Lesley Downer talks about some of the powerful women who shaped Japan in her new book “The Shortest History of Japan: From Mythical Origins to Pop Culture Powerhouse.”

Fascinating stories of foreigners who made waves and achieved notoriety in post-World War II Japan.

John Stevens talks about his latest book The Lotus Moon: Art and Poetry of Buddhist Nun Otagaki Rengetsu

Given the choice, no-one ever went to Sado. For more than a thousand years, this island in the Sea of Japan was a place of exile.

AI will definitely affect book publishing, but shaping the process early on will be key.

American Richard Risley Carlisle brings Japanese acrobats on a tour of the U.S. and the world in the late 1860’s, before Japan had opened up to the world.

John Ross talks about books on Taiwan, Japan and China as well as the fate of the travelogue

31 stories of people who have found their life passion in Japan.

Stephen Mansfield, author of Tokyo: A Biography , is a British writer and photo-journalist based in Japan. His photo-journalism work has appeared in over 60 magazines, newspapers and journals worldwide including the Kyoto Journal, CNN Travel and Nikkei Asia. To date, he has had twenty books published, four of them on the culture and people More…

     Hiromi Ito author of The Thorn Puller (originally published in Japanese as Toge-nuki Jizo: Shin Sugamo Jizo engi) came to national attention in Japan in the 1980s for her groundbreaking poetry about pregnancy, childbirth, and female sexuality. After relocating to the U.S. in the 1990s, she began to write about the immigrant More…

 Sarah Coomber is the author of The Same Moon (Camphor Press, 2020), a memoir about what happened when she traded out her wrecked Minnesota life for two years in rural Japan. The Same Moon is possibly the only book about the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program (JET) experience written from a woman’s point of More…

In this episode of the BOA podcast, host Amy Chavez talks with Azby Brown, author of Just Enough: Lessons from Japan for Sustainable Living, Architecture, and Design. Brown is an expert on Japanese architecture, design and environment. He has lived in Japan since 1985. His previous books include The Genius of Japanese Carpentry, Small Spaces, More…

Maud Rowell talks about traveling around Japan, and what makes Japan’s big cities so user-friendly for the visually impaired.

Fixing up a house and living in Japan’s countryside.

Podcast host Amy Chavez talks to Robert Weis, curator of Luxembourg’s National Museum of Natural History’s upcoming exhibit, “Spirit of Shizen – The Nature of Japan Through its 72 Seasons” running from July 1 to August 31, 2022. An accompanying catalogue, in the form of an anthology, is also available featuring essays on Japan’s seasons. More…

Podcast host Amy Chavez talks with author Cody Poulton about Japanese theater, in particular Noh theater. Poulton recently retired from University of Victoria in Canada, where he taught Japanese literature, theater and culture for over 30 years. He is also a translator of Japanese fiction and drama. He is author of Spirits of Another Sort: More…

This week author and translator John Stevens joins us from Hawaii. Stevens has penned many books over his long exalted career, mainly books dealing with Japanese martial arts, poetry and biography. “A book should be enlightening for the writer, and for the people reading it.” —John Stevens   Ep. 21 Show Notes:

 Today we have with us Abby Denson, award-winning author of Cool Japan Guide: Fun in the Land of Manga, Lucky Cats and Ramen, Cool Tokyo Guide: Adventures in the City of Kawaii Fashion, Train Sushi and Godzilla  the Kitty Sweet Tooth series (with Utomaru) and her upcoming book which we’re going to talk about More…

David Joiner talks about his novel “Kanazawa” the setting of which is in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan

In this episode of the Books on Asia Podcast, sponsored by Stone Bridge Press, host Amy Chavez talks with anthropologist, shamisen player, author and translator Liza Dalby about her books and her new translation of the recently deceased novelist cum Buddhist nun Setouchi Jakuchō’s memoir Places. Liza is author of the Geisha, Kimono: Fashioning Culture, More…

In this episode of the Books on Asia Podcast, sponsored by Stone Bridge Press, host Amy Chavez talks with Kathleen Burkinshaw in the U.S. about her book The Last Cherry Blossom, and about hibakusha, the Japanese word that refers to victims of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ended WWII. Podcast 17 More…

In this episode of the Books on Asia Podcast, sponsored by Stone Bridge Press, we have guest interviewer Lisa Wilcut speaking with award-winning writer and translator Meredith McKinney. McKinney is translator of many Japanese classics such as Sei Shonagon’s 11th century classic The Pillow Book, and the 14th century Essays in Idleness, published together with More…

On this episode of the Books on Asia Podcast, sponsored by Stone Bridge Press, we have returning to the show Alex Kerr, author of such notable books as Lost Japan, Dogs and Demons, Finding the Heart Sutra and Another Kyoto. Today Alex is going to talk to podcast host Amy Chavez about his latest book More…

In this episode of the Books on Asia Podcast, host Amy Chavez talks with the co-editors of Yamamba: In Search of the Japanese Mountain Witch, an anthology just released by Stone Bridge Press. Rebecca Copeland is a professor of Japanese literature, a writer of fiction (The Kimono Tattoo) and literary criticism, and a translator of More…

How to enjoy Kyoto’s Gion Festival

On the Books on Asia Podcast episode 12: The Art of the Short Story, podcast host Amy Chavez talks with Tina deBellegarde about what makes a good short story, and why certain short story writers are so appealing. Tina has been nominated for the Agatha Award for Best First Novel, has a short story published More…

 In this episode of the Books on Asia podcast, show host Amy Chavez talks with Robert Whiting about his just released memoir Tokyo Junkie: 60 Years of Bright Lights and Back Alleys . . . and Baseball (Stone Bridge Press, April, 2021). Whiting is known for his numerous books on Japanese baseball: The Chrysanthemum More…

In this episode of The Books on Asia Podcast host Amy Chavez talks with author Wes Lang about his guidebook Hiking and Trekking the Japan Alps and Mount Fuji: Northern, Central and Southern Alps. Wes also recounts his adventures bagging all 100 peaks in the hyakumeizan (Japan’s 100 Mountains).

In this episode of The Books on Asia Podcast host Amy Chavez talks with author and translator Janine Beichman, whose translations include two books of poems compiled by Makoto Ōoka: Sleepless Tossing of the Planets: Selected Poems (Kurodohan, 2019) and Ori Ori no Uta: Poems for All Seasons (Tankoban, 2001). She has also penned two More…

In this episode of the Books on Asia podcast, host Amy Chavez talks with Alex Kerr about his new book Finding the Heart Sutra: Guided by a Magician, an Art Collector and Buddhist Sages from Tibet to Japan. (Click “more” below to see the Show Notes, which include an encapsulated version of the interview). To More…

In this episode of the Hon podcast, host Amy Chavez talks with author Richard Lloyd Parry about his books Ghosts of the Tsunami and People Who Eat Darkness: The Fate of Lucie Blackman.  (Click “more” below to see the Show Notes).  

  In this episode of the Hon podcast, host Amy Chavez talks with Lena Baibikov who has translated Haruki Murakami’s non-fiction works from Japanese into Russian. Lena has translated What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Radio Murakami and a book of Murakami’s short stories as well as works by Banana Yoshimoto, Ryu More…

In this episode of the “Hon” podcast, host Amy Chavez talks with William Scott Wilson, author and translator of over a dozen books on Japan and China. They briefly discuss a few of these including, Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai (by Yamamoto Tsunetomo), The Book of 5 Rings (by Miyamoto Musashi), and Cultivating Ch’i: More…

Author Barry Lancet chats with podcast host Amy Chavez about Lancet’s popular thriller series (Japantown, Tokyo Kill, Pacific Burn, and The Spy Across the Table) based on the exploits of Jim Brody, an antiques dealer who travels between Japan, Asia and the U.S.

 In this episode of the Books on Asia podcast, Amy meets up with Juliet Winters Carpenter to talk about her 70 or so translated works of Japanese literature including Shion Miura’s The Great Passage, Minae Mizumura’s A True Novel, Shiba Ryōtaro’s Clouds Above the Hill, Jun’ichiro Saga’s Memories of Wind and Waves, and Abe More…

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John Dougill talks about Japan’s indigenous religion of Shinto, its kami (deities) and the designation of Ise Shrine as the center of worship for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.