The Japan Society Review

By Julian Sedgwick A ghostly journey through Northern Japan in search of yokai monsters and the Otherworld, told equally in manga and prose. Review by Hananircia Tchinhenha

By Abe Naoko The winning charm of Abe’s book is the epic scale of its historical lens, which draws so much of its power from human subjects that lived through the full panoply of change our world underwent through the 20th century. Review by Laurence Green

By John Dougill In "Off the beaten Tracks in Japan", John Dougill provides an excellent account of his journey by train from the Northern most point of Japan in Hokkaido to the Southern tip of Kyushu. Review by George Mullins

By Nadifa Mohamed Sasayama, published in Granta in 2014, details the young writer’s experience of a summer in Sasayama, a rural city in Hyogo prefecture, and her reflections as a black woman. Review by Azmina Sohail

By Kobayashi Erika Trinity, Trinity, Trinity takes place during the run up to the 2020 Olympics and centres on a grandmother suffering from dementia, in addition to her daughter, who seems to be on the verge of her own form of physical and mental breakdow. Review by Chris Corker

By Murakami Haruki Murakami writes this flash-fiction story for The New Yorker focusing on a dramatic conversation that is overheard next to a pool. Review by Azmina Sohail

By Yu Miri A multi-generational, multilingual epic by the National Book Award Winner and bestselling author and translator of Tokyo Ueno Station. Review by Laurence Green

By Miyazawa Kenji A collection of enchanting and enigmatic Japanese fairy tales by one of Japan's most beloved early twentieth-century writers. Review by Renae Lucas-Hall

By Fukuda Haruko Told with the crisp, breezy matter-of-factness of a historian, the emotion nevertheless comes through strongest in the remarkable vividity in which Fukuda’s family story is conveyed in the text. Review by Laurence Green

By Onda Riku Honeybees and Distant Thunder is an intriguing story about an international piano competition and its wide variety of competitors. Review by George Mullins