This first full length critical biography of one of the most significant figures in Japanese Studies in the last hundred years is based on an earlier work published in Japanese (Iwanami Shoten, 1990). Ota sees Chamberlain as a giant of his period, both academically and intellectually. His achievements include the first publication of a translation of the Kojiki, his pioneering work as the 'father' of Japanese linguistics, and the acclaimed Things Japanese which served generations as an everyman encyclopaedia. However, Ota also acknowledges Chamberlain's vision in recognising the distinctive merits and strengths of Japanese society and culture at a time of xenophobic Europeanism, made possible by the fact that Chamberlain was ahead of his times as a multi-lingual and multi-cultural personality.

This critical biography of Basil Hall Chamberlain, one of the most significant figures in Japanese studies in the last hundred years, is based on earlier work published in Japanese (Iwanami Shoten, 1990) but has been considerably enlarged.

Kamiya Mieko, the Japanese writer, psychiatrist, professor, and mystic, was a far more complex and intriguing figure than her popular image as a philanthropic doctor for leprosy patients suggests. A Woman with Demons corrects the myths about Kamiya's life through a close reading of her major work, What Makes Our Life Worth Living (1966), her other publications and her unpublished writings in four languages. In the first biography of Kamiya in English, Yuzo Ota focuses on her journey of self-discovery and her struggle to recover from the loss of a sense of meaning in life caused by the death of her first love. Ota explores how this traumatic event led to her identification with leprosy patients and created her desire to work for them. Few English biographies about Japanese subjects provide such an intimate look into the subject's inner life.