I collect picture books from around the world. Japanese books are always among my favorites. Here are a few to seek out if you want to experience a different and delightful sensibility. Most are Japanese-only but are easy to translate with camera-based translators.

Ito Hiroshi - Kumokun [Mr. Cloud]

A cloud can turn into any shape he can imagine. Not availalbe in the US, but you should also check out I became captain’s strange octopus.

Takeda Miho - Tonari no seki no Masudakun [Sharing a desk with Masuda]

Miho-chan doesn’t want to go to school because she has to sit next to a bully

Miyanishi Tatsuya - Omae umasodana [You look yummy!]

A tyranosaurus wants to eat a lonely baby 

Komagata Katsumi - Little Tree

A beautifully simple popup book covering the change of seasons and enhanced by shadows in the book

Arai Ryoji - Boku wa boku no e o kakuyo [I will draw my own pictures]

A single line morphs into  the sea and the sky and then a whole world. 

Tamura Shigeru - Yoru no sanpo [A walk at night]. A boy can’t sleep. He takes a walk and keeps growing and growing. 

All of Shigeru’s work is amazing search his books out!

Tanaka Kiyo - Kuroino [The little one]

A little girl and her creature friend go on adventures around their house. 

Noritake Suzuki - Shigotoba [Workplaces]

A book featuring the places people work. Simple and effective. Suzuki is also the author of a deeply Japanese book that most Americans might find wildly inappropriate called “I Want to Know About Butts.” It’s weird and delightful.