Kodansha USA has announced that it will be publishing Tetsuko Kuroyanagi’s Totto-chan, the Little Girl at the Window: The Sequel memoir on November 18, 2025. The new book serves as a continuation to Kuroyanagi’s autobiographical Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window memoir.
© 2023 Tetsuko Kuroyanagi / KODANSHA LTD.
Totto-chan, the Little Girl at the Window: The Sequel was originally published in Japan on October 3, 2023. The English edition will be translated by Yuki Tejima. Kodansha USA first licensed the sequel in October 2024. Kuroyanagi also delivered a message about the sequel memoir in a newly released video.
Kodansha USA describes Totto-chan, the Little Girl at the Window: The Sequel as:
Kuroyanagi ended her original, seminal memoir with a heartbreaking scene in which her beloved elementary school, Tomoe Gakuen, burned down amidst the air raids of World War II. Totto-chan, the Little Girl at the Window: The Sequel begins with her family’s frantic effort to escape Tokyo and the worst horrors of the war. In it, Kuroyanagi details how little Totto persevered through starvation and suffering to become a trailblazing actress, a champion for the deaf and children the world over, and one of the most successful entertainers in Japanese history.
To commemorate the book’s release, Kodansha USA will be sponsoring and hosting the following book-launch events in New York City:
Book talk with Translator Yuki Tejima at the New York Public Library 53rd Street Branch
- • Date: Saturday, November 22, 2025
- • Time: 11:30 AM — 12:30 PM EST
- • Location: 18 West 53rd Street, New York
- • Admission: Free
- • More info: Here
Book Signing with Translator Yuki Tejima at Kinokuniya Bookstore
- • Date: Monday, November 24, 2025
- • Time: 6:00 PM — 8:00 PM EST
- • Location: 1073 Avenue of the Americas, New York
- • Admission: Free
- • More details coming soon.
Screening of Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window Feature Anime, Panel Discussion and Signing at the Japan Society
Featuring: Yuki Tejima (translator), Alexandra McCullough-Garcia (editor), and Nathan Shockey (Associate Professor of Japanese at Bard College)
- • Date: Tuesday, November 25, 2025
- • Time: 6:00 PM (Doors open), 7:00 PM EST (Screening)
- • Location: 333 E 47th Street, New York
- • Admission: General Admission: US$16.00, Students/Seniors/Persons with disabilities US$12.00, Japan Society Members: US$8.00
- • More Info: Here
Kuroyanagi first published Totto-chan, the Little Girl at the Window as a series of articles in Kodansha’s Young Woman magazine from February 1979 to December 1980. The articles were then compiled into a book that was released in 1981, selling more than five million copies before the end of 1982. The book has since sold a Guinness World Record-breaking 25 million copies worldwide.
© 2023 Tetsuko Kuroyanagi / KODANSHA LTD.
An English edition of Kuroyanagi’s memoir was translated by Dorothy Britton and released in the U.S. in 1984. The book has been translated and released in many different languages around the world since its first publication.
An anime film adaptation of the memoir from Shin-Ei Animation premiered in Japan on December 8, 2023.
Kodansha USA releases Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window in English and describes the book as:
This engaging series of childhood recollections tells about an ideal school in Tokyo during World War II that combined learning with fun, freedom, and love. This unusual school had old railroad cars for classrooms, and it was run by an extraordinary man-its founder and headmaster, Sosaku Kobayashi–who was a firm believer in freedom of expression and activity.
In real life, the Totto-chan of the book has become one of Japan’s most popular television personalities — Tetsuko Kuroyanagi. She attributes her success in life to this wonderful school and its headmaster.
Source: press release
