Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II by John W. Dower

This is an amazing history that explains the Japan of today (though published in 1999) by peeling back how both Japan and the United States reacted to the results of the Second World War.
It's a complex and intricate relationship and it is thoroughly explored here.

Chronicles of My Life: An American in the Heart of Japan by Donald Keene

What a wonderful journey and what a wonderful life.

Donald Keene traces the chains of his long life (he's passed just over a year ago in his 90s) that lead from sitting next to a Chinese student in his youth to a life as one of the world's preeminent experts on Japanese literature (and quite the writer on culture and history as well).

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

What connects us through time and space is at the heart of A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki. It connects the story of a young Japanese girl told through her diary and a Japanese-American novelist reading that diary on the isolated Cortes Island of British Columbia. 

Both are outsiders - the girl who wrote the diary spent her formative years in the States so she's culturally more American than Japanese. The novelist is from the big city and living on a remote island. 

Wabi Sabi: The Japanese Art of Impermanence by Andrew Juniper

There is probably no Japanese concept more mentioned and less understood than wabi sabi.

It seems that any exploration of Japanese aesthetics has the term thrown around — sometimes correctly, and other times wildly inaccurately. It’s often imperfectly defined as the Japanese art of imperfection. But it is so much more.

Drinking Japan: A Guide to Japan's Best Drinks and Drinking Establishments by Chris Bunting

Though a few years old now Drinking Japan: A Guide to Japan's Best Drinks and Drinking Establishments is a hand dandy guide to alcoholic beverages in Japan. 

More than just a guide to sake bars, whisky bars, and great craft brewers, it's a great introduction to Japan's native and adopted alcohols and their history. 

Super Sushi Ramen Express: One Family's Journey Through the Belly of Japan by Michael Booth

When I first came across Super Sushi Ramen Express I was genuinely excited. I was looking for an interesting expose of food across the Japan. While I got a hint of that, it was a bit too superficial a journey.

There are some aspects that were great - the visit to the kaiseki restaurant in Kyoto, konbu harvesting in Hokkaido, and the creation of healthy salt.

The Little Exile by Jeanette Arakawa

I’ve always known the broad story of Japanese internment during the Second World War, both at home in Canada and next door in the United States.

The Little Exile by Jeanette Arakawa brings this tragic time to life through a unique novel that carries a lot of reality in its pages.

The Little Exile traces aftermath of this shift from normal child to prisoner through various camps and ultimately a return to freedom. It’s an illuminating glimpse inside a stolen life.

Tokyo: A View of the City by Donald Richie

It's common to get nostalgic. It seems there are entire industries based on looking back 50 years, and lamenting the damage progress has done in consuming what made the past a golden age.

Donald Richie's Tokyo: A View of the City is just this kind of look back from circa 1999 - a look at the culture and every day life that built the core neighbourhoods of Tokyo, what had gone, what had come, and what was just ahead.