23 Books of January in Japan
January in Japan, it’s great if you are actually travelling there last month. It must be chilly and snowy there right now. I am actually referring to the hashtag that going around social media among bookish community; is to encourage us reading Japanese literature in January.
So last month was fun for me. I started the New Year with January in Japan, so I spent a whole month reading a majority of Japanese literature. I have few books that’re already on the shelf and I really enjoy reading Japanese literature, so it’s easier for me to just join the reading theme of the month with other bookish friends on the internet.
In a spirit of January In Japan that just ended, here is the list of the books that I’ve picked up along the way, that you can consider to take a closer look at for next year (or anytime of the year is a good time to read Japanese literature, to be honest!)
My Japanese Book shelf (caption for pictures)
#1 Authored by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
🛒 Before Coffee Gets Cold Series
Book 1 - 4
This story follows a group of customers who visited a magical time-travelling Tokyo cafe called Cafe Funiculi Funicula. It’s whimsical with a blend of hopes and regrets of being a normal human being.
Related article : 13 Books for Rainy Days
#2 Authored by Kikuko Tsumura
🛒 There’s No Such Thing As An Easy Job
Book 5
It’s about a young women who wanted to look for a job that requires no reading,no writing and ideally very little thinking. This book has a weird-darkly vibe to it, surfacing the meaning of modern workplace, burnout and also a glimpse of how society shapes our choices in life.
#3 Authored by Eiko Kadono | Illustrated by Hayao Miyazaki
Book 6
If you love Studio Gibhli, you will love this petite middle grade fantasy about a half-witch girl, Kiki who just turned 13 and eager to follow her witch’s tradition. It’s about her adventure in a new town (with Kiki, her talking cat), the challenges she has to go through while building her inner strength and realising magic can be found in most ordinary places.
#4 Authored by Durian Sukegawa
🛒 Sweet Bean Paste
Book 7
A contemporary fiction about past burden, social pressures, society norm and the beauty of friendship. There’s also a glimpse of impact of the nuclear war that affects people’s physical looks.
#5 Authored by Sosuke Natsukawa
🛒 The Cat Who Saved The Books
Book 8
Whimsical story of a book about books and cats! Our main character inherited a second-hand bookshop from his grandfather and discovered magical adventure in the store. He met a talking cat called Tiger (absolutely not wild, but rather cute!) who appears and offer to help him find his life purpose and a mission to save books that are mistreated and betrayed. This is a book for those who love books and seeing books so much more than just words on paper.
#6 Authored by Seishū Hase
🛒 The Boy & the Dog
Book 9
Set in a real word, this contemporary fiction has no element of magic or unsual fantasy world in it; but it still hooked me with the beautiful furry friend, the dog. One dog was on a journey after a devastating earhtquake and tsunami Japan, he was on a mission to find his first owner. Along the way he met different kinds of people and left them a deep memories and connection. It’s a feel good book about survival, pure love and true resilience of our loyal paw-friend.
#7 Authored by Laura Imai Messina
🛒 The Phone Box at the Edge of the World
Book 10
The author of the book is not Japanese but had spent most of her life living in Japan. This book was beautifully written about a woman who lose her mom and daughter in the tsunami and in search to find ways to carry on with her life. She heard about a telephone box that people visited to speak to their loved ones for the last time and come to terms with their gried. This heartwarming story is about how she made her pilmigrimage to the phone box, hoping that she could face her tragic loss.
#8 Authored by Sayaka Murata
🛒 Earthlings
🛒 Life ceremony
Book 11-13
I am in love with Sayaka Murata! I really do because of her brutal honesty in unveiling the reality of society today. Her genres are mainly contemporary, adult fiction and dystopian.
Convenience Store Woman is about a woman who feel she has never fit in, neither in her family and even in the society. She works in a mart and have met different kind of people; who eventually finds peace in her life. This book offers you a glimpse of society pressure, work culture and struggles of a woman who feel the need to conform. It’s an unforgettable reads for me, I even mentioned it as one of the books to read during rainy days.
Unlike Convenience Store Woman that was heartwarming whilst still cerebral; Earthlings had totally broke me. It was dark and pitch black, and has few triggers warning that you need to be aware of; to ensure that you are in the right mind when reading this book. I wrote a long booknotes of this book, read here
Life Ceremony is in my TBR this month this February. This book promises a story of a both loners and outcasts and their journey as a personality that finds it hard to fit in the so-called normal society. I am guessing this book too, inherited similar to Earthlings. It’s another horror fiction written by Murata that I am excited to find out soon!
#9 Authored by Harumi Murakami
🛒 Kafka on the Shore
Book 14-15
This is the first book of Murakami that I’ve read before in 2020 and it put me on a reading slump plus needed all the long break from him! This book is about a man, Toru who was in search of his missing wife. He then found himself in an otherworldly place of Tokyo where it’s also intersect with the actual lifestyle - a psychic prostiture, evil politician, friendly sixteen year old girl and aging war veteran. Grip something to hold on to when you read this, because it was hard for me to finish this without being traumatise by his writing.
So now, 4 years later, I am ready to pick up another book by Murakami - this time it will be Kafka in the Shore.
This book is also a magical realism, about a teenage boy, Kafka who runs away from home to search for his long missing mother and sister and another person Nakata, who was deeply impacted by war and drawn toward Kafka for a mysterious reason. This is the mystery that I am about to unveil when I start reading this book, expecting to see another description of prostitute (Murakami, come on!), cats and people who’re in conversation, brutal muders and other disturbing scenes. Let’s see how this goes, I’ll come back and share my thoughts with you soon!
#10 Authored by Banana Yoshimoto
🛒 Moshi Moshi
Book 16
It’s about a girl who lost her father in a suicide pact with an unknown woman, suspected as his mistress. She and her mother then left town to start a new life in Shimokitazawa, a smaller town with a simpler lifestyle they used to have. In her attempt to move foward, Yoshie was haunted by dreams of seeing her father looking for the phone he left on the day he died. This story is about her journey to find lights in the dark answering the mystery of her dream and the significant of her new life purpose in the new town. This story will tell you how every situation that happens to us and the people we met along the way are fated to help shape our new future.
There’s another book that gets alot of attention from readers, Kitchen ~ which am yet to have a copy and did research on.
#11 Authored by Natsu Miyashita
🛒 The Forest of Wool and Steel
This is one Japanese book that I have read and feel that is so heartwarming and cosy! This book has low-stake to none through out the book, it’s about a boy who loves piano and just want to learn about piano. Along the way, he met all kinds of piano player and experience a deep self-discovery where he learn about his own strength and his life purpose. This is like a love letter for all piano lovers, either you are piano player or love the piano music; this one is for you! This is also one of the books you can read during rainy days!
Related blog post : 13 Books for Rainy Days
#12 Authored by Natsuko Imamura
🛒 The Woman in The Purple Skirt
Book 18
Imamura left a lot bread crumbs along the way through out this book, I am hinting you right now! This book took me on a tour to find connections between the woman in the purple skirt and the other woman (apparently a stalker) who’s in a yellow cardigan. I wrote a long booknotes about this book despite the size of this book was petite and quick read! Read my booknotes here.
#13 Authored by Yoko Tawada
🛒 The Emissary
Book 19
The Emissary, is a dystopian book (you can tell by now that a lot of Japanese literature shares similar theme around dystopia) weaved by science fiction element in this. In this story, we were introduced to Japan after a disastrous event that left a lot impact on children especially, where they grow so weak and barely can walk and stand. We then strolled into the world, from the lens of our main character, Yoshiro who apparently is the great-grandfather of Mumei (the sicklish boy). In this period, no one speak english, no one has any connection to other country across the border, and there separated community where the olders and youngsters live a different place. Imagine a world without those connections and diverse education? This book gave me goosebumps and deep reflection of the impact of bad decision today and the consequences for future gens! A deffo thought provoking book.
This is definitely a clever writing and I am looking into reading more books by Tawada in future.
#14 Authored by Emi Yagi
🛒 Diary Of Void
Book 20
This book inherit themes similarly to Convenience Store Woman, The Woman in the Purple Skirt and little bit of Earhtlings! At least this is what I felt when reading this book. It’s about a 34 woman, Sheeba (pet name for Shibata) who struggles to escape burnout and toxic working culture and find herself lying about her pregnancy. For some reason, along the way she became self-absorb with her own lies and forgotten the boundary between her lie and reality. This is when her life begins to dissolve; but you get to have a glimpse of society pressure, feminism, womanhood struggles in a world that is comforming us!
#15 Authored by Kazuo Ishiguro
🛒 Klara and the Sun
Book 21
This book came up Christy’s book recommendation in 2022 I think. This book has also won multiple literary awards and literary everyone is saying this book is amazing. I’ve read it (in first week of February), and still collecting thoughts about how I would rate this book and write the booknotes. In general, I find this book amazing, although many of bookish friends are saying this isn’t the best writing by Ishiguro.
It’s a dystopian and sci-fi story about an articial friend, Klara who is placed in a store and apparently we are seeing the world in this story through her perspective as an AI. She analyses all kinds of customers behaviour and as she immersed herself in the possibility of the modern world between AI and human, she was reminded that she should not be investing too much in the human’s promises. My booknotes coming soon!
#16 Authored by Hisashi Kashiwai
🛒 The Kamogawa Food Detectives
Book 22
In this book, you can experience the heartwarming tale set in Kyoto, where a father-daughter duo runs a detective agency recreating cherished meals. Nagare, the food detective, and Koishi, the talented cook, blend culinary expertise with life-changing moments. Together, with their feline friend Drowsy, they weave a cozy narrative of love, nostalgia, and hope through delightful Japanese seasons and delectable dishes. This book made me hungry with it’s yums food menu. Read my booknotes here | Related blog post : 13 Books for Rainy Days
#17 Authored by Rin Usami
🛒 Idol Burning
Book 23
I picked up 'Idol, Burning' last month after Christy recommended it in 2022. I was stucked in horrid KL traffic (a luxury when your husband drives!), and with only 144 pages on Kindle, I finished it in just over an hour before we reached home.
The book delves into the obsession with idols and J-pop (Japanese Pop) stars in Japan. Through the author's lens, we witness the unraveling of blind belief and the cruelty disguised as 'normal society' behavior. The story follows a teenage girl navigating high school life while garnering 'respect' and growing a fan club online. It sheds light on the problematic situation of her obsession with a celebrity, spending all her time analyzing his pictures and videos, and idealizing him as a perfect human being. She blindly believes everything positive she sees online about him and defends him without fact-checking. Essentially, the book addresses mental health issues and highlights truths prevalent in today’s society.
I leave you with this thought-provoking quote: 'Everything about him was precious. When it came to my oshi, I wanted to offer him everything I had.' No, there isn’t a sexual offering implied here, but I'll let you discover more for yourself
Japanese literature has taken me on diverse adventures, from the whimsical to thought provoking experience. It’s a captivating realm and resonate with my soul! I definitely will continue to read more of Japanese literature.
Hopefully, this has pointed you in the direction of a new novel to fall in love with, till next time, friends! Happy #BookishMonday
Found my content helpful? Consider to tip me a coffee via Ko-fi!
If you’re thinking of buying the books from this book lists, order yours using this link : 🛒 Order from Kinokuniya Malaysia | Amazon | Kindle e-Book | Audible Audiobook
You can also explore my favourite bookish accessories and more on my curated shopping list on 🛒 Products I love!
Explore my other book lists where you can find my books recommendation.
Your support not only gets you the next books to read but also fuels my creative endeavors (at no extra cost to you!). Many thanks!
Let’s be friends on Goodreads
