Books Set in Japan: 42 Novels to Read Before Your Trip, Mapped by Region

From just before midnight until dawn, a young woman reading alone in a Denny’s crosses paths with the city’s night people in a Tokyo entertainment district — widely read as Shibuya.

My notesThe contrast between the fluorescent light of a Denny’s at night and Murakami’s dreamlike prose is almost too beautiful. It’s one of his shortest novels, and a perfect first night in Tokyo.

VisitFamily restaurants — famiresu — are a uniquely Japanese culture, so please go to one while you’re here, Denny’s or otherwise. Many stay open late.

Also in translation — French: Le Passage de la nuit · Chinese: 《天黑以后》 / 《黑夜之後》

Hatoko returns to Kamakura to take over her late grandmother’s stationery shop — and her work as a letter-writer for hire.

Why read itMany real Kamakura places appear in the novel, and readers in Japan often visit them after finishing. It’s the book to read before a day trip to Kamakura.

VisitKamakura, about an hour from Tokyo. Places mentioned in the book include the Starbucks on Onari-dori. A Japanese guidebook to the novel’s Kamakura was even published.

Also in translation — French: La Papeterie Tsubaki · Chinese: 《山茶花文具店》

A Beatles song carries Toru Watanabe back to his student days in late-1960s Tokyo, and to two very different young women, Naoko and Midori.

Why read itMurakami’s most realistic novel and his breakthrough bestseller in Japan. Watanabe’s student dorm is modeled on Wakeijuku, a real dormitory in Mejirodai.

VisitWalk past Wakeijuku in Mejirodai (it’s a private dorm, so from outside only), then head to Waseda University, where the Haruki Murakami Library is open to visitors.

Also in translation — French: La Ballade de l’impossible · Chinese: 《挪威的森林》

In Shinjuku, police officers are being shot one after another. While his colleagues chase the killer, a lone detective nicknamed “Shinjuku Shark” hunts the man making the guns.

Why read itA hard-boiled crime novel that captures Tokyo at full intensity. After reading it, you’ll walk through Shinjuku a little more nervously.

VisitKabukicho and the streets around Shinjuku Station, the busiest railway station in the world.

Also in translation — French: Le Requin de Shinjuku

After a breakup, Takako moves into the room above her uncle’s secondhand bookshop in Jimbocho and slowly heals through reading.

Why readers love itI’ve seen it in bookshops in Paris and London, and even in a tiny book corner inside a big train terminal. Shortlisted for the British Book Awards in 2024.

VisitJimbocho, Tokyo’s famous book town, with well over a hundred secondhand bookshops a short walk apart. Go on a weekday afternoon and lose a few hours.

Also in translation — Chinese: 《在森崎書店的日子》

In a small basement café, customers can travel back in time — but they must return before their coffee gets cold.

Why readers love itThe series has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. In the novel, the café is in Jimbocho, on a quiet back street near the station.

VisitJimbocho again: the café is fictional, but the neighborhood is full of old-fashioned kissaten coffee shops where you can try a slow cup yourself.

Also in translation — French: Tant que le café est encore chaud · Chinese: 《在咖啡冷掉之前》

The ghost of a laborer from Fukushima looks back on a life that ended among the homeless of Ueno Park, right beside one of Tokyo’s great stations.

Why readers love itWinner of the US National Book Award for Translated Literature in 2020. A different Tokyo from the one in the guidebooks, and an important one.

VisitUeno Park and Ueno Station. The author also runs a bookshop-café, Full House, in Odaka, Minamisoma, Fukushima.

Also in translation — French: Sortie parc, gare d’Ueno · Chinese: 《JR上野站公園口》

Keiko has worked at the same Tokyo convenience store for eighteen years, and everyone around her insists that isn’t normal.

My notesFor me, watching a person turn into a kind of machine gave me chills, and made me painfully aware that I, too, am just one cog in society. It won the Akutagawa Prize.

VisitAny konbini. After reading this, a late-night visit to a convenience store — the bright lights, the greetings, the rice balls — will never feel the same.

Also in translation — French: La Fille de la supérette · Chinese: 《便利店人間》

A bookseller at a fictional bookstore in Kichijoji is ready to quit, thanks to a manager who gives endless speeches borrowed from business books.

Why read itA comedy about loving books while hating your job. There’s a twist at the end that will surprise you — or rather, make you laugh.

VisitKichijoji, on the west side of Tokyo: Inokashira Park, a lively shopping street, and several good bookshops.

A young Tokyo journalist tries to land an interview with a woman in prison, accused of killing lonely men she seduced with her cooking. The prisoner agrees to talk — but only about food.

My notesAsako Yuzuki is one of my all-time favorite women writers. She writes women’s strength and fragility with everything she has. Elaborate French dishes like boeuf bourguignon appear, and you will get very hungry, so be warned. Based on a real case, and a bestseller in the UK and US.

VisitTokyo’s restaurants and bakeries. Early on, the prisoner tells the journalist to try a bowl of hot rice with butter and soy sauce — an easy taste of the book while you’re in Japan.

After her grandmother dies, Mikage, a young woman who feels most at home in kitchens, is taken in by a kind young man and his mother.

My notesThis novel will make you desperate for katsudon! If you’re about to travel to Japan, read it, and then be sure to eat katsudon while you’re here.

VisitAny neighborhood restaurant that serves katsudon, the pork-cutlet rice bowl at the heart of one of the book’s most famous scenes.

After her father dies in a suicide pact with a stranger, Yoshie moves to Shimokitazawa, works at a little bistro, and slowly rebuilds her life — until her mother shows up to live with her.

Why readers love itA love letter to one Tokyo neighborhood from one of Japan’s best-loved writers.

VisitShimokitazawa, a few minutes from Shibuya or Shinjuku by train: narrow lanes of vintage clothing shops, small theaters, record stores and cafés. The bistro is fictional; the neighborhood is very real.

A man running a failing dorayaki stand hires an elderly woman who makes extraordinary sweet bean paste — and who carries a painful past.

Why readers love itMade into the film Sweet Bean by Naomi Kawase. A gentle story about who gets to belong.

VisitEat a dorayaki, two small pancakes sandwiching sweet bean paste, from any Japanese sweet shop. The film was shot in Higashimurayama in western Tokyo.

Also in translation — French: Les Délices de Tokyo · Chinese: 《铜锣烧也有春天》

A student meets a reclusive man he calls “Sensei” on the beach at Kamakura. Years later, a long letter reveals Sensei’s secret.

Why readers love itOne of the most widely read novels in Japan, and a classic that every Japanese student meets at school.

VisitThe beach at Kamakura, where the story begins, and Zoshigaya Cemetery in Tokyo, where Soseki himself is buried.

Also in translation — French: Le Pauvre Cœur des hommes

A gifted runner joins a ragtag university team — most of whom have barely run — with an impossible goal: the Hakone Ekiden, Japan’s most famous relay race.

Why read itYou’ll laugh at the team’s silly daily life and find yourself cheering out loud. The final race stays with you for years.

VisitThe Hakone Ekiden runs every year on January 2 and 3, from Otemachi in central Tokyo to Lake Ashi in Hakone and back. Hakone itself is a classic hot-spring trip from Tokyo.

Also in translation — Chinese: 《强风吹拂》

A lonely student on a walking trip through the Izu Peninsula falls in with a troupe of traveling performers, and with their youngest member, a dancer.

My notesThere’s a scene at an outdoor bath, and the awkwardness of having seen something you shouldn’t comes straight through the words. Before I knew it, I was standing on the side of the boy in love.

VisitThe old Amagi tunnel, Yugashima, and Yugano hot spring, where Kawabata stayed at the Fukudaya inn in 1918 — there’s a statue at its door.

Also in translation — French: La Danseuse d’Izu

Maria spends one last summer at her family’s seaside inn with her sickly, sharp-tongued cousin Tsugumi.

Why readers love itA classic summer novel in Japan. The seaside town is said to be modeled on Toi, on the west coast of Izu.

VisitToi Onsen on the west coast of the Izu Peninsula. The 1990 film was shot in nearby Matsuzaki.

An English ship’s pilot is wrecked on the coast of Japan in 1600 and drawn into a warlord’s struggle for power.

Why readers love itBack in the spotlight after the award-winning 2024 TV series. A huge, page-turning historical epic, written by a Western author.

VisitAjiro on the Izu Peninsula, the model for the fishing village of Anjiro, and Anjin-zuka in Yokosuka, the memorial to William Adams, the real Englishman behind the hero.

A man from Tokyo keeps returning to a hot-spring town deep in the snowy mountains, drawn to the geisha Komako.

My notesAlmost every Japanese person knows the opening by heart: the train comes out of the long tunnel into the snow country. It’s a book that tastes completely different when you read it again as an adult. This is a travel novel in the truest sense.

VisitEchigo-Yuzawa in Niigata, about 80 minutes from Tokyo by Shinkansen. Kawabata wrote the novel at the Takahan ryokan, where his room, Kasumi-no-ma, is preserved for overnight guests. Go in winter, and come out of the tunnel into the snow yourself.

Also in translation — French: Pays de neige · Chinese: 《雪國》

Chieko, the adopted daughter of a Kyoto kimono merchant, discovers that she has a twin sister working in the cedar groves of Kitayama.

Why readers love itWritten by Japan’s first Nobel laureate in literature, it follows Kyoto through a full year of festivals and seasons.

VisitNakagawa, the Kitayama cedar village north of the city where Chieko’s twin works, and the festivals of the Kyoto year.

Also in translation — French: Kyôto · Chinese: 《古都》

A young acolyte becomes obsessed with the beauty of the Golden Pavilion — and comes to believe he must burn it down.

Why readers love itBased on the real arson of 1950. One of Mishima’s best-known novels and a modern classic.

VisitKinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion, rebuilt in 1955 after the fire. Read the novel first and see it with completely different eyes.

Also in translation — French: Le Pavillon d’or · Chinese: 《金閣寺》

A student follows the younger woman he loves across a year of Kyoto nights, book fairs and festivals, hoping to “happen” to bump into her.

Why readers love itA cult favorite in Japan, and an anime film too. Kyoto as a playful, slightly magical student city.

VisitPontocho’s narrow lanes at night, and the summer used-book fair in the forest of Shimogamo Shrine.

A father and daughter run a diner with no sign near Higashi Hongan-ji, where they recreate dishes from customers’ memories.

Why readers love itA bestselling series in Japan and a TV drama. Read it, and you’ll want to eat your way through Kyoto.

VisitThe streets around Higashi Hongan-ji, a short walk from Kyoto Station.

Also in translation — Chinese: 《鴨川食堂》

On full-moon nights, a café run by cats appears somewhere in Kyoto, serving celestial desserts and star readings to people who’ve lost their way.

Why readers love itMuch loved in Japan for its cozy mood and illustrations. The café has no fixed address — it simply appears.

VisitKyoto by night. Until November 1, 2026, a collaboration café is running at MARUZEN café in the Maruzen Kyoto Honten bookstore (Kyoto BAL, B2).

Strangers’ lives brush past each other on the Hankyu Imazu Line between Takarazuka and Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi, one station at a time.

My notesWhile reading it, and long after, I kept feeling a soft late-afternoon light coming through the train windows.

VisitRide the real Imazu Line: eight stations, about 15 minutes one way, with one chapter for each stop. Takarazuka’s famous theater is at one end.

Also in translation — French: Au prochain arrêt

Four sisters from a declining Osaka merchant family try to find a husband for the third sister, Yukiko, in the years before the war.

Why readers love itOne of the great Japanese novels of the twentieth century, full of cherry-blossom outings and the elegance of old Kansai.

VisitIsho-an in Kobe, Tanizaki’s home from 1936 to 1943 and the model for the family’s house.

Also in translation — French: Quatre sœurs

In old Osaka, a blind and proud shamisen teacher, Shunkin, and Sasuke, the servant who devotes his whole life to her.

My notesWhen I first read it in high school, I felt I had run into something tremendous. Rereading it as an adult, I found I could finally take it in, little by little.

VisitOsaka’s old merchant districts, where the story is set in the late nineteenth century.

Also in translation — French: Shunkin, esquisse d’un portrait

Natsuko, a writer in Tokyo, hosts her sister and niece from Osaka for one hot summer. Years later, she must decide whether to have a child on her own.

Why readers love itOne of the defining Japanese novels of recent years, and an international bestseller.

VisitOsaka, where the sisters grew up, and the everyday Tokyo neighborhoods where Natsuko lives.

On a small fishing island, a young fisherman and a pearl diver’s daughter fall in love despite gossip and a rival.

Why readers love itMishima’s most tender novel. The island is modeled on Kamishima, where he stayed while writing it.

VisitKamishima, a short ferry ride from Toba in Mie Prefecture, near the Ise Grand Shrine.

Also in translation — French: Le Tumulte des flots

Tsukuru, who designs train stations, sets out to find the four friends from his hometown of Nagoya who cut him off sixteen years earlier.

My notesFriendship can fade without anything happening and without it being your fault. After all that, the trip at the end held everything that’s good about travel. For Murakami, it’s easy to read.

VisitNagoya, Tsukuru’s hometown, on the Shinkansen line between Tokyo and Kyoto. Train lovers will enjoy watching the stations through his eyes.

Also in translation — French: L’Incolore Tsukuru Tazaki et ses années de pèlerinage · Chinese: 《没有色彩的多崎作和他的巡礼之年》

A murder in a locked room on a wedding night in a village in Okayama, 1937: the first case of detective Kosuke Kindaichi.

Why readers love itA landmark of Japanese mystery writing and a great pick for fans of Golden Age detective fiction.

VisitYokomizo wrote it while living in Okayama during the war. His evacuation house in Mabi, Kurashiki, is open to visitors.

A 15-year-old runaway and an old man who can talk to cats travel separately toward the same small library in Takamatsu.

Why readers love itOne of Murakami’s most beloved novels. The library is fictional, but the journey across to Shikoku is real.

VisitTakamatsu in Kagawa Prefecture, on the island of Shikoku. Pair it with a bowl of Sanuki udon.

Also in translation — French: Kafka sur le rivage · Chinese: 《海边的卡夫卡》

A hot-headed young teacher from Tokyo takes a job at a provincial school and clashes with almost everyone.

Why readers love itOne of the best-loved comic novels in Japan, based on Soseki’s own year teaching in Matsuyama.

VisitDogo Onsen Honkan in Matsuyama, which reopened in 2024 after years of repairs and has a room dedicated to Soseki and Botchan.

Also in translation — French: Botchan

Years after the war, Shigematsu copies out his diary of the atomic bombing to prove that his niece, caught in the “black rain,” is healthy enough to marry.

Why readers love itOne of the most important novels about Hiroshima. Quiet, precise and unforgettable.

VisitHiroshima Peace Memorial Park and Museum. Give yourself time there.

Also in translation — French: Pluie noire

In England, Etsuko remembers a summer in postwar Nagasaki, and a woman and a little girl she knew there.

Why read itIshiguro’s first novel, set in the city where he was born. In 2025 it was made into a Japanese film directed by Kei Ishikawa.

VisitNagasaki: the Peace Park, the Atomic Bomb Museum and the view from Mount Inasa.

Also in translation — French: Lumière pâle sur les collines · Chinese: 《远山淡影》 / 《群山淡景》

A Portuguese Jesuit priest smuggles himself into Japan during the persecution of Christians in the seventeenth century.

Why readers love itOne of the great Japanese novels of the twentieth century, filmed by Martin Scorsese in 2016.

VisitSotome, north of central Nagasaki, with the Endo Shusaku Literary Museum and the Silence monument.

A young Dutch clerk arrives at Dejima, the tiny trading post in Nagasaki harbor that was Japan’s only window to the West, and falls for a Japanese midwife.

Why readers love itA richly detailed historical novel from the author of Cloud Atlas.

VisitDejima in Nagasaki, where sixteen buildings of the old Dutch trading post have been rebuilt. Enter by the Omote-mon Bridge near the Dejima tram stop.

Two apparent lovers’ suicides on a beach in Fukuoka lead two detectives to a corruption scandal and an alibi built on train timetables.

Why readers love itA classic of Japanese crime fiction. Anyone who loves Japan’s punctual trains will love the puzzle.

VisitKashii beach on Hakata Bay in Fukuoka, where the bodies are found, and Tokyo Station, where the most famous clue begins.

Also in translation — French: Tokyo express · Chinese: 《點與線》

On the night of a star festival, a lonely boy named Giovanni finds himself on a train crossing the Milky Way with his friend Campanella.

My notesI only read it as an adult, and my first reaction was surprise that something this difficult had ever been in a school textbook. Miyazawa was barely recognized in his lifetime; his life is sometimes compared to Van Gogh’s.

VisitHanamaki in Iwate, Miyazawa’s hometown and the heart of the dreamlike world he called “Ihatov.” The Miyazawa Kenji Memorial Museum is there.

Also in translation — French: Train de nuit dans la Voie lactée

A woman who lost her mother and daughter in the 2011 tsunami finds a disconnected phone booth in a garden on the coast, where people come to talk to those they’ve lost.

Why readers love itWritten by an Italian author who lives in Japan, about a real place. Published in the UK as The Phone Box at the Edge of the World.

VisitThe wind phone (kaze no denwa) in the garden Bell Gardia Kujirayama in Otsuchi, Iwate. Please visit quietly: it’s a place of mourning.

Also in translation — French: Ce que nous confions au vent

A boy from the forests of Hokkaido hears a piano being tuned in his school gym and decides to become a piano tuner.

Why readers love itWinner of the 2016 Japan Booksellers’ Award (Honya Taisho), chosen by bookstore staff across Japan. Quiet, clear and beautiful.

VisitAsahikawa in Hokkaido, where the 2018 film was shot; the city publishes a map of the filming locations.

Satoru sets off across Japan with his cat, Nana, visiting old friends — looking for someone to give Nana a new home.

Why readers love itAn international bestseller by the author of The Passengers on the Hankyu Line. Readers warn: have tissues ready.

VisitThe journey takes in Mount Fuji and goes all the way north to Hokkaido.

Also in translation — French: Les mémoires d’un chat · Chinese: 《旅貓日記》