* The Island of Kyushu (1973)
* Japan (1974)
* Genji Days (1977)
* Low City, High City: Tokyo from Edo to the Earthquake (1983)
* Kikyō: Poems of Nakahara Chūya (1985)
* This Country, Japan (1991)
* Tokyo Rising: The City Since the Great Earthquake of 1923 (1991)
* Tanizaki (1994)
* Tokyo Central: A Memoir (2000)
* The Last Great Island: An Epic Story of Japan's Nineteenth-Century Transformation (2002)
* Ashikaga Yoshimasa and Silver Pavilion: The Creation of the Soul of Japan (2005)
Translations:
* The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu (1976)
* The Gossamer Years by Fumiko Enchi (1981)
* Kesa and Morito by Ozaki Kōyō (1982)
* Botchan by Natsume Sōseki (1984)
* Kokoro by Natsume Sōseki (1991)
* Light and Darkness by Natsume Sōseki (1993)
* Sanshirō by Natsume Sōseki (1995)
* Grass on the Wayside by Naoya Shiga (1997)
* The Makioka Sisters by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki (1998)
* The Makioka Sisters: A Novel of Modern Japan by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki (2003)