Hi all! Long time lurker, thought I'd throw in my experience so far! Subfield is Japanese media and film.
Last year was a total shut out for me (8r), but my application wasn't as strong as it could be. So this cycle, I really polished up a section of my MA thesis for my writing sample, spent a lot of time individualizing my cover letters and... Immediately got rejected by Chicago and Michigan Anne-Arbor lol.
I also applied to UCSB, USC, Minnesota, and University of Texas-Austin. Haven't heard a word from any of them, and I know UCSB and USC typically do interviews, so I've basically written them off. Refreshing the portals five times a minute surprisingly has not helped my anxiety!
As a fair warning: I got my MA at WashU and intended to go straight to their PhD program, but the entire department is a mess. They won't have ANY tenure-track modern Japanese literature professors next year and the chair of the department is very difficult to work with (if you're not in their subfield you may as well not exist). The Korean side just lost most of their resources due to the librarian leaving, and the Chinese track is full of internal politics. Practically everyone in the department said I shouldn't even bother applying. Getting any offer is a miracle, but if it's from WashU... Well, I can answer any questions in DM.