures across the globe, Japanese storytelling began with the oral tradition. Stories were passed down generation by generation through the power of the spoken word and the importance of maintaining a collective memory.
Before kanji (Japanese writing using Chinese characters) found its way to Japan from China via the Korean peninsula in the 5th century, Japan didn’t have its own writing system. Despite developing written language through the likes of China, according to Japan Guide, the world's first novel was actually written in Japan during the peak of the Heian Period in the 11th century.
The Tale of Genji, also known as Genji Monogatari, was written by a noblewoman, poet and lady-in-waiting named Murasaki Shikibu. Though the original manuscript no longer exists, the 54-chapter story which followed the life and romances of a prince named Hikaru Genji had an unprecedented global influence for centuries to come.
When translated into English, Genji is over 1,300 pages, yet it provides a fascinating insight into life within the aristocracy during the Heian period of Japanese history. Throughout Japanese antiquity, literature focused on themes ranging from courtly romance to gruesome battles during the Age of the Samurai (1185-1868) depending on the cultural mood and historical influences.
Though these broad-stroke, universal themes of love, power and war were also prevalent in European literature, it was not until after the Meiji Restoration (1868) that Japanese literature was first exposed to Western influences. Some examples of literature which emerged during this period include I Am A Cat by Natsume Sōseki and The Wild Geese by Mori Ōgai.
By the late 1700s, popular Japanese artists were combining pictures and words in comic illustrated novels (kibyōshi). Telling stories through graphic images and accompanying text became a common cultural practice, but it wasn’t until the 1980s and 1990s that Japan experienced the golden age of manga. Contemporary Japanese manga was largely inspired by comic books left by American GIs following the end of the occupation.
Foreign influences over the centuries have affected the direction and popularity of Japanese writing, but the nation has nevertheless maintained a unique and culturally rich history of literature. So much so, that there were two Japanese Nobel Laureates in the 20th century alone. Kawabata Yasunari and Oe Kenzaburo won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968 and 1994 respectively.
We’ve curated a selection of some of the best contemporary Japanese literature to explore.
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Butter by Asako Yuzuki
This cult-favourite Japanese tale about a female gourmet chef, a serial killer and the journalist dedicated to solving the case was inspired by a true story. With a captivating tagline of “There are two things that I can simply not tolerate: feminists and margarine”, we needn’t say much more.
Buy now £12.79, Amazon
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
This cult-favourite author’s surrealist odyssey follows two characters who never meet, yet whose bizarrely parallel tales send them each on individual journeys of self-discovery. The young Kafka Tamura is a runaway teen seeking to escape an Oedipal curse, while Satoru Nakata is an elderly cat whisperer. Exploring themes of language and communication, the subconscious mind, fate and dislocation, Murakami’s 2005 novel is a magical realism mystery ride and a 21st-century must-read.
Buy now £9.99, Waterstones
Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa
The Morisaki bookshop has been in 25-year-old Takako’s family for generations. Tucked away in a quiet street corner in Jimbocho, Tokyo, the book lover’s paradise seems to appeal to everyone but the heir apparent to the hidden second-hand institution.
That is, until Takako learns of her boyfriend’s desire to marry someone else. Heartbroken and with nowhere else to turn, she begrudgingly accepts her Uncle Satoru’s invitation to live rent-free in the room above his beloved bookshop.
A treatise on the healing power of literature, enjoy the rather meta-fictional journey of Takako as she attempts to mend a broken heart.
Buy now £9.49, Waterstones
Tokyo Express by Seicho Matsumoto
The Hitchcockian 1950s Japanese detective story is now widely available in English. Seicho Matsumoto has been described as Japan’s Agatha Christie for a reason. A murder-mystery whodunnit which carries the weight and power of high literature, Tokyo Express follows detective Torigai Jutaro and a young man from Tokyo named Kiichi Mihara. Following the discovery of an apparent double suicide by cyanide, the two men are convinced that there’s more than meets the eye to the Romeo and Juliet-esque crime scene.
Buy now £9.99, Waterstones
Akira Volume 1 by Katshuiro Otomo
One of the most popular mangas of all time, Akira is a post-apocalyptic, sci-fi graphic novel set in Neo-Tokyo following World War III. It follows the lives of two friends called Kaneda and Tetsuo who become mortal enemies after an accident gives Tetsuo unexpected psychokinetic powers.
Fast-paced, action-packed and utterly mind-boggling, Otomo’s beloved graphic novel is filled to the brim with hyper-detailed, extraordinary artwork and brilliant plotlines to boot.
Buy now £18.13, Amazon
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
This best-seller is about a 36-year-old woman named Keiko who has never had a boyfriend and has worked in the same convenience store for 18 years. A novel that will have you bowled over with laughter while clutching your heart in sheer awe, Murata’s Convenience Store Woman is a story of self-love and acceptance without any of the sappy language which usually surrounds such grandiose themes.
Buy now £6.99, Amazon
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Translated from Japanese, Kawaguchi’s beautiful novel follows the stories of four separate individuals who enter a mystical coffee shop in Tokyo which has been serving meticulously brewed coffee for over one hundred years. Warm, caffeinated beverages aside, this shop also offers customers the ability to travel back in time to confront their past.
Buy now £10.99, Waterstones
The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa
Considered to be a contemporary, Japanese reiteration of Nineteen Eighty-Four, this Orwellian dystopian fiction is a similar story about an omnipresent and omnipotent state. However, Ogawa’s novel focuses on central themes such as the transience of modern identities and the increasingly malleable, changeable nature of what we once relied on as a source of pure, unadulterated truth: collective memories.
Buy now £9.99, Waterstones
A Personal Matter by Oe Kenzaburo
Starkly honest and incredibly moving, A Personal Matter is one of two of Nobel Laureate Oe Kenzaburo’s most influential works – the other being his powerful accounts of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Hiroshima Notes. The former, semi-autobiographical novel is set in the 1960s and tells the story of a young father struggling to come to terms with the fact that his newborn son is severely mentally disabled.
Buy now £13.70, Amazon
Abandon the Old in Tokyo by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
Have you ever wondered what the Swinging Sixties were like in Tokyo? Yoshihiro Tatsumi delves into the often illicit urban underworld of 1960s Tokyo in this selection of gekiga short stories by the celebrated manga artist.
Buy now £11.25, Amazon
Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata
Captivating, gut-wrenching yet simultaneously filled to the brim with prose which warms the heart, Snow Country is about a man who tires of metropolitan life and takes the train through snow-covered plains into the mountains to a remote onsen town.
Though married, Shimamura is travelling to meet with a geisha that he is in love with. The rural geisha is bound by tradition and must live a life of servitude and seclusion, resulting in a moving tale of impossible love.
Buy now £9.07, Amazon
Norwegian Wood Haruki Murakami
Named after the Beatles song which plunges the novel’s protagonist into a nostalgia-driven recollection of his days as a student in Tokyo, Norwegian Wood straddles past and present with literary ease that only Murakami can achieve.
Buy now £9.19, Amazon
Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura
A glimmering, mystical journey into a world behind mirrors, Lonely Castle in the Mirror is about seven teenagers residing in a tranquil suburban neighbourhood in Tokyo who wake one morning to their bedroom mirrors shining. By touching the reflective surface, they are each instantly transported into an other-worldly castle which promises to grant one of the teenagers a wish – but not without a cost.
Buy now £9.19, Amazon
Night on the Galactic Railroad and Other Stories from Ihatov
Enjoy the ethereal, outer space-bound works of Japanese children’s Meiji-era author Kenji Miyazawa in this collection of his most famous stories. Night on the Galactic Railroad tells the stories of two boys who journey through the cosmos on a magical train.
Buy now £9.38, Amazon
