The Japan Society Review

By Jake Adelstein Written with the insight of an expert on Japanese organised crime, investigative journalist Jake Adelstein presents a biography of a yakuza, through post-war desperation, to bubble-era optimism, to the present. Review by Trevor Skingle

Directed by Miyazaki Hayao Released in Japan as How Do You Live? (Kimitachi wa do ikiru ka), the film might not be Miyazaki’s final film, but it certainly feels like a swan song and an homage to his illustrious career. Review by Shehrazade Zafar-Arif

By Naomi Pollock The Japanese House Since 1945 is a large format 400 page book that takes us on a journey through architect-designed houses built in Japan from 1945 to the present. Review by David Tonge

Directed by Hara Keiichi Lonely Castle in the Mirror is a brilliant animated adaptation of Tsujimura’s Mizuki’s popular novel of the same name title. Review by Eleanor Garrett

Directed by Hayakawa Chie Plan 75 focuses on the issues related to the ageing population, and the policies brought in to remedy it. What is most harrowing about the film is its feeling of imminent reality. Review by Chris Corker

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

Welcome to the December issue of The Japan Society Review! We are finishing 2023 with a great selection of literary works, from classic authors to new voices, from short stories to long historical novels, and the comeback of the iconic Godzilla.

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