10 Japanese Books You Must Read This Summer (+1 extra)

The (boiling) hot summer days have arrived in full force. As some of us head to the strong sunshine on the beach and some others, to the fresh air of the mountains, what’s better than some Japanese literature to fill your days?

Japanese literature has received a lot more attention recently and it’s now much easier to find translations at the bookshop around the corner. Every now and then, when I visit my local bookshop, I’m amazed at the number of Japanese titles they are offering — and I’m overjoyed that the titles offered go beyond Murakami and Ishiguro.

Both classic and contemporary Japanese literature are slowly trickling in, conquering space on bookshelves all around the world. Now that we have some very good options to choose from, here are 10 extraordinary Japanese books (+ 1 extra) that are perfect for you to read this summer:

Winner of the Akutagawa Prize in 2016, Convenience Store Woman could be considered a “weird” book. The prose is unlike any other that you might have seen before, making our protagonist, the peculiar Keiko, seem even more unique.

Keiko is a 36-year-old single woman who works part-time at a konbini. Even though she’s perfectly happy with her lifestyle, she’s surrounded by family and friends who have an “ordinary” life and constantly encourage her to build a “better life” for herself (a.k.a. a “decent” job and a proper relationship). This is Keiko’s tale as she learns what truly brings her joy.

Is Convenience Store Woman about feminism? Against conventional values? A manifesto against our capitalist world and the expectations placed upon young people? Maybe all or maybe none of the above. The point here is simple: despite the perfectly shaped boxes the world has created for us, we’re all different and there’s no such thing as “being normal”. Being human means being unique. And what’s wrong with that? It’s okay to live your life your way — and Keiko reminds us of that. Convenience Store Woman is a witty, amusing, and refreshing story that will bring a spark to your summer.

Summer is all about travelling so I had to add this one to the list. This is the story of Nana, a cat on a road trip alongside his owner, Satoru. As they travel together, they deepen the beautiful bond between an owner and a cat and meet people who change the way they see themselves and the world around them.

If you have a pet, this story will surely resonate with you. And if you love Japan, you’ll definitely enjoy their journey around the country. Arikawa’s prose is wonderfully descriptive and her narrative is deeply moving without being too melodramatic. By placing Nana as our narrator and giving him an adorably cheeky personality, a simple story gains particular charisma.

This is a curious read. If you’re looking for a proper narrative, a story with a beginning, middle, and end, just skip this one and go straight to the next title. But if you want something different or you like classic Japanese literature, stay with me a tad longer.

The Pillow Book is a collection of diary entries by Sei Shonagon, a court gentlewoman who lived in 10th-century Japan. Make no mistake: Sei wasn’t journaling because she wanted to understand herself better or engage in any sort of soul-searching journey.

Sei presents us to a world completely different from the reality most of us is used to, one in which the universe seems to be a fanciful little bubble of whims. She just… really enjoyed writing. She shares her everyday life, her romantic adventures, her likes and dislikes, her musings on the society she was a part of and the nature that surrounded her.

Sei is full of pizzazz and she invites us to a very intimate telling of life back then — a fun and unique read.

Kitchen may not be all puppies and sunshine but it’s still a very worthwhile read this summer.

Actually, death is the main theme of Yoshimoto’s debut title: we appreciate light because of the moments in darkness. So life wouldn’t be precious without death either. To illustrate that concept, Yoshimoto introduces us to Mikage, a young woman who is heartbroken after the loss of her grandmother. She finds solace in the kitchen and the everyday tasks that we have to fulfil in it. Then, she meets and starts spending more time with her grandmother’s friends, Yuichi and his transgender mother, Eriko. Their relationship helps Mikage understand life a bit better.

There’s something very comforting in Yoshimoto’s prose and Mikage’s journey helps us accept the ups and downs of life. A perfect read for a rainy afternoon in the middle of the summer.

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

Ruth Ozeki was born to a Japanese mother and an American father. And you can see the influence of this background in her magnificent A Tale for the Time Being, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2013.

Ozeki introduces you to a teenage girl, Nao, who is a second-generation Japanese-American and struggles with finding her identity. After all, is she Japanese or American? When her family moves back to Japan, she starts writing a diary as she tries to find the answers to her questions. On the other side of the Pacific, Ruth, a novelist who lives in British Columbia, finds the diary of a young Japanese girl. She imagines that it washed ashore after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami and becomes determined to find its writer.

A Tale for the Time Being is a moving tale about identity, time, and fate. Its characters are human and relatable as they face tragedy, sorrow, and their inner demons. Ozeki’s expressive prose mixes narrative and philosophical reflection in a metafictional novel. This particular narrative structure, in which Ozeki intertwined both Nao’s and Ruth’s timelines with grace and skill, turns A Tale for the Time Being into a book you just can’t forget.

Automatic Eve is one of those exceptional books that you only find once in a blue moon.

A mosaic novel that mixes sci-fi, historical fiction, and political intrigue, Rokuro invites us to imagine Japan with a shogunate where the line of succession is strictly female. In this steampunk Edo period, artisans produce almost flawless automatons. When a politically-tied inventor creates the greatest of all automatons, the gorgeous Eve, secrets come to the surface that might change everything.

Intense, thought-provoking, and sensuous, Automatic Eve is a once-in-a-lifetime read that you won’t be able to put down. I won’t say much more because spoilers — and this one you just have to savour yourself.

A boy falls in love with a girl. The girl spends a night out, having all sorts of adventures, and the boy never manages to confess his feelings. As she keeps walking through the night, will he ever have the chance to make his feelings known?

That’s it. That’s The Night is Short, Walk on Girl. Maybe you’ve seen the film, maybe you’ve seen or read its spiritual prequel, The Tatami Galaxy. Maybe this is the very first time you hear of Morimi’s book. No matter which category you fall into, The Night is Short, Walk on Girl immerses you in a chaotic, neon universe of happenstances and chance.

Even though, deep down, this is a straightforward rom-com, Morimi envelops this tale in a whimsical environment bursting at the seams with Japaneseness and peculiar characters (whose names we don’t even know).

The Night is Short, Walk on Girl gives you that wonderful feeling you get when you spend the night walking around city streets with strangers. A perfect read for a warm summer night.

I’ve already published my complete review of Days at the Morisaki Bookshop but I needed to add it here since the sequel, More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, was released just a couple of weeks ago (my mother has already read it and cried her eyes out; I’m still waiting for my own copy to arrive T-T).

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop is like entering a fresh room on a stuffy, hot day. It’s refreshing and comforting and allows you to breathe again. Yagisawa takes us to Jimbocho, a neighbourhood in Tokyo made for bookworms. There, a young woman called Takako finds solace in her family’s bookshop. As she spends time with her uncle, the customers, and fellow shop owners, she allows herself to take a break from the chaos of her everyday life and finds the answers she’s been looking for.

I’ll leave you with an excerpt from our full review:

Short, simple, but incredibly powerful, this is a tale of connections and reconnections: with yourself, with your family, with your friends, with strangers. Takako’s words grab you by the hand and guide you through the most important beats of her life — she’s straightforward with her narration and candid about her feelings. There are no never-ending paragraphs of detailed descriptions, complicated psychology going on behind the scenes, or clear-cut life lessons. “This is how I feel, this is what happened,” she seems to say. And what she learns with every step she uses to define where to go next — her evolution and recovery are subtle and there’s much going on between the lines.

Most fans of contemporary Japanese literature know Hiromi Kawakami. Besides Strange Weather in Tokyo, I’m sure you’ve also heard of The Ten Loves of Nishino, The Nakano Thrift Shop, People From My Neighborhood, or, more recently, The Third Love.

Strange Weather in Tokyo, shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2012, brought Kawakami to the international stage. Her evocative prose and her ability to carry a story on continuous dialogue infuse her narrative with dynamism and deliver a touching tale of loneliness, love, and aging.

This is the story of Tsukiko, a woman in her 30s who meets her old high school teacher at a pub one night. To her surprise, they continue to bump into each other and slowly, start developing a friendship. Kawakami portrays the evolution of their relationship subtly and intimately, charming you into turning page after page.

A mix of Sherlock Holmes and Midnight Diner, The Kamogawa Food Detectives goes beyond your everyday mystery tale by adding a very flavourful ingredient: a celebration of Japanese cuisine.

Enchanting and heartwarming, The Kamogawa Food Detectives tells the story of Koishi Kamowaga and her father, Nagare. Together, they run the Kamogawa Diner in Kyoto. But this isn’t your run-of-the-mill restaurant: Koishi and Nagare are on a mission to recreate a dish from their customers’ pasts. They believe that, by bringing lost recipes to life, they can bring joy back into people’s lives.

Hisashi explores a theme that everyone can relate to: the nostalgia that food evokes. The scent of your grandmother’s chocolate cake, the sweetness of your mum’s strawberry milkshake. All of these little things take us back to moments of delight and comfort. Here, you follow these sweet food detectives as they explore their customers’ backstories, laughing and crying with their memories.

Of course, eat before you read it (otherwise, you’ll be salivating to no end). An easy read that will warm your heart — and your belly.

If you love it, make sure to read its sequel, The Restaurant of Lost Recipes!

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EXTRA: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Let’s start with a huge disclaimer: Pachinko is not a Japanese book. It was written by the Korean-American author Min Jin Lee and it talks about Zainichi Koreans, that is, Koreans who immigrated to Japan before 1945 and their descendants.

But I had to add it as an “extra” to this year’s summer list because the second season of Apple TV’s adaptation of the book, starring Youn Yuh-jung, Kim Min-ha, and Lee Min-ho is coming out on August 23, 2024. And we have to be ready for it, am I right?

Pachinko is a poignant, addictive read that will make you think about identity, stereotypes, gender roles, and class differences. Lee creates a universe that has a flair for the grandiose, an epic tale that spans generations and deals with issues that cross nationalities. However, Lee’s prose never becomes overly complicated. Well-rounded characters, compelling narrative, and an incredibly detailed portrayal of a difficult historical period make Pachinko an extraordinary read.

I’ll leave you with the official synopsis (which I find to be just as poetic as the book itself) and the trailer for the second season of Pachinko:

In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman, falls for a wealthy stranger at the seashore near her home in Korea. He promises her the world, but when she discovers she is pregnant—and that her lover is married—she refuses to be bought. Instead, she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle, sickly minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision to abandon her home, and to reject her son’s powerful father, sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through the generations.

Richly told and profoundly moving, Pachinko is a story of love, sacrifice, ambition, and loyalty. From bustling street markets to the halls of Japan’s finest universities to the pachinko parlors of the criminal underworld, Lee’s complex and passionate characters—strong, stubborn women, devoted sisters and sons, fathers shaken by moral crisis—survive and thrive against the indifferent arc of history.

So, what are your summer reads for this year? Share in the comments your own list of Japanese books to read this summer!