10 Japanese Books in Translation to Read in 2025

Let’s think about less brain rot and more brain growth for 2025!

During the cold winter months, many of us involuntarily enter hibernation mode. We seek comfort indoors, under a cozy blanket, perhaps with a warm cup or a sweet treat. When we’re nice and toasty, we might scroll through social media or binge-watch something on Netflix. Of course, these things are great, but last year, we learned about “brain rot.” The 2024 Oxford word of the year refers to the waste of brain power that results from overconsuming meaningless content. So, why not challenge that beautiful mind of yours with 10 new Japanese books in translation for 2025?

1. The Convenience Store by the Sea by Sonoko Machida

If there’s one thing locals and tourists love about Japan, it’s the konbini (convenience store). But what if the convenience store became a place where you could pick up fresh onigiri, pay bills and get life advice? This is the premise of Fukuoka native Sonoko Machida’s Konbini Kyōdai, first published in 2020. Set in a dreamy seaside town in Kitakyushu, this Bruno Navasky translation follows the lives of the regular customers and employees of Tenderness, a 24-hour konbini. If you enjoyed Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, this quirky slice-of-life novel could be your next best read in 2025.

English Translation Publication Date: Thu, Jan. 30, 2025

2. The Curious Kitten at the Chibineko Kitchen by Yuta Takahashi

Part of the immensely popular Meals to Remember at the Chibineko Kitchen series, Takahashi’s heartwarming novel explores the idea of meeting someone you lost for one last time. If you enjoyed Before The Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, you might enjoy this magical tale set in a seaside town outside of Tokyo. In The Curious Kitten at the Chibineko Kitchen, we meet Kotoko, still reeling from the death of her brother. She travels to Chibineko Kitchen, a restaurant that serves kagezen, a traditional meal that promises to reunite her with her dead relative.

English Translation Publication Date: Tue, Feb. 4, 2025

3. May You Have Delicious Meals by Junko Takase

According to one of the main characters in May You Have Delicious Meals, “Everything tastes better when everyone’s together.” First published in 2022 as Oishii Gohan ga Taberaremasuyōni, the Akutagawa Prize-winning novel questions this assumption. Instead, Takase reveals the power plays, social awkwardness and irritations of eating in the workplace. This Morgan Giles translation traces the strange relationships one character, Nitani, has with Ashikawa and Oshio, two polar opposite women in his office. If you’re a fan of the aforementioned Convenience Store Woman, prepare to invest in Takase’s equally acerbic take on people in the workplace.

English Translation Publication Date: Thu. Feb. 20, 2025

4. The Place of Shells by Mai Ishizawa

It’s 2020. Germany is reopening its borders after the first Covid 19 pandemic scare. A Japanese PhD student meets her friend at the train station. But the meeting is far from ordinary. The friend who suddenly reappears in the student’s life already died in 2011, when a major natural disaster hit Tōhoku, Japan. What follows is a mind-bending experience that disrupts the reality the narrator once knew. The Place of Shells is heavy stuff, exploring how trauma affects memory. Now translated by Polly Barton, the original novel copped the Akutagawa Prize in 2021.

English Translation Publication Date: Tue, Mar. 11, 2025

5. Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa

In Hunchback, Polly Barton’s translation of the original Hanchibakku, Shaka is disabled and lives in a care home. But she is no ordinary woman. Even though she relies on a ventilator and wheelchair to get by, she comes alive online. When she decides to tweet about wanting to find a sperm donor, her life turns upside down. Ichikawa’s debut novel won the Akutagawa Prize in 2023 for its funny yet unflinching look at what it means to be a sexually autonomous woman, regardless of mobility. Fun fact: Ichikawa, like her protagonist, also uses a ventilator and wheelchair and was the first disabled person to win the prestigious literary prize.

English Translation Publication Date: Tue, Mar. 18, 2025

6. Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata

If you’re a fan of surreal Japanese literature, Sayaka Murata immediately comes to mind. The author of the runaway hits Convenience Store Woman and Earthlings returns in 2025 with another provocative English translation. In Vanishing World, first published in 2015 and now translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori, Murata explores what would happen if couples stopped having sex and instead conceived by artificial insemination. Because of the subject matter, Murata’s novel might strike a chord with fans of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.

English Translation Publication Date: Fri, Apr. 24, 2025

7. Sisters in Yellow by Mieko Kawakami

First published as Kiiroi Ie in 2023, Mieko Kawakami’s latest novel follows Hana who runs away from home and starts living with her mother’s friend. The two open a bar in Tokyo and employ two other troubled women, forming a sisterhood of sorts. Everything is going well until the day the bar burns down. In the face of such tragedy, each woman’s true character slowly comes to light. Kawakami is the writer of the Akutagawa Prize-winning Chichi to Ran (Breast and Eggs), first published in 2008. If you want to know how low people will go to survive, then Sisters in Yellow might be right up your alley.

English Translation Publication Date: Spring 2025

8. The Passengers of Hankyu Line by Hiro Arikawa

First published in 2008 and now translated by Allison Markin Powell, Hiro Arikawa takes her readers on a journey, both literal and figurative. Aboard the famous Hankyu commuter train, passengers travel across breathtaking mountainous landscape. But some are not just looking at the scenery. Instead, some are wrestling with inner struggles. This novel promises no loose ends. The reader gets to see how five characters work out a personal problem, whether it’s leaving an abusive relationship or heading home after a long time. If you’re already a fan of The Traveling Cat Chronicles by the same author, then this is your next best read.

English Translation Publication Date: Thu, Jun. 5, 2025

9. The Dilemmas of Working Women by Fumio Yamamoto

Set for release in the summer, the late Fumio Yamamoto’s collection of short stories follows “difficult” women in modern-day Japan. The bestselling Naoki Prize-winning book was first published in Japan in 2000. However, it still resonates 25 years later, portraying Japanese women trying to juggle family, work and societal expectations in a patriarchal society. Considered a key feminist text in Japan, this is the first time the Brian Bergstrom translation is being offered to readers outside of Asia. Prepare to laugh and cry with Yamamoto’s characters who face divorce, terminal illness, unemployment and even homelessness.

English Translation Publication Date: Thu, Jul. 3, 2025

10. Tokyo Sympathy Tower by Rie Qudan

In Rie Qudan’s bestseller set in an imagined future Japan, the government plans to build a tower in the middle of Tokyo. When Sara, the architect, learns that the building will house criminals, she hesitates, having been a victim of crime herself. Because of this, she wrestles with the government’s proposal to treat all criminals with compassion rather than censure. She turns to AI for advice and inspiration. Tokyō-to Dōjō-tō, which won the Akutagawa Prize in 2023, is also no stranger to controversy. The public was up in arms when it learned that the author used AI to write a part of the book that referenced a chatbot. 

English Translation Publication Date: Thu, Aug. 21, 2025

Whether you’re after a light read or something more mind-blowing, one of these novels is sure to tickle your fancy. Which of these Japanese books in translation will you be reading in 2025?