Lots of cool details and vignettes from what looks to have been a very fun and rewarding career in Japan. Ritchie's vioce is playful, honest, and engaged. I wish there was more of a consistent arc though - Richie didn't keep a journal consistently, so there're swaths that aren't covered.
Basically, though, I'm totally jealous of him - hanging out with Mishima at dive bars! no fair! ( )

A classy wrap-up of an astonishing career in Japan., January 30, 2005 (revised from my review on Amazon)

Donald Richie's JAPAN JOURNALS give us an insightful, refreshing collection of anecdotes from long roster of "who's who" of post WWII Japan. Coming to Japan to take a journalist job for the US Army's 'Stars and Stripes', the author found his niche as an observer of the Japanese. He was the first foreign writer to bring the art of Japanese Cinema to the attention of the west. In the intervening 50+ years of living in and writing about Japan, he was able to get to know many of Japan's most creative individuals, but he has waited until now to share his personal stories.

Keeping several types of journals over the past 50 years, Donald Richie melded his observations into many published works: collections of biographical sketches, descriptions of the country and society, sophisticated critiques of Japanese film and even some entertaining novels. With THE JAPAN JOURNALS 1947-2004, he dishes a little more of the inside stories and gets more personal. Ms. Lowitz's intelligent editing prevents overlapping previously published works, and her own comments are well-wrought. ( )