I’m Japanese and I love books written by Japanese authors. I also read books from other countries in English. But, I sometimes feel “it’s not my style” when I read books from US and other countries especially, fiction books. In my opinion, the plot of the story and explanation of characters feeling are the main difference. 🤔🤔🤔
What do you think?? Have you ever found any difference?
(To guys who answered my question before, thank you a lot about that! I’m not sure why was my post deleted 😢)
by Newproli4
16 Comments
One is written in English and the other is written in Japanese
I don’t think one can generalize so broadly.
In the broadest of terms and having just finished The Tokyo Express, I find characters in Japanese lit seem to verbalise their internal reasoning and emotional state of mind all the time.
OP you can directly message the mods about post removals. There’s a link in the sidebar. 🙂
I find japanese books more introspective with the characters :3
I’ve found Kazuo Ishiguro to be the most English writer I’ve ever read.
Huge generalizations are being made here. I don’t think Reki Kawahara enjoyers often also enjoy Haruki Murakami
I read a lot of Japanese fiction translated into English, and I don’t know if it’s the translation but I would say overall there is a notable difference in the way that emotions are portrayed by the author. American and English authors are trained always to “show don’t tell,” they are supposed to convey emotion through gestures and other actions, or what they say and how they speak (a lot of adverbs). In Japanese novels overall, in dozens of them I’ve read, you often get straightforward statements by the author of how the character feels, often with an equally straightforward explanation of why. At first it almost seems to give the writing, to me, a flat feeling, as if we’re being forced to stay on the surface, we’re not being asked to deduce or “read” the character the way we would another person, we’re getting internal access. I’ve really come to enjoy this approach to writing.
This is of course a generalization, and again I’m not completely sure that it’s not just an artifact of translation.
I think you got auto deleted because you asked for suggestions of books you might like. That’s not allowed here.
There is a clear difference between Japanese and non-japanese comics and animation. But I can’t really think of any objective difference between their books.
Maybe the non-Japanese authors you have read happen to write in a style you dislike? But let me tell you that I also feel that reading authors from my mother tongue feel different than reading in the other languages I speak (maybe it’s the language barrier?)
Anyway I read translated Natsume Soseki and he is one of my favourite writers ever. I probably lost a lot by not reading in Japanese but I definitely didn’t feel as reading an “alien” writer but rather an universal author. 🙂
I’m from the US, but I enjoy reading translated books from Japan when I can.
I think one very interesting thing I’ve noticed about Japanese books that I almost never see in American books is how nature is approached.
It can be a comedy, romance, or a mystery but somehow there’s always a couple scenes where nature is described in an almost poetic way. Trees, blossoms, rain, leaves, etc. American books don’t really have that emotion when nature is described. The emphasis tends to be more on people’s appearances and mannerisms.
I also feel that Japanese books go at a slower pace. Sometimes it feels that (some) American books are trying to be too witty or pushing too many scenarios to stop readers from losing interest.
Edit: With the exception of classical Western literature. Some of those authors were paid by the word and I respect the desire to take advantage of that system to earn more money.
Japanese people really like cats??? Japanese business worker living in Tokyo/Kyoto feels existential dread from capitalism, but a cat makes them remember the beauty of life and nature? Maybe it’s just the books my library has, but cats tend to make life better in Japan is the vibe I’m getting.
Never make an enemy out of a Japanese child? They will respect you in public, but torment you with pranks. Meanwhile, American child will straight-up hate you in public and key your car.
I also noticed education is touched upon differently. America: An education is nice, but do what makes you happy. Japan: Work hard and get an education to make your parents proud.
Also, I feel that old people as side characters exist more in Japanese books whereas they really don’t in American books.
Just observations I’ve noticed based on Japanese books available to me.
I think a lot of asian media has an entirely different plot structure. The one well-know structure is Kishōtenketsu, but I have also noticed a tendency in movies to start out with with a bang, and then become slow and meditative in the end, like in the live action of Cat’s Eye, Uzumaki and Cutie Honey, or the trailer for [Wild Zero](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv5AYlKGt1E).
Then there is the language. While I don’t speak Japanese, I have gotten the feeling that there is some major difference which result in the voice being lost when translated to English.
What is it exactly you feel when reading Japanese authors? That would help narrow it down.
In my experience, Japanese authors are very good at crafting character driven stories and studies, and you get pulled into the environment and atmosphere. It’s easy to feel what the character feels and thinks.
But that’s only based on my limited experience.
I dig a few Japanese authors: Otsuichi, Kikuchi, Murakami like everyone else. My enjoyment of them stems from the broader abstraction that has always seemed, to me, to flow naturally from the Japanese artistic psyche. I’m a big gamer as well. This kind of thing is really prevalent in stuff like Silent Hill 2, where enemies are personifications of the MC’s latent trauma et al. For whatever reason, Japan can have a knack for saying things with *things.* I love it and rarely see it done nearly so well by more Western sensibilities.
Tbh, this will be really a generlastion but to me the biggest difference that
I have so far not noticed a difference in books (also haven’t read many Japanese ones yet), but I notice it a lot in movies, though I find it hard to pinpoint.
I’m from Europe and didn’t grow up with a lot of American media (that’s actually rather unusual for where I live, just to be clear), but watched a lot of international cinema. Often I still find it hard to emotionally connect to broadly recommended American movies (especially their comedies and “feel-good” movies). Of course there are many that I love as well, so it has to be a rather subtle (cultural, social and emotional) difference that’s not entirely fixed either.
I also notice a difference in Japanese movies, which I would describe as feeling a bit unfinished to my brain (though not in a bad way and this is just a subjective feeling regarding execution and not an objective observation regarding the plot). Some time ago someone else on reddit said that they absolutely can’t grasp the Ghibli movies as everything just seems to happen without explanation or connection. I can see where they’re coming from, but to me this doesn’t pose an issue. So I guess this also shows a difference in socialization.
I’m guessing these subtleties are remnants from differing cultural storytelling traditions influencing today’s media.