The 10 best Japanese novels in Spanish

Looking for what are the best Japanese novels in Spanish? You have come to the right place!

While in the West the ebooks (ePub) or audiobooks They are gaining ground to the traditional format, in Japan they remain faithful to paper books that are one of the greatest hobbies of men and women of all ages.

Every year Hundreds of Japanese novels are published in Japan, some of which are so successful that they are translated into other languages.

Thanks to globalization, in Europe and America we can now enjoy the japanese best sellers, with unique and surprising stories.

If you have not yet been lucky enough to read any Japanese novels, you should know that the plot does not have nothing to do with the way we write in the West. They hide secrets that you can never imagine!

As a passionate reader, and lover of Japanese culture, I want to share Japanese novels that for me without a essential of literature.

Some works are classic japanese books that can be found for decades in bookstores around the world. Other Japanese novels are more recent, and at the moment, little known outside of Japan.

Translated into Spanish, this compilation of contemporary novels They will help you get a little closer to Japanese culture.

Packed with love, intrigue, and with a lot of feeling, at least you will have a good time reading them. Take note!

Essential Japanese novels in Spanish

Tokio Blues - Haruki Murakami (Maxi Tusquets Editores)

Published in 1987 in Japan, this is possibly the Japanese novel that more borders has crossed along its history. One of the best Haruki Murakami books.

In English it is known as 'Norwegian Wood', 'Tokio Blues' in Spanish. So far translated into more than 30 languages after the success it had in the United States since 1989.

The events set in Japan tell the story of Toru Watanabe, a 37-year-old executive in a relationship with Naoko, the girlfriend of his best friend.

Before starting their torrid love story, Naoko was with Kizuki, Toru's only teenage friend, who committed suicide a few years ago.

Together they follow a boring routine of intimate relationships until another woman appears, with whom Toru experiences the sensation of love, unbridled sex, disappointments, and fear of death.

The three characters get into a fragile spiral, in which they seek their place in life, mixing youthful hopes with the need to mature once and for all.

'Tokio Blues' is the Murakami's best-known 1980s novel, but not the only one worth reading. Murakami's best book? Will not leave you indifferent!

Considered by many as best japanese novelist of current works, other highly recommended titles are 'Kafka on the shore', 'The death of the commander', '1Q84', or 'South of the border, west of the sun'.

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Silence - Shusaku Endo (Editorial Edhasa)

If you are more fan of historical novels, Shusaku Endo's work will fascinate you for several reasons.

This was the novel on which the Martin Scorsese film of the same name, 'Silence', which tells the story of the missions of Western Christian priests who came to Japan in the 17th century.

In order to evangelize and bring the values ​​of the Christian faith to a civilization that was considered behind Europe, the reception of the missionaries was not entirely friendly on the part of the Japanese.

The play tells the harsh reality, with a point of fiction and many real facts, with an incredible rawness. You have it available in paperback, hardcover and Kindle version (PDF).

In addition to the history of the characters, the author invites the reader to reflect on the performance of each of the protagonist sides.

Persecuted and tortured by the bloodthirsty Japanese, since the publication of the novel has been part of many disputes outside and inside Japan.

'Silencio' is a very easy to read novel, which explains with elegance and in great detail the adventure of the missionaries in the 17th century Japan.

Engage from the first page and leaves you wanting more. You have to read it!

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The Bamboo Sword - Shuhei Fujisawa (Quaterni Publishing)

Continuing with the historical novels with a point of fiction, 'The Bamboo Sword' is one of Fujisawa's best known and acclaimed works, based on Japan of the samurai.

A part of the most unknown Japanese culture for Westerners, it is described in great detail in each of this author's stories.

Specifically this novel focuses on Feudal Japan from 1603, just after the battle of Sekigahara when Tokugawa is named emperor.

After a long period of political turmoil, wars and betrayals, comes a time of peace that will last more than 200 years.

That's when the samurai figure becomes useless. Warriors without battles to fight have to maintain their honor and value in society, and they begin to compete with each other.

Enmities appear between young people looking for a new path, re-incorporating themselves into common life, for which they had not prepared themselves.

With other very interesting stories, Fujisawa allows the reader to immerse themselves in the history of the Edo period, with its pluses and minuses.

A time of changes in Japan which was a before and after in the current Japanese population.

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The Cat that came from the sky - Takashi Hiraide (Editorial Alfaguara)

Turned to best seller in the United States and France, this Takashi Hiraide novel tells a story that may seem the most banal but has a very deep interpretation.

Like the vast majority of Japanese works, turns the everyday into something spiritual, to find oneself within the main characters.

A couple who live within the routine of work decides to move to a house with a garden out of the chaos of tokyo.

From the first moment in their new home, they receive a visit from a enigmatic cat entering the kitchen, and decides to adopt them.

The events pass with the same tranquility with which he lives the new feline protagonist.

Little by little, its new owners soak up the grandeur of the animal, learning to see life from another perspective.

At the same time the reader leaves more and more hooked on history, without realizing that the words written on the paper are penetrating to the depths of his being.

This novel has been acclaimed by the Nobel Prize for literature Kenzaburo Oé, which has very aptly cataloged it as poetry made prose.

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The Nagasaki Quintet - Aki Shimazaki (Editorial DeBolsillo)

With a touch of Japanese crime novel, one of Aki Shimazaki's best novels is 'The Nagashaki Quintet'.

East family drama that you can read in Spanish it has a bit of everything. With drama, love, intrigue, and even historical data that give it greater realism.

Written with a lot of work and effort, it tells the life of Yukiko, a woman who killed her father on the morning of August 9, 1945, just before the Nagasaki bomb was dropped.

This fact would remain a secret until after his own death, when he left his daughter a letter in which confess the crime. In this letter, her daughter also discovers that she has a stepbrother, as well as many other secrets.

At the same time that he narrates the history of this family, many other historical events take place within the framework of the Second World War in Japan, the wars with Korea and the terrible earthquake in Japan in 1923.

A total of 3 generations, grandfather, mother and daughter, who gradually open their hearts to let out their regrets and concerns.

With a very delicate and elegant language, this novel is twisted little by little until finally the knot is untied in an ending that you could not imagine.

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Kokoro - Natsume Soseki (Editorial Impedimenta)

'Kokoro' has become one of the most widely read Japanese graphic novels in the Japanese country.

However, the story of its characters are based on the novel of the same name, written by Natsume Soseki, and taken to manga format by Nagi Yoshizaki.

If you like light and easy-to-read Japanese novels, this work is made for you.

Written in 1914, this classic of japan literature tells in a very poetic way the adventures of a young man who is learning about life from the hand of his Sensei, 'teacher' in Japanese.

From the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th, during the Meiji Restoration, both characters lived in Tokyo, a city that is in full expansion.

Between struggle of tradition against change that are taking place in Japanese society, the disciple learns about honor, value and love of neighbor, swimming against individualism.

This is one of the most widely read Japanese novels in their country of origin, which should not be missing from any reader's library.

One of the greatest classics ever japan literature, translated into more than 30 languages and that you can easily enjoy this summer on your vacation or as a bedside book.

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I am a cat - Natsume Soseki (Editorial Impedimenta)

If you liked the story of 'Kokoro', wait to discover this other gem by the same author. Published in 1905, it is the Natsume Soseki's first work, hardly surpassed by the rest of his publications.

Is about a masterpiece which has recently become known in the rest of the world, thanks to its translation into most languages, including Spanish.

The novel begins with the phrase that has already become a reference: 'I'm a cat, even though I don't have a name yet'.

From there, the protagonist who narrates the story in the first person, discovers to the reader everything that is around him and how he lives the daily experiences.

This is Professor Kushami's cat, experts in calligraphy and the haikus, who in addition to his master relates to the rest of the family, friends and neighbors.

The stories take place in the It was Meiji, at the beginning of the 20th century and they show the society of the time in the most innocent way.

A fun, easy-to-read work, full of symbolism, which also represents a intense social criticism for the time it was written.

No wonder that after publishing it, Natsume Soseki became one of the most acclaimed Japanese writers inside and outside your country.

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She on the other shore - Mitsuyo Kakuta (Editorial Galaxia Gutenberg)

This is possibly the best discovery in literature that I have done in my last years.

A book that tells a story a priori very common, but with such an original passion and narrative that will make you delve into the facts as if you lived them in the first person.

Sayoko and Aoi are two women of the same age but very different. Sakoyo is a housewife and has a 3-year-old boy.

Aoi is also 35 years old, is university student and businesswoman, with a cleaning service business and a travel agency, and for which Sayoko begins to work.

Although both women seem so different, deep down they are very similar. With a great difficulty connecting with people and establish relationships, they admire each other and envy the facade they show to the outside.

Until the moment they begin to investigate each other's life and secrets, which is when both women's endings converge at the same point.

This analysis that is made in the novel of the japanese women life it is actually easily extrapolated to society in general.

Told with great sensitivity, it demonstrates the complexity of the human being in a life that may seem perfect, but is always built on shaky foundations.

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The sky is blue, the earth is white - Hiromi Kawakami (Editorial DeBolsillo)

Kawakami is one of the most popular Japanese novel authors in Japan. One of his most exciting recommended novels is the one that tells the love story between Tsukiko and her school teacher.

Although it sounds like drama teenager, is a mature adult story who relive love with great passion.

She is a 38-year-old worker who lives alone, and one day she coincides with her teacher at school. He is 30 years older than her, already retired and widowed, but with the passage of time he regains his relationship with the young woman.

Two people who have had different life experiences, and in very different situations, they begin to strengthen ties until achieving a romantic relationship of the most solid.

If you like current Japanese literature, Kawakami knows like no one how to make you enter history, feeling the passion and melancholy of the protagonists.

Without a doubt, one of the best romance novels of recent years. It is very TOP!

It doesn't matter if you don't like this genre too much, because it's so well written that you will know how to value the meticulous work that the author does page after page.

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The Milky Way Night Train - Miyazawa Kenji (Editorial Satori)

Published in 1934, 'The Night Train of the Milky Way' is a indispensable work within Japanese literature. Of the most complete novels in our ranking and list.

Kenji is considered one of the best japanese authors, with novels as beautiful as this one, which is accompanied by other stories.

In this book you will also find the short novels entitled 'Gauche, the cellist' and 'Matasaburo'.

Specifically, the story that gives the book its name is a story that tells the dream of a child on a dream trip that mixes fantasy and reality.

Compared to the novel 'The Little Prince', these short novels by Kenji speak from a child's point of view, in which adults feel widely identified.

With very unlikely realities, lived experiences serve to give explanation to feelings that many times we do not know how to express.

Nothing like putting yourself in the place of children again, with a much more innocent perspective, thus escaping from the routine and the difficulties of life. You'll love it!

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What Japanese novel to read?

Find many other titles from Japanese novels of all themes through our blog.

From good novels of intrigue, horror and vampires, Japanese thriller novel, mystery, police theme, comedy, fantasy, even great classics of all time.

You will find them in these sections of our Alternative Japan blog:

And for you, what are the best japanese novels to enjoy a good read? Is there a title worth reading to discover more about the literature of Japan?

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