The Japan Society Review

By Christopher Harding ‘What is real? Who says? How should we live?’ - These are the three questions that lie at the core of Christopher Harding’s eminently readable effort on Asia, expanding the scope of his previous books focused on Japan to now encompass the continent as a whole. Review by Laurence Green

By Jamie Ryder This multi-layered book by the founder of Yamato magazine, is difficult to categorise but it certainly is informative and thoroughly enjoyable offering a series of reviews of personalities in their factual historical, and occasionally mythological, contexts. Review by Trevor Skingle

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

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