The UP Asian Center has been selected as one of the recipients of materials by the Read Japan Project. The impressive collection covered the fields Japanese Culture and History, Japanese contemporary society, and even Japanese architecture. A total of fifty-four (54) books were donated to the UP Asian Center Library on 26 March 2024.

The collection also includes books on Japanese politics and governance, diplomacy and foreign policy, dynamics of the Japanese political economy, daily life and diversions in urban Japan, and the Japanese economic system and its origins. A significant addition to its collection, the materials are now available at the UP Asian Center Library.

Some featured book titles can be seen below.

ON JAPANESE CULTURE AND HISTORY

Barthes, Roland. 1982. Empire of Signs. New York: Hill and Wang.

Hashimoto, Akiko. 2015. The Long Defeat: Cultural Trauma, Memory, and Identity in Japan. New York: Oxford University Press.

Nitobe, Inazo. 2012. Bushido: The Soul of Japan. New York: Kodansha USA Publishing.

Okakura, Kakuzō. 2011. The Book of Tea. Kentucky, USA: BENJAMIN Press.

Reischauer, Haru M. 1986. Samurai and Silk: A Japanese and American Heritage. Massachusetts, USA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

ON JAPANESE CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY

Jansen, Marius B. 2000. The Making of Modern Japan. Massachusetts, USA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Low, Morris, Shigeru Nakayama, and Hitoshi Yoshioka. 1999. Science, Technology and Society in Contemporary Japan. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Nishiyama, Matsunosuke. 1997. Edo Culture: Daily Life and Diversions in Urban Japan, 1600-1868. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press. 

ON JAPANESE ARCHITECTURE

Daniels, Inge. 2010. The Japanese House: Material Culture in the Modern Home. London: Routledge.

 ON JAPANESE POLITICS AND GOVERNANCE

Curtis, Gerald L. 2000. The Logic of Japanese Politics: Leaders, Institutions, and the Limits of Change. New York: Columbia University Press.

Pyle, Kenneth B. 2008. Japan Rising: The Resurgence of Japanese Power and Purpose. New York: PublicAffairs.

Stockwin, J.A.A. 2008. Governing Japan: Divided Politics in a Resurgent Economy. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing.

 ON JAPANESE FOREIGN POLICY AND DIPLOMACY

Drifte, Reinhard. 2000. Japan’s Quest for a Permanent Security Council Seat: A Matter of Pride or Justice?. New York: St. Martin’s Press, Inc.

Kawashima, Yutaka. 2005. Japanese Foreign Policy at the Crossroads: Challenges and Options for the Twenty-First Century. Washington D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.

Smith, Sheila A. 2016. Intimate Rivals: Japanese Domestic Politics and a Rising China. New York: Columbia University Press.

Toby, Ronald B. 1991. State and Diplomacy in Early Modern Japan: Asia in the Development of the Tokugawa Bakufu. California: Stanford University Press. 

 ON JAPANESE ECONOMY 

Amyx, Jennifer Ann. 2006. Japan’s Financial Crisis: Institutional Rigidity and Reluctant Change. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

O’Bryan, Scott. 2009. The Growth Idea: Purpose and Prosperity in Postwar Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press.

Okuno-Fujiwara, Masahiro, Tetsuji Okazaki, and Susan Herbert. 1999. The Japanese Economic System and its Origins. New York: Oxford University Press.

Pempel, T.J. 1998. Regime Shift: Comparative Dynamics of the Japanese Political Economy. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.

Sugihara, Kaoru. 2005. Japan, China and the Growth of Asian International Economy, 1850-1949. New York: Oxford University Press.

ABOUT THE READ JAPAN PROJECT

The Read Japan Project was a 2008 initiative of The Nippon Foundation to promote the understanding of Japan through the donation of Japan-related books published in English to universities and libraries around the world. The project is currently administered by the Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research with financial support from The Nippon Foundation. For more information, visit their website: https://readjapan.org/

For inquiries, please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 891-8500 loc. 3586.

The Asian Center, University of the Philippines Diliman offers M.A. degrees in Asian Studies with four fields of specialization: Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and West Asia. The UP Asian Center also has an M.A. program in Philippine Studies that allows students to major in Philippine society and culture, Philippine foreign relations, or Philippine development studies. It also offers a Ph.D. program in Philippine Studies in conjunction with the College of Arts and Letters and the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy. For an overview of these graduate programs, click here. As an area studies institution, the Asian Center also publishes Asian Studies: Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia, the latest issue of which can be downloaded at the journal's website.