Japan flag Science fiction books from Japan

Recommended science fiction books (11)
Travel the world without leaving your chair. If you are into science fiction here are some science fiction books from Japan for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge.

1.

Beautiful Star by Yukio Mishima EN

0 Ratings
Country: Asia / Japan flag Japan
Description:
The Osugi family have come to a realization. Each of them hails from a different planet. Father from Mars, mother from Jupiter, son from Mercury and daughter from Venus. Already seen as oddballs in their small Japanese town in the 1960s, this extra-terrestrial knowledge brings them closer together; they climb mountains to wait for UFOs, study at home together and regard their human neighbours with a kindly benevolence. But Father, Juichiro, is worried about the bomb. He writes letters to Khrushchev, trying to warn everyone he can of the terrible threat. After all, humans may be terribly flawed... continue

2.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi EN

Rating: 4 (151 votes)
Country: Asia / Japan flag Japan
Description:
*NOW AN LA TIMES BESTSELLER* *OVER ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD* *AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER* If you could go back in time, who would you want to meet? In a small back alley of Tokyo, there is a café that has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. Local legend says that this shop offers something else besides coffee—the chance to travel back in time. Over the course of one summer, four customers visit the café in the hopes of making that journey. But time travel isn’t so simple, and there are rules that must be followed. Most important, the trip can last only as long... continue

3.

Hit Parade of Tears by Izumi Suzuki EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Asia / Japan flag Japan
Description:
A new collection of stories from the cult author of Terminal Boredom Izumi Suzuki had ideas about doing things differently, ideas that paid little attention to the laws of physics, or the laws of the land. In this new collection, her skewed imagination distorts and enhances some of the classic concepts of science fiction and fantasy. A philandering husband receives a bestial punishment from a wife with her own secrets to keep; a music lover finds herself in a timeline both familiar and as wrong as can be; a misfit band of space pirates discover a mysterious baby among the stars; Emma, the Bova... continue

4.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro EN

Rating: 4 (18 votes)
Country: Asia / Japan flag Japan
Description:
NOBEL PRIZE WINNER • From the acclaimed, bestselling author of The Remains of the Day comes “a Gothic tour de force" (The New York Times) with an extraordinary twist—a moving, suspenseful, beautifully atmospheric modern classic. One of The New York Times’s 10 Best Books of the 21st Century As children, Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were students at Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school secluded in the English countryside. It was a place of mercurial cliques and mysterious rules where teachers were constantly reminding their charges of how special they were. Now, years later, Kathy is a young woman. ... continue

5.

Sailor Moon by Naoko Takeuchi EN

Rating: 4.8 (5 votes)
Country: Asia / Japan flag Japan
Description:
A graphic novel featuring the further adventures of Bunny, Luna, Tuxedo Mask, and the Scouts.

6.

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (light Novel) by Nagaru Tanigawa EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Asia / Japan flag Japan
Description:
"First published in Japan in 2004 by Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co.,"

7.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (light novel) by Nagaru Tanigawa EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Asia / Japan flag Japan
Description:
Haruhi holds the fate of the universe in her hands . . . lucky for you she doesn't know it! Meet Haruhi - a cute, determined girl, starting high school in a city where nothing exciting happens and absolutely no one understands her. Meet Kyon - the sarcastic guy who sits behind Haruhi in homeroom and the only boy Haruhi has ever opened up to. His fate is now tied to hers. Meet the S.O.S. Brigade - an after-school club organized by Haruhi with a mission to seek out the extraordinary. Oh, and their second mission? Keeping Haruhi happy . . . because even though she doesn't know it, Haruhi has the ... continue

8.

The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa EN

Rating: 4 (19 votes)
Country: Asia / Japan flag Japan
Description:
**Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2020** On an unnamed island, objects are disappearing: first hats, then ribbons, birds, roses. . . Most of the inhabitants are oblivious to these changes, while those who remember live in fear of the Memory Police. To the people on the island, a disappeared thing no longer has any meaning. It can be burned in the garden, thrown in the river, or handed over to the Memory Police. Soon enough, the island forgets it ever existed. When a young novelist discovers that her editor is in danger of being taken away by the Memory Police, she desperately wa... continue


10.

The Tatami Time Machine Blues by Tomihiko Morimi EN

0 Ratings
Country: Asia / Japan flag Japan
Description:
In the boiling heat of summer, a broken remote control for an air conditioner threatens life as we know it in this reality-bending, time-slipping sequel to The Tatami Galaxy. During a scorching August in Kyoto, our protagonist and his worst friend, Ozu, are locked in a glaring contest in a four-and-a-half-tatami-mat room. Ozu has spilled Coke on the air conditioner's remote control--the only AC in Shimogamo Yusuisuiso, their famously shabby sweatbox of an apartment building. Vengeful and despairing, our protagonist discusses countermeasures with his secret crush, the reliably blunt Akashi, whe... continue