Goossen, Theodore W., ed., The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories, Oxford University Press, 2002.

This anthology, which includes a version of “The Elephant Vanishes,” comprises short stories from the end of the nineteenth century to the early 2000s.

Henshall, Kenneth G., A History of Japan: From Stone Age to Superpower, Palgrave Macmillan, 2001.

Henshall, a New Zealander professor of Japanese studies, provides a sweeping and lively account of the history of Japan, focusing on both political and cultural history.

Ikeno, Osamu, and Roger Daniels, eds., The Japanese Mind: Understanding Contemporary Culture, Tuttle Publishing, 2002.

The editors, a Japanese professor and a British professor living in Japan, provide a guide to some aspects of contemporary Japanese culture, including rituals, myths, and ideas about social organization.

Rubin, Jay, Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words, Harvill Press, 2002.

Rubin, a translator and Harvard professor of Japanese literature, combines biography and...