New Books in Japanese Studies

John talks to Bruce Rutledge, founder of Chin Music Press, about running an independent Asia-focused press, the origins of the company in Tokyo, and the move to Seattle, where Chin Music now has a bookstore in Pike Place Market. They talk about Chin Music’s highly successful graphic novel trilogy on the Japanese American incarceration experience during World War II. The wide-ranging conversation is an honest celebration of the challenges and pleasures of independent publishing.

Chin Music Press books mentioned in the episode include:

Their very first book, an anthology called Kuhaku, published in 2005.

Goodbye Madame Butterfly: Sex, Marriage and the Modern Japanese Woman by Sumie Kawakami (2007/2010)

Japan’s Urushi Craftsmen: Can Old World Artistry Survive in the 21st Century by Bruce Rutledge (2020)

When the Waves Came by Michael Larson (2020)

WE HEREBY REFUSE : Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration by authors Frank Abe and Tamiko Nimura and illustrators Ross Ishikawa and Matt Sasaki (2021).

Fighting for America: Nisei Soldiers by Lawrence Matsuda (Author) and Matt Sasaki (Artist)

Those Who Helped Us: Assisting Japanese Americans During the War by Ken Mochizuki (Author) and Kiku Hughes (Illustrator)

Seattle Samurai: A Cartoonist’s Perspective of the Japanese American Experience by Kelly Goto (Author) and Sam Goto (Drawings)

The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press.

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Amy Chavez talks to Don Weiss, currently mid-way through the Shikoku Pilgrimage — Japan's 1,300 km Buddhist route that has been walked for almost as many years. Pilgrims share their journey with Kobo Daishi, patron saint of the 88-temple circuit and founder of Shingon Buddhism in Japan. Don explains his "gratitude pilgrimage," what it means and why he is undertaking it. Along the way, he speaks with fellow pilgrims and priests at a number of temples to assess the experience for international visitors. While the 88-temple route faces challenges — from local depopulation to overtourism — Don finds common ground in conversations with priests about how overseas visitors might help keep the tradition alive, and what temples can do in turn to make the route more welcoming to those coming from abroad.

Don's book Echoes of Incense, about his first trip around the ancient pilgrimage route decades ago, is available as an e-book on Amazon in English and Japanese.

You can follow Don on his gratitude pilgrimage via his You Tube Channel: Just Walk

The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press . Podcast host Amy Chavez is author of The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island, and Amy's Guide to Best Behavior in Japan.
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Offering a new global perspective on modern Indian history, Asianism and the Fall of Empire: India's Road to Freedom (University
of California Press, 2026) by Mithi Mukherjee identifies the rise of
Asianism in the early twentieth century as the origin and primary
driving force of resistance movements that brought down the British
Empire. Mithi Mukherjee ties together into a single sweeping narrative
two contrasting, conflicting forms of anticolonialism: the emergence of
the nonviolent resistance movement under Mahatma Gandhi in South Africa
and the militant movement culminating in the war on British India by the
Indian National Army under Subhas Chandra Bose in alliance with the
Japanese army. Asia emerges in this breakthrough retelling not as an
inert geographical category, but instead as a singular agent of change
in modern world history.

Mithi Mukherjee is a Professor of
History at the University of Colorado Boulder. She specializes in the
legal, political, and cultural history of modern India.

Shatrunjay
Mall is a Visiting Assistant Professor of History at Trinity College in
Hartford, Connecticut. His work in modern Japanese history, South Asian
history, and transnational Asian history explores ideas of Pan-Asianism
and its legacies, as well as intellectual, political, and cultural
intersections and affinities between colonial India and imperial Japan
in the twentieth century.
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Public Housing in Japan: The Dōjunkai Apartments One Hundred Years On
(Brill, 2026) is the first comprehensive English-language examination
of the Dōjunkai Foundation (1924-2024). Compiled and edited by Dr. Marco
Pompili through interviews and studies, it is a must-read for anyone
interested in modern Japanese architecture. The Dōjunkai Apartments
(1924-1934), the Foundation's best-known work, introduced apartment
living to Japan in response to crucial historical and social challenges
such as urban reconstruction after the devastating earthquake of 1923
and the emergence of new working and middle classes. The book's texts,
by prominent scholars and architects, as well as a series of original
drawings and photographs from the period, bring the work of the Dōjunkai
Foundation back to life 100 years after its founding. While the
Dōjunkai Apartments have unfortunately been lost in the rapid changes
and greedy redevelopment typical of Japanese metropolises, this book
seeks to contribute to the preservation of their memory and their
significance.
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M. G. Sheftall has lived in Japan since 1987. He has a PhD in international relations and modern Japanese history from Waseda University in Tokyo. Since 2001, he has been a professor of modern Japanese cultural history and communication at the Faculty of Informatics of Shizuoka University. He lives in Hamamatsu, Japan.

Amy Chavez talks about Sheftall's books on the Asia Pacific War, in particular Hiroshima: The Last Witnesses and Nagasaki: The Last Witnesses both oral histories featuring interviews with survivors of the atomic bombs.

Has Japan's 80 years of peace education been all for naught? The book serves as a prescient warning given the current political climate and Japan's complex relationships with the US, Taiwan, China, and the broader world. Recent developments—including Nihon Hidankyo's 2024 Nobel Peace Prize and the ongoing protests against revising Article 9—bring this subject into sharp focus. Against this backdrop, the author offers his own perspective on Japan's nuclear future.

The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press.

Podcast host Amy Chavez is author of The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island, and Amy's Guide to Best Behavior in Japan.

Subscribe to the BOA podcast from your favorite podcast service.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/japanese-studies