BEHIND THE RISING SUN—James R. Young—Doubleday, Doran ($3). JAPAN UNMASKED—Hallett Abend—Washburn ($3). Fortnight ago, startled Americans blinked in the rising sunlight and asked: How could it happen?

One of the biggest foreign rights stories in book publishing this year is the resurgence in popularity of Japanese fiction, from ‘cozy lit’ to feminist crime. Its unique qualities are not just the ...

GOVERNMENT BY ASSASSINATION—Hugh Byas—Knopf ($3). With the possible exception of Joseph Clark Grew, there is no one as well qualified to explain the Japanese to Americans as Hugh Byas. Ambassador Grew ...

“It’s all about the texture,” says the author of “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” and the new “Letter From Japan.” Both fit the bill. Credit...Rebecca Clarke Supported by In an email interview, ...