Japan is one of my favourite countries in the world—perhaps even my favourite. Long before I first visited Japan last year, I had been immersed in Japanese literature, reading novels by Japanese authors in translation, whether in English, Greek, or French. I even attempted a few in Italian, though I quickly discovered that my Italian is not quite up to the task—still, it is certainly better than my Japanese! I recently logged all the books I currently own on Goodreads, along with many others I’ve read over the years. To my surprise, books by Japanese authors far outnumber those from any other country. Well, that’s not entirely true. If I include…