Red Circle

15/10/2024

In 1905, a Japanese aristocrat, Baron Suyematsu (1855-1920), who was educated at Cambridge University, felt compelled to write two books in English in an e...

20/08/2024

Copies of 'Kaleidoscope Japan' have arrived from our printers. Whether you are familiar with the influences, movements, and characters behind some of the greatest -and earliest- works in world literature or are taking your first tentative steps into a realm of genius detectives, curmudgeonly drunks, and lecherous princes there will be something in this fascinating new book from Richard Nathan for you. 'Kaleidoscope Japan' takes readers on a rollercoaster ride through the colourful world of Japanese letters and is highly recommended for anyone who is interested in Japan, who wants their horizons expand, or wants to hear the stories behind the stories.

19/08/2024

"...highly recommended for anyone who is interested in Japan, who wants their horizons expanded, or who wants to hear the stories behind the stories".

From the acclaimed publisher of Japanese fiction in translation comes an epic, immersive new book about Japanese literature. After a lifetime reading Japan...

17/06/2024

In 1964, the year of the first Tokyo Olympics, Alfred A. Knoff published the First American Edition of Kobo Abe’s (1924-1993) The Women in the Dunes in E...

10/05/2024

Writing and publishing books about Japan is not a new phenomenon and some of the themes, such as the alleged paradox of and contradictions within Japanese ...

09/05/2024

Wanda Pictures, one of China’s leading film producers and the owner of the largest chain of cinemas in China, has finally announced the team that will br...

05/01/2024

In 1968 two years before Yukio Mishima (1925-1970) killed himself astrological predictions about the fate of five popular Japanese writers, Shintaro Ishiha...

25/10/2023

The first, 322-page, volume of a new eight-volume paperback edition of The Tale of Genji, often-described as the world’s first novel, adapted and transl...

20/10/2023

Earlier this month Kodansha, one of Japan’s largest and most prestigious publishers, released The Line, Retsu, a provocative new novel by the award-winni...

15/06/2023

Genie TV in South Korea has launched a new television series based on the award-winning Japanese author Mitsuyo Kakuta’s 2012 novel Paper Moon, Kami no t...

14/06/2023

In 1841, 255 years after his death, William Shakespeare’s (1564-1616) name appeared in print in Japan in Japanese for the very first time.This historic d...

09/05/2023

It is common knowledge that some commentators on Japan and Japan experts like to show off their superior knowledge at any opportunity. Some write about how...

03/04/2023

In response to a claim that the Japanese are not ‘honest in trade’ made in a letter published in the Times, the Manager of the Publications Department...

08/03/2023

A mini television drama will be released next month in Japan by TV Asahi, a major Japanese national broadcaster linked to Japan’s most prestigious nation...

01/03/2023

Isabella L. Bird (1831-1904), the British explorer and travel writer, records a visit to a bookshop in Japan in 1878 in Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, published...

09/02/2023

In the late 1880s much was changing in Japan. It was Meiji era (1868-1912) Japan, when the nation was experiencing a period of rapid modernisation and open...

07/11/2022

Yukio Mishima (1925-1970) is known for many things including killing himself and being nominated multiple times for the Nobel Prize in Literature and never...