Open Books Challenge 2025: Books Set in Japan or by a Japanese Author

Updated December 22, 2024
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The travelling cat chronicles
Arikawa, Hiro
Paper Book
A book that "speak[s] volumes about our need for connection--human, feline or otherwise" (The San Francisco Chronicle), The Travelling Cat Chronicles is a life-affirming anthem to kindness and self-sacrifice that shows how the smallest things can provide the...
The Decagon House murders
Ayatsuji, Yukito
Paper Book
A classic Japanese murder mystery inspired by the golden age of British crimewriting.
A single rose
Barbery, Muriel
Audiobook
Shogun : a novel of Japan
Clavell, James.
Audiobook
A bold English adventurer. An invincible Japanese warlord. A beautiful woman torn between two ways of life, two ways of love. All brought together in an extraordinary saga of a time and a place aflame with conflict, passion, ambition, lust, and the struggle for power... From...
No longer human
Dazai, Osamu
Ebook
Wotakoi love is hard for otaku. Volume 1
Fujita, Artur
Paper Book
A geeky girl whose life revolves around yaoi manga and a quiet gamer boy are old friends, but when they start working in the same office, they decide to date. It's a relationship of convenience at first, but could it become something more? This manga comedy is now a hit streaming anime!
The heartbeat library
Imai Messina, Laura
Paper Book
The Heartbeat Library is a tender, contemplative, and uplifting novel about grief, friendship, and the many ways we heal, by the internationally bestselling author of The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World. On the peaceful Japanese island of Teshima...
Diary of a Tokyo teen : a Japanese-American girl travels to the land of trendy fashion, high-tech toilets and maid cafes
Inzer, Christine Mari
Paper Book
**2017 Creative Child Magazine Preferred Choice Award Winner** **2017 Moonbeam Children's Book Award Gold Medal Winner** A book for comic lovers and Japanophiles of all ages, Diary of a Tokyo Teen presents a unique look at modern-day Japan through a young...
Tokyo ever after
Jean, Emiko
Paper Book
Emiko Jean's New York Times bestseller and Reese Book Club Pick Tokyo Ever After is the "refreshing, spot-on" (Booklist, starred review) story of an ordinary Japanese American girl who discovers that her father is the Crown Prince of Japan! Izumi Tanaka...
Fifty words for rain : a novel
Lemmie, Asha
Paper Book
A Good Morning America Book Club Pick and New York Times Bestseller!   From debut author Asha Lemmie, "a lovely, heartrending story about love and loss, prejudice and pain, and the sometimes dangerous, always durable ties that link a family together." -...
Calling the wind : a story of healing and hope
Ludwig, Trudy
Paper Book
Inspired by the Wind Telephone in Japan, this poignant story explores the stages of grief, the healing power of hope, and the unbreakable family bonds that connect us all. From the acclaimed author of The Invisible Boy and the award-winning illustrator of One. In a...
The boy from the dragon palace : a folktale from Japan
MacDonald, Margaret Read
Paper Book
2012 Storytelling World Award Best Children's Books of the Year 2012, Bank Street College 2011 NYPL 100 Books for Reading and Sharing STARRED REVIEW! "The text is nicely repetitive and includes satisfyingly disgusting nose...
Shuna's journey
Miyazaki, Hayao
Paper Book
Shuna, the prince of a poor land, watches in despair as his people work themselves to death harvesting the little grain that grows there. And so, when a traveler presents him with a sample of seeds from a mysterious western land, he sets out to find the source of the golden grain, dreaming of a...
The Full Moon Coffee Shop : a novel
Mochizuki, Mai
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * Translated from the Japanese bestseller, a charming and magical novel that reminds us it's never too late to follow our stars. "Mochizuki dazzles in her beautifully crafted contemporary fantasy debut. . . . This gentle fantasy is not to be missed."--...
Mina's matchbox
Ogawa, Yo?ko
Paper Book
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE * A TIME BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR * From the award-winning, psychologically astute author of The Memory Police, a hypnotic, introspective novel about an affluent Japanese family navigating buried secrets, and their young house guest...
The perfect sushi
Satoko Seo, Emily
Paper Book
"Cleverly written and laugh-out-loud funny, this infinitely re-readable picture book is ripe with social-emotional learning opportunities around misunderstanding, as well as serving as a warm welcome into Cuban culture" - Barnes & Noble Magaly loves the yummy Cuban...
What's left of me is yours : a novel
Scott, Stephanie
Paper Book
"Each chapter of this enrapturing novel is elegantly brief and charged with barely contained emotion." --New York Times Book Review A gripping debut set in modern-day Tokyo and inspired by a true crime, for readers of Everything I Never Told You and The Perfect Nanny...
The blossom and the firefly
Smith, Sherri L.
Paper Book
From the award-winning author of Flygirl comes this powerful WWII romance between two Japanese teens caught in the cogs of an unwinnable war, perfect for fans of Salt to the Sea, Lovely War, and Code Name Verity. Japan 1945. Taro is a talented...
The puzzle box : a novel
Trussoni, Danielle
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER . "A fun, DaVinci Code-style blend of puzzles, mysticism and high-octane action" (People, Best Books of the Month), from theauthor of The Puzzle Master "This rip-roaring adventure thriller is an escapist puzzle box of delights- a...
Lonely castle in the mirror
Tsujimura, Mizuki
Paper Book
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER!  A Studio Ghibli-esque work of Japanese translation "that lays bare the anxieties and desperation--and the small triumphs--of adolescence" (Locus), for fans of Mieko Kawakami's Heaven. Seven students find unusual common ground in...
Death on Gokumon Island
Yokomizo, Seishi
Paper Book
Loosely inspired by Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, the fiendish Gokumon Island is perhaps the most highly regarded of all the great Seishi Yokomizo's classic Japanese mysteries.
Butter : a novel of food and murder
Yuzuki, Asako
Audiobook

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