This book offers a sweeping narrative of Japanese history and the lives of the extraordinary individuals who shaped this modern society. From emperors claiming lineage to the Sun Goddess to warlords, court ladies, samurai, women warriors, merchants, geisha, and businesspeople, this account reveals the diverse forces that have shaped Japan’s rich and complex past.

This is an enjoyable book, giving an overview of Japan from prehistory to the modern day. I wish it had spent more time on earlier history and less on the past forty years. The book takes an anecdotal approach, which is understandable given how much time it covers in such a short book.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

I loved this book. I liked the non-flowery writing style with its clarity and conversational tone. Considering the time span and magnitude of the subject matter, there is an astonishing depth of information in what is actually a relatively concise book. Lesley Downer opted to explain why things happened as opposed to just offering a collection of dates, places, and names. Obviously Downer couldn’t go into a lot of details, but I feel like she covered all the major ones. The book is fast-paced and impossible to put down, yet it doesn’t feel rushed. This is a great book for anyone interested in the history of Japan. Thank you to Netgalley and The Experiment for the advance reader copy.

Japan has a very long history, so how short could this book be? Just kidding! Downer has done an excellent job of presenting an overview of the history and this would be enough to ground the reader and let the reader see which period they might be more interested in exploring. It's quite readable and the chapters are in managable chunks. This is the kind of book that I'd happily return to to refresh my memory on Japan's long history.

Thank you to NetGalley. The author has done us a great service with this book!

“The Shortest History of Japan” is a quick but engrossing read that spans early Japan to early 2024. Once started, I couldn’t put this book down, and is a very good resource if you’re just dipping your toes into Japanese history.

This was a nice overview of Japanese history that was written in a way that would be very accessible for even people who don't have any prior knowledge of the country's history. I also appreciated that it didn't gloss over Japan's more recent controversial history, since it seems many people today have already forgotten it.