6 Books from Japan to read in 2020

Here is a round up six favourite books from Japan to read in 2020. Read for women’s stories, a reconstructed man, hiring men to seduce your wife, crime mysteries and dark novels.

Translated books from Japan

Four novels translated from the Japanese to explore this year.

1. Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami, translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd

In Breasts and Eggs, we meet women at different stages in life, inhabiting a society and making for themselves a comfortable den where they can function as individuals with agency. We follow three women: the thirty-year-old unmarried narrator, Natsuko, her older sister Makiko, and Makiko’s teenage daughter Midoriko. Makiko is unable to be satisfied with her body, and is obsessed with getting breast enhancement surgery. Her daughter, Midoriko, is anxious with the onset of puberty and finds it a confusing phase to navigate. Natsuko, being unmarried, decides to have a child with the help of a sperm donor. Readers are invited to this utterly fascinating space where the three women talk their thoughts out loud, stand firm on their desires, and voice insecurities. It sucks you in from the first sentence—‘If you want to know how poor somebody was growing up, ask them how many windows they had.’

Read this if you are looking for unconventional stories about women.

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2. The Inugami Curse by Seishi Yokomizo, translated by Yumiko Yamazaki

The Inugami Curse is one of my most talked-about books of the year. Seishi Yokomizo gives us all the ingredients for a cosy, golden mystery—big mansions, sisters, rich people with heir problems, bloody weapons. Imagine a Holmes-like detective—Kindaichi—in an Agatha Christie-like mystery. Set in the 1940s, The Inugami Curse begins with the murder of a prominent eighty-one-year-old business man, Sahei Inugami—patriarch of the Inugami clan—in Shinshu. Sahei Inugami was an orphan, who soon set up his own silk company that expanded through the wars (Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War and World war I). He also took three mistresses and had three daughters from them. Years later, there’s a murder, unusual wills, secret heirlooms, several heirs, a secret past and more.

Read this if you are looking for a fun, golden mystery that is entertaining and captivating.

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Also Read : Two golden mysteries set in Japan from Seishi Yokomizo

3. Earthlings by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori

I like to call Earthlings my ‘what WHAT’ book. Quite a strange descriptor but that’s exactly what you will be experiencing as you read the latest English translation of Sayaka Murata’s novel. Murata’s Convenience store woman with its eccentric protagonist who works at a convenience store and loves routine, remains my favourite. In Earthlings you can expect similar themes, a girl trying to make sense of the world and live, while being grossed out by societal expectations.

As a child, Natsuki has a wand, a magic mirror, and receives messages from Planet Popinpobopia via her plushie hedgehog. She spends her summers at the family house with her cousin Yuu. According to her, she is a ‘tool’ for her town—she can either study hard and become a ‘work tool’ or marry and reproduce. She doesn’t want to be part of this ‘Baby factory’ but escape to her original, parent planet. As an adult, she lives with her asexual husband—who also opposes the societal constructs—in a marriage of convenience. When she is reunited with Yuu, the three of them go into deeper, darker worlds. I read this with my heart throbbing so hard that I thought it might fall off my chest.
Trigger warning : Cannibalism, child sexual abuse and many other.

Read this if you love dark stories that surprise you.

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Also Read : Three novels from Japan—a love story, a dystopia and a woman of routine

4. One Love Chigusa by Soji Shimada, translated by David Warren

One Love Chigusa begins with a motorcycle accident that heavily injures the protagonist, a man named Xie. Because of the medical advancements in the future world, his life is saved by some patchwork surgeries. His arms and legs are replaced by mechanical substitutions, lungs and muscles are recreated, machines replace organs, synthetic blood pumps up his body, skin is regenerated and his memory is stored in a “Quantum memory drive”. But when he is back as a Ship of Theseus, the world looks different—women now wear red demon-like faces, ready to attack; men display numbers—money—on their bodies. He is able to form a connection with the solitude loving Chigusa only, but he soon unearths more secrets.

I really enjoyed the unreliable narrator and the world in 2091 AD is very much like our present world. The novella is set in a man’s world, following men mostly. This is not a usual sci-fic story, rather it allows you to ponder, consider the implications of the developing technology and the future that we are heading to. While I could guess the ending, it made me feel very sad, and therein lies Shimada’s brilliance.

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Also Read : Red Circle Minis publish original, modern stories from Japan

Books set in Japan to read in 2020

Along with translated books, here are two novels in English that explore contemporary culture, and relationships in Japan.

5. What’s Left of Me is Yours by Stephanie Scott

This is a fascinating book set in 1990s contemporary Japan revolving around the practice of wakanesaseya. Osamu Satō is in an unhappy marriage and wants to divorce his wife, Rina. He hires a man to seduce his wife. In a country where divorce is frowned upon, this cultural practice wakanesaseya is used by those who would like to file a divorce but would like to have more benefit from the divorce proceedings. However, the seduction-and-dumping, does not go as smoothly as Satō planned as the hired man, Kaitarō and Rina get close to one another, finally leading to a murder. This is a story about marriage, grief and betrayal. Scott’s characters stay with you, make you weep and most importantly, you will be eavesdropping on a marriage, worrying, and worrying.

Read this if you are looking for a book whose characters will stay with you for long.

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6. The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida by Clarissa Goenawan

Clarissa Goenawan has a fondness for Japan from her school days. Set in the same world as her debut novel, Rainbirds—which dealt with grief and death—The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida is a wonderful book on friendships, young love, abuse and death. In this novel there are disappearing cats, ghosts who trail humans, stories by anonymous writers in magazines and bookstore browsing. Even though both her novels are set in the same world, they can be read as standalones and The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida remains my favourite. It is a novel that invaded all my waking hours this year and one that I greatly enjoyed. You might get a Murakami vibe, but Goenawan isn’t as vague, so you get your answers and get acquainted with some wonderful characters.
Trigger warning : Self-harm, suicide, rape, sexual abuse

Read this if you are looking for books that are quiet, and melancholic with a dash of surrealism

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