Culture and Education

December 1, 2015

Books on Japan

Politics | Economy | History | Literature | Culture | Society | Education | Social Security | Women | Religion | Popular Culture | Living, Working, and Traveling in Japan | Children's Books | Reference

The following list of books on Japan was compiled from suggestions provided by Japan scholars in the Boston area as of Spring 1998.

Books on Japan may be ordered through:

Kinokuniya, which has stores in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

Politics

Author(s) Title Publisher Date
Allinson, Gary & Sone, Y. Political Dynamics in Contemporary Japan Cornell Press 1993
Curtis, Gerald The Japanese Way of Politics Columbia U. Press 1988
Flanagan, Scott C. The Japanese Voter Yale U. Press 1991
Ishida Takeshi & Ellis Krauss, eds. Democracy in Japan Pittsburgh U. Press 1989
Kim, Paul S. Japan's Civil Service System Greenwood Press 1988
Kishima, Takako Political Life in Japan Princeton U. Press 1991
Koh, B.C. Japan's Administrative Elite U. of Calif. Press 1989
Reed, Steven Japanese Prefectures and Policymaking Pittsburgh U. Press 1986
Weinstein, Martin E. The Human Face of Japan's Leadership Praeger 1989

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Economy

Author(s) Title Publisher Date
Cusumano, Michael The Japanese Automobile Industry Harvard U. Press 1985
Cusumano, Michael Japan's Software Factories Oxford U. Press 1991
Dore, Ronald P. Flexible Rigidities: Industrial Policy and Structural Adjustment in the Japanese Economy Athlone 1986
FAIR Japan's Financial Markets Tokyo: Foundation for Advanced Information and Research 1991
Fruin, W. Mark The Japanese Enterprise System: Competitive Strategies and Cooperative Structures Clarendon Press 1992
Gerlach, Michael L. Alliance Capitalism: The Social Organization of Japanese Business U. of Calif. Press 1992
Hanami, Tadashi Labor Relations in Japan Today Kodansha 1981
Imai, Kenichi & Ryutaro Komiya, eds. Business Enterprise in Japan: Views of Leading Japanese Economists MIT Press 1994
Kernell, Samuel, ed. Parallel Politics: Economic Policymaking in Japan and the United States Brookings 1991
Koike, Kazuo Understanding Industrial Relations in Modern Japan Macmillan 1988
Kumon, Shumpei & Henry Rosovsky, eds. The Political Economy of Japan: Vol. 3, Cultural and Social Dynamics Stanford 1992
Mason, Mark and Dennis Encarnation, eds. Does Ownership Matter? Japanese Multinationals in Europe Oxford U. Press 1994
Miyazaki, Isamu The Japanese Economy Simul 1990
Morishima, Michio Why Has Japan "Succeeded"? Western Technology and the Japanese Ethos Cambridge U. Press 1982
Morita, Akio with Edwin M. Reingold and Mitsuko Shimomura Made in Japan Dutton 1986
Nonaka, Ikujiro and Hirataka Takeuchi The Knowledge Creating Company Oxford U. Press 1995
Ohno, Taiichi The Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production Productivity Press 1988
Okimoto, Daniel I. Between MITI and the Market Stanford U. Press 1989
Patrick, Hugh, ed. Japan's High-Technology Industries: Lessons and Limitations of Industrial Policy U. of Wash. Press 1986
Shibagaki, Kazuo, Malcolm Trevor, & Tetsuo Abo Japanese and European Management: Their International Adaptability Tokyo U. Press 1989
Tanaka, Hiroshi The Human Side of Japanese Enterprise U. of Penn. Press 1988
Tatsuno, Sheridan M. Created in Japan: From Imitators to World Class Innovators Ballinger 1990
Viner, Aron Inside Japanese Financial Markets Dow Jones-Irwin 1988
Westney, D. Eleanor Imitation and Innovation Harvard U. Press 1987
Yamazaki, Mitsuru Japan's Community-Based Industries: A Case Study of Small Industry Asian Productivity Organization 1980
Yoshino, M.Y. & Thomas Lifson The Invisible Link: Japan's Sogo Shosha and the Organization of Trade MIT Press 1986

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Politics | Economy | History | Literature | Culture | Society | Education | Social Security | Women | Religion | Popular Culture | Living, Working, and Traveling in Japan | Children's Books | Reference

 

History

Author(s) Title Publisher Date
Cook, Haruko Taya & Theodore F. Cook Japan at War: An Oral History New Press 1992
Dower, John W. War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War Pantheon 1986
Gordon, Andrew, ed. Postwar Japan as History U. of Calif. Press 1994
Iwao, Seiichi Biographical Dictionary of Japanese History Kodansha 1978
Nakane, Chie, and Shinzaburo Oishi Tokugawa Japan: The Social and Economic Antecedents of Modern Japan U. of Tokyo Press 1990
Reischauer, Edwin O. Japan: The Story of a Nation Alfred Knopf 1981
Spector, Ronald H. Eagle Against the Sun: The American War With Japan Vintage Books 1985
Yoshida, Shigeru The Yoshida Memoirs Riverside Press 1962

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Literature

Author(s) Title Publisher Date
Apostolou, John L., and Martin H. Greenberg, eds. The Best Japanese Science Fiction Stories Dembner Books 1989
Birnbaum, Alfred, ed. Monkey, Brain, Sushi: New Tastes in Japanese Fiction Kodansha 1991
Brandon, James R., trans. Kabuki: Five Classic Plays Harvard U. Press 1975
Cranston, Edwin A., trans. A Waka Anthology, Vol. 1: The Gem-Glistening Cup Stanford U. Press 1993
Hibbett, Howard Contemporary Japanese Literature: An Anthology of Fiction, Film, and Other Writings Since 1945 Knopf 1977
Kawabata, Yasunari Japan the Beautiful and Myself Kodansha Int'l 1969
Kato, Shuichi A History of Japanese Literature Kodansha Int'l. 1983
Keene, Donald, trans. Major Plays of Chikamatsu Columbia U. Press 1990
Keene, Donald Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature From Earliest Times to the Late Sixteenth Century Henry Holt & Co. 1993
Keene, Donald, ed. Twenty Plays of the Noh Theatre Columbia U. Press 1970
Keene, Donald World Within Walls: Japanese Literature of the Pre-Modern Era Holt, Rhinehart, & Winston 1993
Kimball, Arthur G. Crisis in Identity and Contemporary Japanese Novels Tuttle 1973
Matther, Robert Japanese Science Fiction: A View of a Changing Society Routledge and Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies, U. of Oxford 1989
McCullough, trans. The Taiheiki Columbia U. Press 1959
McCullough, trans. The Tale of the Heike Stanford U. Press 1988
Miner, Roy Earl The Princeton Companion to Classical Japanese Literature   1985
Mitsios, Helen, ed. New Japanese Voices: The Best Contemporary Fiction From Japan Atlantic Monthly Press 1991
Morioka, Heinz, and Miyoko Sasaki Rakugo East Asian Studies, Harvard 1990
NGS Haikai and Haiku Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkokai 1958
Oe, Kenzaburo Japan the Ambiguous and Myself Kodansha Int'l. 1995
Philippi, Donald L., trans. Kojiki Princeton U. Press and U. of Tokyo Press 1968
Satchell, Thomas, trans. Hizakurige (Shank's Mare) Tuttle 1960
Seidensticker, Edward, trans. The Tale of Genji Knopf 1976
Takaya, Ted T. Modern Japanese Drama: An Anthology Columbia U. Press 1979
Wilson, Michiko N. The Marginal World of Oe Kenzaburo: A Study of Themes and Techniques M.E. Sharpe 1986

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Politics | Economy | History | Literature | Culture | Society | Education | Social Security | Women | Religion | Popular Culture | Living, Working, and Traveling in Japan | Children's Books | Reference

 

Culture

Author(s) Title Publisher Date
Dalby, Liza Kimono: Fashioning Culture Yale U. Press 1993
Desser, David Eros Plus Massacre: An Introduction to the Japanese New Wave Cinema Indiana U. Press 1988
Dorson, Richard M. Studies in Japanese Folklore Indiana U. Press 1963
Lebra, Takie Sugiyama, and William P. Lebra, eds. Japanese Culture and Behavior U. of Hawaii Press 1986 (revised edition)
Matsuya Piece-Goods Store, compiled by Japanese Design Motifs: 4260 Illustrations of Heraldic Crests Dover Pictorial Arts Series 1972
Okakura, Kakuzo Book of Tea Tuttle 1979
Olsen, Lawrence Ambivalent Moderns: Portraits of Japanese Cultural Identity Rowman & Littlefield 1992
Paine, Robert Treat, and Alexander Soper The Art and Architecture of Japan, Third Edition Penguin (Pelican History of Art) 1981
Richie, Donald Japanese Cinema: An Introduction Oxford U. Press 1990
Suzuki, Daisetz T. Zen and Japanese Culture Princeton U. Press 1958
Yutaka, Tazawa Biographical Dictionary of Japanese Art Kodansha 1981

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Society

Author(s) Title Publisher Date
Ames, Walter L. Police and Community in Japan U. of Calif. Press 1981
Benedict, Ruth Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture Houghton Mifflin 1989
Bestor, Theodore Neighborhood Tokyo Columbia U. Press 1989
Britton, Dorothy Japan: A Living Portrait Kodansha Int'l. 1994
Dore, Ronald Shinohata: A Portrait of a Japanese Village U. of Calif. Press 1978
Fields, George Japanese Market Culture Japan Times 1988
Fukutake, Tadashi Rural Society in Japan U. of Tokyo Press 1978
Hamabata, Matthews Masayoshi Crested Kimono: Power and Love in the Japanese Business Family Cornell U. Press 1990
Ishida, Hiroshi Educational Credentials, Class, and the Labor Market: A Comparative Study of Social Mobility in Japan and the United States Harvard University 1986
Lebra, Takie Above the Clouds: Status Culture of the Modern Japanese Nobility U. of Calif. Press 1993
Long, Susan Orpett Family Change and the Life Course in Japan Cornell East Asia Papers 1987
Marshall, Robert C. Collective Decision-Making in Rural Japan Michigan Papers in Japanese Studies 1984
Miyazawa, Setsuo Policing in Japan: A Study on Making Crime State U. of NY Press 1992
Moeran, Brian, and Lise Skov, eds. Women, Media, and Consumption in Japan U. of Hawaii Press 1994
Nakane, Chie Japanese Society U. of Calif. Press 1970
Smith, Robert C. Kurusu: The Price of Progress in a Japanese Village Stanford U. Press 1978
Steven, Rob Class in Contemporary Japan Cambridge U. Press 1985
Tobin, Joseph J. Re-Made in Japan: Everyday Life and Consumer Taste in a Changing Society Yale U. Press 1994
Trewatha, Glenn T. Japan: A Geography U. of Wisc. Press 1965
Vogel, Ezra F. Japan's New Middle Class: The Salaryman and His Family in a Tokyo Suburb U. of Calif. Press 1991
White, Merry The Material Child: Coming of Age in Japan and America Free Press 1992
Whiting, Robert You Gotta Have Wa Vintage Books 1990

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Politics | Economy | History | Literature | Culture | Society | Education | Social Security | Women | Religion | Popular Culture | Living, Working, and Traveling in Japan | Children's Books | Reference

 

Education

Author(s) Title Publisher Date
Cummings, William K. Education and Equality in Japan Princeton U. Press 1980
Cummings, William K. Educational Policies in Crisis Praeger 1984
Duke, Benjamin The Japanese School: Lesson for Industrial America Praeger 1987
Lewis, Catherine Educating Hearts and Minds: Reflections on Japanese Preschool and Elementary Education Cambridge U. Press 1995
Shields, James, ed. Japanese Schooling: Patterns of Socialization, Equality, and Political Control Penn State 1989
Stevenson, Harold W., and James W. Stigler The Learning Gap: Why Our Schools Are Failing and What We Can Learn From Japanese and Chinese Education Summit Books 1992

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Social Security

Author(s) Title Publisher Date
Campbell, John Creighton How Policies Change: The Japanese Government and the Aging Society Princeton U. Press 1992
Sonoda, Kyoichi Health and Illness in Changing Japanese Society U. of Tokyo Press 1988

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Women

Author(s) Title Publisher Date
Bernstein, Gail Lee Haruko's World: A Japanese Farm Woman and Her Community Stanford U. Press 1983
Condon, Jane A Half Step Behind: Japanese Women Today Tuttle 1992
Imamura, Anne Urban Japanese Housewives U. of Hawaii Press 1987
Iwao, Sumiko The Japanese Woman: Traditional Image and Changing Reality Free Press 1993
Pharr, Susan J. Political Women in Japan U. of Calif. Press 1981
Schalow, Paul, and Janet Walker, eds. The Woman's Hand: Gender and Theory in Japanese Women's Writing Stanford U. Press 1996
Tanaka, Yukiko, ed. Unmapped Territories: New Women's Fiction From Japan Seattle, WA: Women in Translation 1991
Vernon, Victoria V. Daughters of the Moon: Wish, Will and Social Constraint in Fiction by Modern Japanese Women Berkeley, CA: Institute of East Asian Studies 1988

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Religion

Author(s) Title Publisher Date
Davis, Winston Japanese Religion and Society State U. of NY 1992
Hardacre, Helen Shinto and the State: 1968-1988 Princeton U. Press 1989
Hori, Ichiro Folk Religion in Japan: Continuity and Change U. of Chicago 1968
Reader, Ian Religion in Contemporary Japan U. of Hawaii Press 1991
Sawada, Janine Confucian Values and Popular Zen U. of Hawaii Press 1993
Suzuki, D.T. Zen Buddhism Doubleday 1956

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Popular Culture

Author(s) Title Publisher Date
Eguchi, Miriam, and Atsushi Ueda The Electric Geisha: Exploring Japan's Popular Culture Kodansha 1994
Levi, Antonia Samurai From Outer Space: Understanding Japanese Animation Open Court 1996
Powers, Richard Gid, and Hidetoshi Kato Handbook of Japanese Popular Culture Greenwood Press 1989
Sato, Ikuya Kamikaze Biker: Parody and Anomy in Affluent Japan U. of Chicago Press 1991
Schilling, Mark The Encyclopedia of Japanese Pop Culture Weatherhill 1997
Schodt, Frederik L. Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga Stone Bridge Press 1996

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Living, Working, and Traveling in Japan

Author(s) Title Publisher Date
Brannen, Christalyn Going to Japan on Business: Protocol, Strategies, and Language for the Corporate Traveler Stone Bridge Press 1997
Gercik, Patricia On Track With the Japanese Kodansha 1992
Scott, David Essential Japan (Essential Travel Guide Series) Little, Brown 1992
Weston, Reiko Cooking the Japanese Way Lerner Publications 1983
Wharton, John Jobs in Japan: The Complete Guide to Living and Working in the Land of the Rising Opportunity The Global Press 1991

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Children's Books

For Elementary School

Author(s) Title Publisher Date
Kodansha Kodansha Children's Classics Series Kodansha  
Kuklin, Susan Kodomo: Children of Japan G.P. Putnam 1995
San Souci, Robert The Samurai's Daughter Dial Books 1992
Say, Allen The Bicycle Man Houghton Mifflin 1982
Say, Allen Grandfather's Journey Houghton Mifflin 1993

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For Middle School

Author(s) Title Publisher Date
Kitano, Harry The Japanese Americans Chelsea House 1988
Masamoto, Nasu Children of the Paper Crane M.E. Sharpe 1991
Omotani, Les Konnichi Wa Japan National Textbook 1994

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For High School

Author(s) Title Publisher Date
Kuroyanagi, Tetsuko Totto-chan Kodansha 1982
Lifton, Betty Jean A Place Called Hiroshima Kodansha 1985
Nakazawa, Keiji Barefoot Gen, Vols. I-IV* New Society Press 1986-93
Paterson, Katherine Of Nightingales That Weep Harper Trophy 1974

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Reference

These volumes, in cartoon form, which tell the story of the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945 from the viewpoint of a survivor who was a teenager at the time and who lost most of his immediate family, are currently difficult to obtain.

Author(s) Title Publisher Date
Bowring, Richard John, ed. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Japan Cambridge U. Press 1993
Japan: An Illustrated Encyclopedia Kodansha 1993
Itasaka, Gen, ed. Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan Kodansha 1983
Makino, Yasuko, and Mihoko Miki Japan and the Japanese: A Bibliographic Guide to Reference Sources Greenwood Press 1996

Politics | Economy | History | Literature | Culture | Society | Education | Social Security | Women | Religion | Popular Culture | Living, Working, and Traveling in Japan | Children's Books | Reference

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