Dr. Mark Brazil's A Birdwatcher's Guide to Japan (Kodansha 1987) is an irreplaceable tool, and sadly out of print. This section is intended to augment and update the information in that volume with detailed current information on routes and directions, access, costs and caveats for birding locations of permanent interest. Ephemeral sightings will continue to appear in Kantori group postings.

General Comments for Visitors to Japan

Japan is not a major destination for listers unless they are nearing the 4000 mark or have occasion to come here on other business. Japan has relatively few endemics or near-endemics, and most of them are found only on various isolated islands of the archipelago; travel within the country is expensive (though inflation has been less here than in the US and Europe in the past ten years), especially if one wishes to go from island to island in one fell birding swoop, and the language and culture are not foreigner-friendly, though the people themselves try hard to be helpful to visitors. On the other hand, Japan is eminently first-world, safe and healthy to travel in. For those with the wherewithal, an organized tour might be the least stressful way to come, as almost all of the hit species are localized and promptly located with the help of a guide.

Our 17 endemic species, according to current taxonomy, are: Japanese Murrelet (semi-endemic), Okinawa Rail, Amami Woodcock, Ryukyu Serpent Eagle, Green Pheasant, Copper Pheasant, Ryukyu Scops Owl, Japanese Green Woodpecker, Pryer's Woodpecker, Japanese Wagtail (semi-endemic), Ryukyu Minivet, Japanese Accentor, Ryukyu Robin, Amami Thrush, Izu Islands Thrush, Bonin Islands Honeyeater, and Lidth's Jay. After 13 years' residence, I have seen 13 of these and dipped on two others (I would not have dipped if I had had a local guide).

The major authoritative reference in English is Mark Brazil's The Birds of Japan (1991) ISBN 0-7136-8006-7, which lists a further seven endemic breeders (they winter elsewhere) and 14 near-endemic/breeders (for which Japan is the main part of their range).

There are two good field guides now available:

A Field Guide to the Birds of East Asia by Mark Brazil

This covers the eastern Asian region, centering especially on the major islands off the continental coast (including Japan and Taiwan) and the immediately adjacent areas of the Asian continent from Kamchatka in the north and including the Korean Peninsula. Paperback 320 pages, 216x135 mm. Illustrations 112 colour plates. A&C Black Publishers Ltd. ISBN 9780713670400. Excellent.

Photographic Guide to the Birds of Japan and East Asia by Tadao Shimba, £24.99

This is the first photoguide to the country in English. It also includes the birds of neighbouring mainland regions of eastern Asia– namely Korea, NE China and eastern Siberia. Over 520 species are illustrated. The text succinctly describes the key identification features and each species has a distribution map. Paperback 512 pages. Christopher Helm Publishers Ltd. ISBN: 9780713674392.

The older English-language field guide, Field Guide to the Birds of Japan, by the Wild Bird Society of Japan (WBSJ) and illustrated by S. Takano, has been out of print for several years, and is poorly illustrated by today's standards, while the text and taxonomy are out of date. Used copies occasionally appear for sale at exorbitant prices, but are not worth the money now.

An adequate substitute for the Takano field guide is A Field Guide to the Birds of Korea (Lee, Koo & Park) ISBN 89-951415-1-4, which covers many of Japan's accidentals and rarities in detail, but lacks information on Japan's endemics, many of its pelagics, and species of our tropical islands south of Kyushu.

There are two English-language birdfinding guides, both out of print: A Birdwatcher's Guide to Japan, by Mark Brazil (1987) ISBN 0-87011-849-8, and A Birder's Guide to Japan, by Jane Washburn Robinson (1987) ISBN 0-934797-02-1, both unfortunately growing outdated, but still quite functional. I recommend using both (if the miracle of their concurrent possession should occur), as their information is often complementary. Either is good on its own, however. As to availability, the Wild Bird Society of Japan bookstore still has new copies of the Brazil finding guide in stock (May 2008), but their website and bookstore use only Japanese, and they do not mail order outside of the country.

For the multilingual, there are a number of excellent, up-to-date national and regional field guides (both photographic and with paintings) and birdfinding guides in Japanese. One good field guide is A Guide for Bird Lovers: 630 Birds (Japanese Society for the Preservations of Birds, 2002), ISBN 4-87246-532-6. It has an English index and English names in the species entries, but all else is in Japanese, so a non-speaker can glean little further information from these entries, except for the range maps.

The best birdsong set to my mind is the 6-CD set published by Shogakkan, called The Songs and Calls of 333 Birds in Japan (SNZ-480071-1 through -3 and SNZ-400072-4 through -6). The identifying voice on the tape is Japanese, but they do come with a trilingual (Japanese-English-Latin) index.