The Japan Society Review

By Furukawa Hideo The story is a self-reflective, at times self-loathing, journey through the protagonist’s experiences of Tokyo, and the three girlfriends that characterise this journey. As is typical of Furukawa, the story [...] Review by Alice French

Directed by Marcos Centeno Martín In 2014, Marcos Centeno Martín released Ainu. Pathways to Memory, “which portrays the problems of identity and assimilation of the Ainu people in Japan and means of preserving and disseminating their [...] Review by Susan Meehan

Written and directed by Yamauchi Kenji The action starts, tentatively enough, as a well-dressed woman, not yet in middle age, spies a rather shy young man looking in at the party from the terrace. She calls him out for looking at a woman, younger than [...] Review by Roger Macy

By Arthur Stockwin and Kweku Ampiah An important new book by two senior British scholars of Japan discussing the main issues facing Japan. Their conclusion is that ‘The new Japan that is emerging…will be more controlled, less democratic [...] Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi

Edited by Rachael Hutchinson and Leith Douglas Morton The book is particularly refreshing because it does not tackle Japanese literature from an exclusively chronological perspective. Instead, the essays are grouped thematically, creating sections on space and [...] Review by Alice French

Directed by Gary Lennon A Doctor’s Sword had the potential to explore an interesting, off-beat topic – the relationship of Ireland to Japan during WorldWar II. The complexity of the subject expands when one considers the 50,000 [...] Review by Roger Macy

Directed by Huang Ya-li Le Moulin comes from the name of a poetry society in Taiwan in the 1930s. Its authors, like most educated people in Taiwan at the time, wrote entirely in Japanese. This particular society wrapped itself in [...] Review by Roger Macy

Deceptively simple in appearance yet heavy in content, the Sphinxing Rabbit series of books starting with Her Sovereign Majesty aims to communicate tenets of freedom in an entertaining manner. Review by John O'Sullivan

Directed by Naoko Yamada Based on a manga series of the same title, A Silent Voice tells the story of Ishida Shoya, a spiky haired loner who comes to deeply regret bullying his deaf class mate Nishimiya Shoko. Yamada navigates [...] Review by Poppy Cosyns

By Shibasaki Tomoka Recently divorced after a short-lived marriage and still reeling from the death of his father, Taro lives on his own in a one-bed flat in a condemned apartment block. The story follows him and his two [...] Review by Eluned Gramich