Japanese Literature

Haruki Murakami is pretty popular, as well as Toshikazu Kawaguchi, both with all types of people. I tend to see younger people reading more japanese horror novels, such as Koji Suzuki, Ryu Murakami, or Otsuichi.

Personally, I prefer Japanese mystery, and I enjoy Seicho Matusumoto a lot.

I also find the story of Yukio Mishima fascinating, and I tend to recommend people read “The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea” if they’re interested in him, but he’s a little harder to get people to take a random chance on.

I’m from Germany and I’m seeing a lot of Japanese books in stores here lately (last 2 years).

Popular ones include:

Toshikazu Kawaguchi – Before the coffee gets cold + the rest of the series

Sayaka Murata – Convenience store woman + Earthlings

Osamu Dazai – No longer human

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Not sure how popular these are, but here’s some of my favorites:

Kyoko Nakajima – Things Remembered And Things Forgotten

Yukito Ayatsuji – The Decagon House Murders

Hiromi Kawakami – People From My Neighborhood

Battle royale by Koushun Takami has been popular for some time. I’d count it amongst some of my favourite books. Koushun Takami does a brilliant job having multiple, short lived, character perspectives that really feel like you’re following genuine characters.

In my bubble that’s mostly horror/disturbing recs the most popular are Junji Ito, Sayaka Murata, Natsuo Kirino, and Ryu Murakami.

I also see a lot of discussion on Haruki Murakami (obv) and Mieko Kawakami.

I’m from Poland and there is quite a lot of Japanese literature being published right now. Of course Murakami. PIW (Polish Publishing Institute) has a series of books by Asian authors that include Tsushima, Mishima, Oe, Kawabata, Akutagawa and Tanizaki.From more indie publishers – Kirin publishes more fairytales and spooky stories by authors like Miyuki Miyabe, Akinari Ueda, Kido Okamoto, Kenji Miyazawa. There are also books by Sayaka Murata, Shin’ichi Hoshi, Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Mieko Kawakami or Hisashi Kashiwai. There is also haiku, more specialized books like textbooks about history of Japan in general and about Japanese literature, or mythology and religious studies monographs.My favourite indie publisher is Tajfuny – their books are a mix of new (Yoko Ogawa, Aoko Matsuda), older (Ranpo Edogawa) or authors previously not published in Poland (Kanoko Okamoro) [https://tajfuny.pl/o-nas/#nasze_ksiazki](https://tajfuny.pl/o-nas/#nasze_ksiazki) Their newest release is “A true novel” by Minae Mizumura.

And of course quite a few publishers specializing in manga and light novels.

Sorry for a wall of text, but Japanese literature is one of my favorites so I pay attention to new releases and publishers.

I’m learning Japanese currently so have an interest in Japanese literature but struggle a bit with finding books I can read and are interesting for me. I’ve read 時をかける少女 and it was readable but not my favourite story ever. While it’s a manga I’ve mainly been reading JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, I find it mostly readable now and Araki’s art is great. I also have 鹿の王 sitting in my kindle library but it seemed a bit advanced for me at the time and I haven’t gone back to try it again yet

Taking a look at 本を守ろうとする猫の話 and it seems good – do love cats. I’m usually quite interested in fantasy books – if you have any recommendations for Japanese fantasy I would welcome them

オススメありがとうございます。ファンタジーの本のオススメがあったら是非教えてくださいませんか? 日本語を勉強しているので簡単のはいいかもしれないけどね

I can’t speak for contemporary literature beyond knowing that Haruki Murakami is popular. But for the classics i can say Osamu Dazai is probably the most popular classic author currently, but Natsume Soseki, Yatsunari Kawabata, Yukio Mishima, and Kobo abe are all also pretty popular. Are these the most talked about classic authors in japan aswell?

Mishima is fantastic. The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, The Temple of the Golden Pavillion, The Sea of Fertility in particular.

I got very into Japanese literature over lockdown, I’ve been particularly enjoying Ōe Kenzaburo and Abe Kōbō, both are increasingly widely translated here in the anglophone west. Otherwise, as the others have said, Murakami is popular, Murata is popular, Mishima is popular, Ogawa and Tanizaki and Kawabata are all increasingly widely read.

I eventually ended up learning some Japanese out of curiosity about some of the translations, although my writing is much worse than my reading so I won’t try to show off here! But I am slowly making my way through a JP language book called 同志少女よ、敵を撃て.

I’m an American who will pick up anything that interests me (preference given to sci-fi, fantasy, and general speculative fiction, plus what my library has copies of).

As far as Japanese writing, I’ve read:

Revenge (Yoko Ogawa)
The Memory Policy
Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Toshikazu Kawaguchi)–found it underwhelming so didn’t continue the series.

Not Japanese but close:
How High We Go in the Dark (Sequoia Nagamatsu, who is Japanese American)–LOVED this.
The People in the Trees (Hanya Yanagihara, who has some Japanese background on her father’s side)

recently i’ve read:
Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa,
The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa,
What You Are Looking For Is In The Library by Michiko Aoyama, and
The Traveling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa.

I’ve also read a few books by Haruki Murakami, Mieko Kawakami, and Sayaka Murata.

I’ve also got I Am A Cat by Natsume Soseki and Before the Coffee Gets Cold on my TBR 😊

I’ve had an interest in Japanese culture and learned the language for a few years (though sadly, I haven’t had the chance to practice for years now).

Out of the classics, I’ve read わがはいは猫である (I am a cat) by 夏目 漱石 (Natsume Souseki)

Of the more contemporary novels a few come to mind:

– Before the coffee gets cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

This book has such an interesting premise. I like how the mystical mixes with the everyday ritual of sitting down for coffee. It makes me wonder what’s really important in life and just has a languid vibe that makes me think of a kissaten somewhere in the countryside. It’s slice-of-life but also makes me think.

– 彼女と彼女の猫 (She and her cat) by 新海 誠 (Shinkai Makoto)

This almost crosses into light novel territory, I think. But maybe I just think so because the animated original is one of my old favorites. It feels like a cozy, warm blanket.

>[Sosuke Natsukawa] 本を守ろうとする猫の話

I’ve read that, it was great! You might notice a pattern…

I love both The Pillow Book and The Tale of Genji as older Japanese books. Into the 20th century, The Makioka Sisters. I have a collection of 20th century Japanese short stories and loved pretty much every story in there. Also Miso Soup.

In terms of the 21st, Grotesque. I love Seishi Yokomizo mysteries.

To echo others some Haruki Murakami for me and some horror novels by Suzuki and Ryu Murakami.

I also read Black Rain, about a family who survived the atomic bombings and had certain stigmas tied to getting cancers or otherwise being marked by the event.

Also been thinking of reading The Tale of Genji

Edit: and I enjoyed them all The Ring trilogy was buck wild, and Audition is one of my favorite horror novels