In writing "Pure Invention," I stuck as much as possible to Japanese-language sources, because I wanted to give the creators and consumers of Japan a direct say. But I also relied on (or was inspired by) many English-language resources, and I'd like to highlight a few. (1/?) 
“The Influence of Japanese Art on Design,” by Hannah Sigur, is a richly illustrated tome that explains how profoundly Japanese sensibilities came to inflect Western design at the turn of the 20th century. Many surprises in here. amazon.com/gp/product/158…
John Dower’s “Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II” (2000) is THE book on immediate postwar history. It’s a deftly written exploration of how a motley mix of pardoned war criminals and American military advisors rebuilt Japan. wwnorton.com/books/Embracin…
David Scheff’s 1993 “Game Over: How Nintendo Zapped an American Industry, Captured Your Dollars, and Enslaved Your Children” is, in spite of a cringe-worthy title & cover, the best look at the early days and rapid rise of Nintendo of America. Out of print.
Christine Yano’s 2003 “Tears of Longing” is one of the few books on enka ballads in English (and her “Pink Globalization” is a great read on the rise of kawaii culture as seen from viewpoint of Western fans.) hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?is…
The 2016 “Power Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life,” by @kobunheat, is just a great dive into the history of how Japanese games came to dominate the global consciousness. amazon.com/gp/product/048…
The gloriously illustrated 2007 “Japanese Schoolgirl Inferno: Tokyo Teen Fashion Subculture Handbook” by @patrick_macias and Izumi Evers is something I return to again and again when I need to visualize what vintage street fashions actually looked like. amazon.com/gp/product/081…
The 2016 “Japanese Schoolgirl Confidential: How Teenage Girls Made a Nation Cool” by @brian_ashcraft is a more narrative-focused look at the topic by a reporter who contributed to Wired’s famed "Japanese Schoolgirl Watch."
amazon.com/gp/product/080…
amazon.com/gp/product/080…
“Anime’s Media Mix: Franchising Toys and Characters in Japan” (@msteinbrg, 2012) is an engagingly written academic exploration of its topic. If you want to understand how entertainment is merchandized in Japan, this is the book.
upress.umn.edu/book-division/…
upress.umn.edu/book-division/…
If you read any one book about Japanese fashion, it should be “Ametora: How Japan Saved American Style” by @wdavidmarx (2016). It's about Japanese fashionistas localizing foreign styles, redefining cool factor for the West in the process. basicbooks.com/titles/w-david…
Jonathan Clement’s “Anime: A History” is the exceedingly rare English-language book on anime that explores the medium from the perspective of how it was actually made in its home country, rather than how it was consumed abroad.
bloomsbury.com/uk/anime-97818…
bloomsbury.com/uk/anime-97818…
Andrew C McKevitt's (@drewmckevitt) “Consuming Japan: Popular Culture and the Globalizing of 1980s America” from 2017 is an amazing exploration of how Japanese cars, foods, and entertainment percolated into the U.S. I LOVE the discussion of VCRs.
uncpress.org/book/978146963…
uncpress.org/book/978146963…
Dale Beran's (@daleberan) “It Came From Something Awful: How a Toxic Troll Army Accidentally Memed Donald Trump into Office” isn’t specifically Japanese-oriented, but it is a tightly written exploration of how 4chan came to dominate political discourse. us.macmillan.com/books/97812501…
Patrick Galbraith’s 2019 “Otaku and the Struggle for Imagination in Japan” is the latest from the English-speaking world’s authority on the topic of hyperconsumers of pop culture. amazon.com/gp/product/147…
Susan Napier's highly entertaining and informative "Miyazakiworld" is one of precious few deep dives on director Hayao Miyazaki & Studio Ghibli, much of it based on direct interviews. amazon.com/gp/product/030…
The 80s-vintage "Made in Japan," by Akio Morita, is that rarest of beasts: the story of the founding of Sony by an actual co-founder. It's a little scattershot, and there are no footnotes, but the anecdotes are straight from the horse's mouth. amazon.com/gp/product/381…
(Whoops, that's "Jonathan Clements," no apostrophe!)
Next up: a tweetstorm of favorite books on Japan in translation? Any interest?
