ReadingRate · Best Books · 2026

The best books from Japan

Ranked by literary regard, Japanese literature's best begins with The Tale of Genji — the eleventh-century work widely counted as the first novel ever written — and runs through Soseki, Kawabata, Tanizaki, and Murakami. This list ranks the top entries, each with difficulty and reading-time data.

A computed ranking from literary-regard scores. Japan's tradition is the oldest continuous novelistic tradition on any of these pages, and its modern entries are among the most translated books in the world; the difficulty data is where the classical and modern entries part company sharply.

1–10

  1. The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu (1010, difficulty 6.3/10)
  2. The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches by Matsuo Bashō (1702, difficulty 6.4/10)
  3. Kokoro by Natsume Sōseki (1914, difficulty 4.1/10)
  4. The Tale of the Heike by Anonymous (1330, difficulty 5.5/10)
  5. Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (1915, difficulty 4.6/10)
  6. Hōjōki: An Account of My Hut by Kamo no Chōmei (1212, difficulty 6.1/10)
  7. The Sound of the Mountain by Yasunari Kawabata (1949, difficulty 6.0/10)
  8. I Am a Cat by Natsume Sōseki (1905, difficulty 7.7/10)
  9. The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon (1002, difficulty 6.5/10)
  10. The Setting Sun by Osamu Dazai (1947, difficulty 7.5/10)

11–20

  1. A History of Modern Japanese Literature by Yoshida Seiichi (1985, difficulty 5.6/10)
  2. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami (1994, difficulty 3.3/10)
  3. The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe (1962, difficulty 6.2/10)
  4. The Old Capital by Yasunari Kawabata (1962, difficulty 5.4/10)
  5. Silence by Shūsaku Endō (1966, difficulty 7.0/10)
  6. A Personal Matter by Kenzaburō Ōe (1964, difficulty 4.7/10)
  7. The Master of Go by Yasunari Kawabata (1954, difficulty 6.4/10)
  8. Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima (1969, difficulty 7.0/10)
  9. Runaway Horses by Yukio Mishima (1969, difficulty 7.9/10)
  10. Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima (1949, difficulty 6.5/10)

21–30

  1. The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima (1963, difficulty 6.5/10)
  2. Naomi by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki (1924, difficulty 6.7/10)
  3. A Dark Night's Passing by Naoya Shiga (1937, difficulty 6.3/10)
  4. The Decay of the Angel by Yukio Mishima (1971, difficulty 8.0/10)
  5. No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai (1948, difficulty 7.8/10)
  6. Beauty and Sadness by Yasunari Kawabata (1965, difficulty 5.7/10)
  7. The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima (1956, difficulty 6.7/10)
  8. Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata (1935, difficulty 7.1/10)
  9. Botchan by Natsume Sōseki (1906, difficulty 3.0/10)
  10. Night on the Galactic Railroad by Kenji Miyazawa (1934, difficulty 4.2/10)

31–40

  1. The Wild Geese by Mori Ōgai (1913, difficulty 6.6/10)
  2. Black Rain by Masuji Ibuse (1966, difficulty 6.3/10)
  3. The Broken Commandment by Shimazaki Tōson (1906, difficulty 5.7/10)
  4. In Praise of Shadows by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki (1933, difficulty 5.3/10)
  5. Essays in Idleness by Yoshida Kenko (1332, difficulty 3.6/10)
  6. The Makioka Sisters by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki (1948, difficulty 5.2/10)
  7. Fires on the Plain by Shōhei Ōoka (1951, difficulty 7.3/10)
  8. The Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzō (1906, difficulty 6.1/10)
  9. Kusamakura by Natsume Sōseki (1906, difficulty 6.2/10)
  10. Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata (1949, difficulty 5.9/10)

41–50

  1. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami (1985, difficulty 7.0/10)
  2. The Temple of Dawn by Yukio Mishima (1970, difficulty 7.8/10)
  3. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (2009, difficulty 5.8/10)
  4. A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami (1982, difficulty 6.5/10)
  5. Some Prefer Nettles by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki (1929, difficulty 6.0/10)
  6. Diary of a Mad Old Man by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki (1962, difficulty 6.4/10)
  7. The Face of Another by Kobo Abe (1964, difficulty 7.3/10)
  8. Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids by Kenzaburō Ōe (1958, difficulty 5.4/10)
  9. The Waiting Years by Fumiko Enchi (1957, difficulty 6.5/10)
  10. Sanshiro by Natsume Sōseki (1908, difficulty 4.0/10)

51–60

  1. The Box Man by Kobo Abe (1973, difficulty 8.2/10)
  2. The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima (1954, difficulty 3.5/10)
  3. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami (1987, difficulty 6.7/10)
  4. The Gate by Natsume Sōseki (1910, difficulty 4.3/10)
  5. Light and Darkness by Natsume Sōseki (1916, difficulty 5.1/10)
  6. And Then by Natsume Sōseki (1909, difficulty 4.3/10)
  7. Inspector Imanishi Investigates by Seichō Matsumoto (1961, difficulty 4.0/10)
  8. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami (2001, difficulty 6.0/10)
  9. Somersault by Kenzaburō Ōe (1999, difficulty 6.3/10)
  10. Secret Rendezvous by Kobo Abe (1977, difficulty 7.1/10)

61–70

  1. After Dark by Haruki Murakami (2004, difficulty 6.1/10)
  2. Territory of Light by Yūko Tsushima (1979, difficulty 5.9/10)
  3. The Hunting Gun by Yasushi Inoue (1949, difficulty 6.7/10)
  4. Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami (1999, difficulty 6.9/10)
  5. Life for Sale by Yukio Mishima (2020, difficulty 5.0/10)
  6. A True Novel by Minae Mizumura (2002, difficulty 6.7/10)
  7. Revenge: Eleven Dark Tales by Yoko Ogawa (1998, difficulty 6.7/10)
  8. Coin Locker Babies by Ryū Murakami (1980, difficulty 6.1/10)
  9. Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami (2001, difficulty 5.4/10)
  10. House of the Sleeping Beauties by Yasunari Kawabata (1961, difficulty 5.7/10)

71–80

  1. Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzuki (1970, difficulty 4.0/10)
  2. Heaven by Mieko Kawakami (2022, difficulty 5.1/10)
  3. The Emissary by Yoko Tawada (2014, difficulty 4.8/10)
  4. The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa (2003, difficulty 2.5/10)
  5. Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto (1988, difficulty 2.0/10)
  6. South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami (1992, difficulty 5.3/10)
  7. The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa (2020, difficulty 5.5/10)
  8. Dark Water by Koji Suzuki (1996, difficulty 3.3/10)
  9. Out by Natsuo Kirino (1997, difficulty 4.1/10)
  10. The Miner by Natsume Sōseki (1908, difficulty 4.5/10)

81–90

  1. Battle Royale by Koushun Takami (1999, difficulty 3.4/10)
  2. The Inugami Curse by Seishi Yokomizo (1951, difficulty 5.2/10)
  3. The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji (1987, difficulty 4.3/10)
  4. The Silent Cry by Kenzaburō Ōe (1967, difficulty 6.9/10)
  5. Uzumaki by Junji Ito (1998, difficulty 3.8/10)
  6. Malice by Keigo Higashino (1996, difficulty 5.2/10)
  7. Memoirs of a Polar Bear by Yoko Tawada (2011, difficulty 7.2/10)
  8. Dissolving Classroom by Junji Ito (2017, difficulty 4.1/10)
  9. Parasite Eve by Hideaki Sena (1995, difficulty 3.5/10)
  10. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (2018, difficulty 6.2/10)

91–100

  1. Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami (2019, difficulty 2.4/10)
  2. Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama (2012, difficulty 4.6/10)
  3. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami (2013, difficulty 4.4/10)
  4. Earthlings by Sayaka Murata (2018, difficulty 6.5/10)
  5. Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami (2016, difficulty 5.3/10)
  6. The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino (2005, difficulty 2.3/10)
  7. N.P. by Banana Yoshimoto (1990, difficulty 6.2/10)
  8. Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata (2019, difficulty 5.1/10)
  9. Asleep by Banana Yoshimoto (1989, difficulty 6.3/10)
  10. All the Lovers in the Night by Mieko Kawakami (2011, difficulty 5.2/10)

Questions people actually ask

What are the best Japanese novels?
The Tale of Genji leads by literary regard, with Natsume Soseki's Kokoro, Kawabata's Snow Country, and Tanizaki's The Makioka Sisters in the top tier. ReadingRate ranks the full list.
Is The Tale of Genji really the first novel?
It is the most common scholarly answer to that question — an eleventh-century court narrative of psychological depth with a fair claim to inventing the form, six centuries before the European novel.
Where should I start with Japanese literature?
By the difficulty data, modern entries like Kawabata and Murakami read far more easily in translation than the classical works. Genji rewards a good modern translation and patience; it isn't a first step.