Reddit reviews Seikai: Crest of the Stars Volume 1: Princess of the Empire (V. 1)
We found 2 Reddit comments about Seikai: Crest of the Stars Volume 1: Princess of the Empire (V. 1). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Morioka Hiroyuki's Crest of the Stars, also available as anime and manga. It's light, distant future space fantasy rather than hardcore sci-fi, but there are some interesting concepts about space travel and genetic engineering. I enjoyed reading the books, but of course I was a huge fan of the anime before that.
Also, see the wikipedia article on Japanese sci-fi. Apparently some more "serious" authors have been translated too, but I have to say I'm not familiar with their work beyond some film adaptations.
edit: Googling for japanese sci-fi novels turns up interesting results.
edit 2:
> It just struck me that all of the popular sci fi novels I have read have been anglo-saxon, is there a reason for this?
No Lem or Asimov? Might want to check them out first...
Baka Tsuki has some of the later volumes, which were never officially translated. As for the others, I've read them through the Tokyopop translation. Actually, now that I think about it I'm not sure Banner of the stars was ever translated. There was a manga adaption, though.