Subscribe to the BOA podcast here Episode Notes Amy discusses the relationship between anti-foreign sentiment, overtourism, and tourist manners in Japan. Protests in Kyoto, Kamakura, and Tokyo claim that overtourism negatively impacts the daily lives of locals. Right-wing populist groups like the Sanseito party further use overtourism to fuel anti-foreign sentiment. With Japan’s aging population, More…

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 for the deposed, disgraced or just plain distrusted — ex-emperors, aristocrats, poets, priests and convicted criminals alike.

Subscribe to the BOA podcast here Robert Norris has lived in Japan since 1983, mostly in Dazaifu, near Fukuoka in Kyushu. After retiring from university teaching in 2016, he returned to his long-standing passion for writing. The result was a heartfelt memoir about his life – and his mother’s – titled: The Good Lord Willing More…

Subscribe to the BOA podcast here Show Notes In a tribute to the 2026 Winter Olympics, Amy discusses previous Washington Post Tokyo Bureau Chief T.R. Reid’s guidebook called Ski Japan! (Kodansha, 1993). Japan has hosted the Winter Olympics 2 times: 1972 (Sapporo) and 1998 (Nagano). T.R. Reid lived in Japan for five years during the More…

Subscribe to the BOA podcast here Show Notes John Ross talks to Lee Moore about his book, China’s Backstory: The History Beijing Doesn’t Want You to Read (2025, Unsung Voices Books). The book looks at the four important China-related stories that often make headlines: Taiwan, Xinjiang, the Chinese economy, and Hong Kong. In this conversation, More…

Subscribe to the BOA podcast here Amy muses on the death of guidebooks due to the internet and reminisces about some oldies but goodies on Japan, from John Murray’s Handbook for Travellers in Japan (1891) to more recent guidebooks specializing in hiking mountains and pilgrimages. Books Mentioned John Murray’s Handbook for Travellers in Japan (1890’s) More…

Subscribe to the Books on Asia podcast The Man Who Loved China by Simon Winchester (with Tim McGirk) John Ross talks with Tim McGirk about Simon Winchester’s masterpiece, The Man Who Loved China. That man was Joseph Needham, an eccentric Cambridge biochemist who traveled through war-torn China to document the nation’s scientific heritage. The ensuing More…

Subscribe to the Books on Asia podcast This episode of the Books on Asia podcast introduces new fiction and non-fiction on Japan to be published this year, along with two upcoming books on Taiwan. We present the books here in the order they appear on the podcast. Listen to the episode for more information on More…

Subscribe to the Books on Asia podcast Thomas Bird was living in Southern China when he decided to explore the country by train and write a book about it. He first attempts to trace the steps of Bruce Chatwin after reading an article of his in the New York Times, but eventually decides to just More…

Subscribe to the Books on Asia podcast Episode Notes The 1910 Japan-Britain Exhibition – with Formosa Files In this special crossover episode, John Ross and Eryk Michael Smith from Formosa Files: the History of Taiwan Podcast explore how Japan showcased its “model colony” of Formosa (1895–1945). First up is the 1910 Japan–British Exhibition in London, More…

In 1997, Amy moved to a small island of just 950 people in Japan’s Seto Inland Sea. She rented an akiya (empty house) from a widow whose soldier-husband had died in WWII. When Amy clears out the old woman’s possessions she becomes fascinated with the woman, her life of hardship, and her will to overcome the Japan’s wartorn past.In 1997, Amy moved to a small island of just 950 people in Japan’s Seto Inland Sea. She rented an akiya (empty house) from a widow whose soldier-husband had died in WWII. Six years later, when the widow dies, Amy purchases her home and must finally clear out the old woman’s possessions. This is when Amy becomes fascinated with the woman, her life of hardship, and her will to overcome the past.

Subscribe to the Books on Asia podcast Episode Notes John Ross, during his schoolboy days in New Zealand, was interested in far-flung places such as South America, Papua New Guinea, Ancient Greece and Rome, as well as books on World War One and Two. He read a lot of youth fiction starting at 10 years More…

Subscribe to the Books on Asia podcast Episode Summary Lan Su Garden is a magnificent Ming scholar garden in downtown Portland, Oregon. It opened in 2000, a collaboration between sister cities Portland and Suzhou, hence the name: Lan Su. Photographer and local resident Carol Isaak found refuge there during the Covid pandemic, fell in love More…

Korea’s several thousand islands and the English-language books written about them.

Subscribe to the Books on Asia podcast Episode Summary Looking for a great gift for a book-lover? We’ve got you covered! From coffee table books to fiction, historical fiction and expat accounts of life in Asia, Amy Chavez and John Ross weigh in on their favorites. Episode Notes Books discussed in this episode, in order More…

Subscribe to the Books on Asia podcast Episode Summary Super translator Ted Goossen talks about everything from first landing in Japan in 1968 to the differences between translating Haruki Murakami and Hiromi Kawakami, especially the complexities of Hiromi Kawakami’s latest book The Third Love. Episode Notes Amy has a deep discussion with Ted Goossen about More…

Sam Baldwin’s travel book recommendations and his new review website dedicated to travelogues and travel memoirs: https://travelmemoir.review

What’s it Like to Live in China? Mark Kitto on China Running Dog

The Wondrous Elixir of the Two Chinese Lovers

Subscribe to the Books on Asia podcast Amy Chavez sits down with Lauren Scharf of The Minka Preservation Society (MINKA), an organization dedicated to preserving traditional farm houses and townhouses that retain the cultural essence of Japan’s past.   Lauren Scharf talks about minka, kominka and akiya houses in Japan and how to tell the More…

The Dutch East India Company’s presence In Formosa (1624-1662) came to an end after a series of battles and an epic nine-month siege by the Ming loyalist warlord Koxinga (aka Zheng Chenggong), A Tale of Three Tribes tells the story of the Dutch, the Chinese, and the Indigenous Siraya people.

 Subscribe to the Books on Asia podcast Today I sit down with Sally Burdon, a bookseller at Asia Bookroom in Canberra, Australia, which specializes in rare and secondhand books. From Japanese woodblock prints to Chinese classics and Taiwanese travelogues, Asia Bookroom is a treasure trove for readers and collectors alike. Asia Bookroom exhibits their More…

The wild, true story of cyber-era commerce, crime, cold-hard cash, and one of the greatest heists in history.

Mansfield introduces his just-released book The Modern Japanese Garden (Thames & Hudson, 2025)

John Ross and Chris Tharp banter about books on Korea.

 Today we talk with  Héctor García. Born in Spain, García has lived in Japan for the past two decades. He is author of A Geek in Japan, The Magic of Japan and the bestselling Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life, among other books. Today, he discuss his recent release Spirit More…

Marty Friedman is a multi-platinum recording artist and government-appointed Ambassador to Japan Heritage

Verteran translator Ginny Takemori talks about the translation of Mayumi Inaba’s book “Mornings Without Mii”

Before Okinawa, the independent Ryukyu Kingdom existed for 400 years. What was this island nation like?

Author Igor Prussa and BOA podcast host Amy Chavez talk about some Japanese scandals that have gone global, and why. #Unification Church #Olympus #Nissan

Baye McNeil talks about his new book Word by Baye, Art by Miki and discusses racism in Japan.

Pronko delves into Tokyo’s dynamism to show what it’s like living with Japanese food, seasons, ceremonies, and special moments he calls “small intensities.”

Sword expert Paul Martin talks Japanese Swords and Armor

Burritt Sabin tells fascinating true stories that take place in Yokohama and Kamakura

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.