BOOKS & LITERATURE

provided by The Japan News.

Izu’s Yugashima, an idyll where Yasunari Kawabata went to heal

IZU, Shizuoka — In early April, the day after a Sunday spent working, I hurriedly left Tokyo and arr...

June 30, 2022 - BOOKS & LITERATURE
Tokyo ward commemorates notable author Mori Ogai on the 100th anniversary of his death

Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo, is hosting a variety of events associated with the literary giant Mori Ogai (186...

June 24, 2022 - BOOKS & LITERATURE
Japanese women writers gaining recognition in English-speaking world

An English translation of “Heaven” by Japanese author Mieko Kawakami was one of six books on the sho...

June 23, 2022 - BOOKS & LITERATURE
A hard-boiled detective whose case is interrupted by war

A guy walks into a bar. No sooner is he served his first after-work whiskey than the phone rings, ca...

June 16, 2022 - BOOKS & LITERATURE
Haruki Murakami translates unfinished Fitzgerald novel

Haruki Murakami has long admired American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940). The Japanese nove...

June 16, 2022 - BOOKS & LITERATURE
Delving into records thought to have inspired writer Kenji Miyazawa

Sendai music producer Takao Sasaki has published a book about poet and children’s author Kenji Miyaz...

June 9, 2022 - BOOKS & LITERATURE
Yoshitake shines light on small joys helping people get through difficult times

Shinsuke Yoshitake is the most active author of illustrated books working today. One of his recent b...

June 3, 2022 - BOOKS & LITERATURE
Journalist’s ‘black box’ shows how Boeing veered off course

Every major plane crash is followed by a search for the black boxes, devices that record data such a...

May 31, 2022 - BOOKS & LITERATURE
Page found from book of commentary on ‘The Tale of Genji’

A page from a book of commentary on “Genji Monogatari” (“The Tale of Genji”) by poet Fujiwara no Tei...

May 12, 2022 - BOOKS & LITERATURE
More than just a cute bunny: Profundity of ‘Peter Rabbit’ stories rediscovered in new Japanese translation

This year marks the 120th anniversary of the publication of the first book in the “Peter Rabbit” ser...

April 30, 2022 - BOOKS & LITERATURE
In dramatic turn, script of long-lost play by Hisashi Inoue is found

The manuscript of an unpublished work believed to have been written by playwright and novelist Hisas...

April 18, 2022 - BOOKS & LITERATURE
Protectors of kaiju monsters have to confront human ones

Some Japanese friends were surprised when I mentioned that I was reading American author John Scalzi...

April 12, 2022 - BOOKS & LITERATURE
‘Order a tanka poem’ service results in book

Tanka poet Tatsuya Kinoshita, 34, writes tanka in response to people’s requests, and an anthology of...

April 6, 2022 - BOOKS & LITERATURE
Picture books symbolize Japan’s modern history / Critic tracks, examines transition through 100 selected works by 100 artists

A newly published book sheds light on the modern history of Japanese picture books, chronologically ...

March 3, 2022 - BOOKS & LITERATURE
Yoro’s critical eye keeps probing essence of all things

Critic and anatomist Takeshi Yoro, the author of the longtime best-selling book “Baka no Kabe” (What...

February 3, 2022 - BOOKS & LITERATURE
Photo exhibition shows unknown sides of novelist Ogai Mori

A special exhibition of photos of novelist Ogai Mori (1862-1922), commemorating the 160th anniversar...

January 31, 2022 - BOOKS & LITERATURE
3 unpublished Shusaku Endo plays discovered

Manuscripts of three unpublished plays by novelist and playwright Shusaku Endo (1923-1996) were rece...

January 4, 2022 - BOOKS & LITERATURE
Haiku magazine Hototogisu celebrates 1,500th issue

Haiku magazine Hototogisu, which means cuckoo bird, celebrated its 1,500th installment with the rele...

December 23, 2021 - BOOKS & LITERATURE
How a Fukushima-born bookworm became a U.S. senator

As a boy, this reviewer used to climb a green, leafy tree in Alabama to spend blissful hours sitting...

December 21, 2021 - BOOKS & LITERATURE
New Japanese translation of Peter Rabbit set to hit shelves in March

A new Japanese version of the beloved Peter Rabbit series will be translated by Mieko Kawakami, 45, ...

December 20, 2021 - BOOKS & LITERATURE
The Inside Story: Entrepreneur, activist works to bring awareness to racial issues in Japan

Japanese society doesn’t hesitate to judge a book by its cover, but when it comes to Leila Odagaki, ...

December 5, 2021 - BOOKS & LITERATURE
Urge to apologize, understand leads author deep into roots

It’s a story many children of immigrants can relate to: Just trying to fit in, but constantly being ...

November 30, 2021 - BOOKS & LITERATURE
Hiroshima bomb story by Akira Kurosawa’s screenwriter published in English

OSAKA — A Japanese novel centered on the atomic bombing of Hiroshima was published this autumn in En...

November 27, 2021 - BOOKS & LITERATURE
Isaacson profiles the brilliant minds behind CRISPR gene editing

A bacterium is such a simple organism that its single cell doesn’t even have a nucleus to tidily con...

November 9, 2021 - BOOKS & LITERATURE
Li on love and the lives of sexual minorities / Akutagawa Prize winner explores gender themes

Novelist Li Kotomi doesn’t believe in boundaries. National boundaries, linguistic boundaries, gender...

September 23, 2021 - BOOKS & LITERATURE
Book bank promotes local titles overseas

A bilingual website cataloging the copyright and other information of Japanese books has been launch...

August 17, 2021 - BOOKS & LITERATURE

"CULTURE" POPULAR ARTICLE

JN TOP STORIES