Welcome to the first issue of Books on Asia, your guide to finding quality books on Japan and Asia. We launch the site with a look at Writers in Kyoto, a passel of scribes who write about Japan, with an emphasis on the old capital city of Kyoto. The organization was founded in 2015 by John Dougill, who pens the Green Shinto blog and has authored numerous books on Japan and Kyoto. The group includes authors, journalists, editors, poets, historians and experts in the Japanese arts.

In this issue of Books on Asia, we delve into Emily Bronte’s classic “Wuthering Heights” and the popularity of the novel in Japan, which is also the subject of Judith Pascoe’s book “On the Bullet Train with Emily Bronte.” A fun, engaging read, Dr. Pascoe deliberates on some of the 20 or so Japanese interpretations More…

In Issue 3 of Books on Asia, we introduce three prominent women translators of Japanese literature: Juliet Winters Carpenter, Ginny Tapley Takemori and Cathy Hirano. All three have translated prize-winning literature from best-selling Japanese authors such as Marie Kondo, Abe Kobo, and Ryu Murakami. These women have been instrumental in bringing Japanese literature to English More…

In this issue we introduce books we feel are essential reading to understand the great capital city of Tokyo. From historical reads and memoirs by English language authors Edward Seidensticker, John Nathan and Ian Buruma, to contemporary Japanese authors Banana Yoshimoto, Hiromi Kawakami, Ryu Murakami and Haruki Murakami, this selection of books brings together old More…