Word: kodansha
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...That kind of customer loyalty has the competition crying foul. In 2000, Hironobu Hamada, a director of Kodansha?Japan's largest publisher?told his shareholders that used-book stores could lead to unfair trade practices. And Tetsuo Okawa, director of the Japan Booksellers Federation, claims that Sakamoto, by purchasing from the public, encourages teens to shoplift books from other retailers so that they can fence them at Bookoff. Sakamoto finds the criticisms a little baffling. "I think we can live peacefully together," he says, "but they keep finding new ways to attack...
...Junichiro Tanizaki (1886-1965) succeeded in making the trans-language voyage simply by being one of the 20th century's greatest writers. A dazzling storyteller, his The Makioka Sisters, Shunkin, Some Prefer Nettles and The Key are all masterpieces. Unfortunately, The Gourmet Club (Kodansha International; 201 pages), a miscellany of six self-described short stories culled from a bottom drawer of the Tanizaki tansu, does not display the sensei at the top of his talents. Yet each of the pieces does reveal the characteristic marks and quirks of his oeuvre, both his genius and his grotesqueries, ranging from the mildly...
...much tamer and less venturesome writer. But novels such as Dance Dance Dance and Norwegian Wood have been runaway best sellers, racking up sales in the millions, and his short stories have been published in prestigious American magazines such as The New Yorker. However, Sputnik Sweetheart (Kodansha International; 210 pages), the latest shot out of the Murakami cannon, sadly promises more than it can deliver and proves...
...mention one of the best--and most idiosyncratic. Columnist Pete Hamill, in a glowing introduction to the first volume of excerpts from this work in progress, called A Diary of the Century (Kodansha; 578 pages; $25), proposes, "There are human beings not yet born who will be helped in understanding our times through the diaries of Edward Robb Ellis." Far more than a personal memoir, the diaries record practically everything Ellis said, did, thought, felt, read or saw, accompanied by copies of newspaper stories he wrote as well as letters he sent and received. This glorious mishmash constitutes an informal...
...them out for the Pittsburgh Pirates' top minor-league club. But for sheer endurance his story is overshadowed by the resurrection of Warren Cromartie, 37, who returned after six years in Japan to become a backup first baseman for the Kansas City Royals. In Slugging It Out in Japan (Kodansha International; $19.95), Cromartie, once a star outfielder with the Montreal Expos, vividly recounts his frustrations as a gaijin home- run king with the Tokyo Giants. The transformation of baseball to fit Japanese cultural norms is familiar terrain for anyone who has read Robert Whiting's You Gotta Have Wa. With...