At the same time the country has embraced foreign institutions from baseball to barber shops. Yet for centuries under the rule of the shoguns, the islands were largely sealed off from the outside world. In charting a course between openness and insularity, Japan has found a way to become ultra-modern while breathing new life into its own unique traditions.

In The Shortest History of Japan, Lesley Downer brings an expert storyteller’s eye to the sweep of Japanese history. Here are the emperors and warlords, the samurai and women warriors, the merchants and geisha who shaped this extraordinary modern society.

From the hunter-gatherers who fashioned the world’s first pots to the novel-writing ladies of the eleventh-century Heian court, from the devastation of Hiroshima to today’s economic and cultural powerhouse, this is an indispensable, riveting history of the land of the rising sun.
 
'Downer covers a vast amount of territory… shamans and shoguns, geishas and courtesans, samurai warriors and hardheaded businessmen… This concise volume brilliantly fills the gaps in our knowledge.’ NICK RENNISON, The Mail on Sunday

‘A terrific overview of Japan’s long and rich history… covers an astonishing amount of ground.’  Peter Frankopan
 
‘Brisk, brilliant and compulsively readable… Downer takes us from the ancient archipelago to the vexed present day, via shamans, shoguns, ‘modern girls’ and Super Mario. Highly recommended’  Christopher Harding

‘Lesley Downer has a novelist’s flair for bringing the past to life in all its variety, evoking fashion, art, religions, vivid incidents and astonishing personalities, with a welcome emphasis on the importance of women’  John Man