Job Discussion Forums

[DJames]

Can anyone recommend a good book about Japanese cuture and history. Fiction or non it doesn't matter. Something that isn't too thick. I liked "Memoirs of a Geisha", but it could even be a well written travel guide. Something for a soon to be xpat who is preparing for life in Japan.

Cheers-

[japanman]

I think this topic may have been covered before. It depends what you want to hear, the dark or the light. My personal favourite is "A Japanese Mirror" by Ian Buruma, a bit dark at times but is a very good read. Stay away from "Dogs and Demons" by Alex Kerr, after reading that you wont want to come here.

[supervisor133]

I think Dogs and Demons is a very interesting book. Yes, parts of it need to be taken with a grain or three of salt but it certainly provides some interesting theories as to why and how certain things take place in Jp. The argument that it will make you not want to come to Japan or that it is Japan-bashing (not Japanman's argument, but one I have seen bandied about often in relation to Kerr's book) just depends on your own personal sensitivity. I regard Japan as a second home but it doesn't mean I don't have questions about it or that I agree with everything that happens there. Similarly, I disagree with many many things that Australia does/has done but it doesn't mean I don't want to be here or that I don't love the country.

So to the OP, Dogs is a very divisive book. If you have issues with Japan it may accentuate them further. If you just have questions then it can be an interesting read. I'd recommend it.

EDIT : Sorry, just caught that the OP is not yet in Japan. I'd probably wait until you'd been here a year to read Dogs. It may otherwise be a bit daunting until you've actually experienced the country for yourself.

[canuck]

[littleturtle]

Shogun, by James Clavell.

Its reasonably historically accurate, a well written story, and adequately prepares you for the mind numbing obedience and total unquestioning nature of the Japanese with respect to people in positions of authority.

[markle]

[markle]

Personally, if you want to get a perspective (rather than being what to think of Japan ala Kerr and Co. )I would go for something like Taiko and Musashi by Eji Yoshikawa and more modern authors like Hiroyuki Murakami etc.

My reasoning is that authors like Kerr set out to make a statement about Japan and in the end are so compromised by adhering to that statement that they give a very one dimensional view (their own) of the country and its people. Japanese authors are not hobbled as such. They write about everyday existence in Japan for Japanese people for a Japanese reader. So if what you read there is compelling, off-putting, disturbing or confusing then you have a much better idea of how you will get on in Japan than the compiled experiences of one or two gaijin. In fact the general consesus on this board is more informative than any one book.

[Scruffy]

I'm going to get smeared for this ... but ... I loved Sujata Massey's mysteries that take place in Japan. The best reads are her first three. I learned so much about Japan and its culture as a result of reading these books. A good Japanese friend of mine insists that the author (who lived in Japan for years) did an excellent job portraying life there. The main character is a Japanese American who owns an antiques business in Tokyo. Lots of fun and informative, too!

[japanman]

I just think that Kerr's comparisons were terrible. He went on about Bangkok like it is the a great cosmopolitan place, with all nations interacting freely, compared to Japan which is......etc. I lived in Bangkok before Japan and this is far from the truth. Every country in the world has it's own problems but Kerr's book made it look like Japan has the most severe problems compared to the rest of the world. Making such comparisons when your comparison is utterly untrue and based on your personal experience of Bangkok makes it all a load of rubbish.
I just couldn't take it seriously when he started going on about announcements on buses etc. That bit was just pathetic.

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

1984 by George Orwell.

The Japan Times online or the Daily Yomiuri would also be good.

Genki Volume I and Genki Volume II published by the Japan Times.

Instead of working hard at understanding what other people think of the culture you are about to enter, maybe you should study Japanese langauge- at least katakana and hiragana and really know them before you get here (the Genki volumes listed above are good textbooks). I've actually met people who arrived not knowing a word of Japanese, not even knowing what the Japanese language looked like when it was written and with neither a dictionary nor a compass.

[furiousmilksheikali]

[markle]

[japanman]

It is very common indeed.
I would say that the educated classes in Bangkok are pretty cosmopolitan in their outlook and within business life, there is a great deal of international mixing. But as for 95% or so of Bangkok people, it's quite different. So many of them see the "farang" (white man) as a walking joke.
So, Mr kerr must have been having a good time there, fair enough, I had an excellent laugh when I was there but if you write a book about problems in Thailand it would fill a whole library. Not a good example as a comparison.

[tanuki]

Another solid vote here for Ian Baruma's stuff. I really like it.



An interesting book I stumbled across in a bargain bin one day is "Japanese Beyond Words" by Andrew Horvat. It's subtitled "How to walk and talk like a native speaker" and its departure point is socio-linguistics, which may not be what the OP is looking for depending on his/her Japanese language ability and interest in learning it in the first place. But for anyone reading this post who IS interested in this sort of thing, I'd give this one a thumbs up.



I also picked up a couple of the Kodansha books when I first got here [To the OP, I don't know if you can get them abroad]:

"The Inscrutable Japanese" and "100 Tough Questions for Japan".

They're about 10 bucks each and are SUPER-easy reads. (Note: the second one's title is just a tad hyperbolic, btw ) But they're okaaaaay as a rough intro to things that foreigners find vexing about Japan, I guess.

And irrespective of anyone's final evaluation of these two Kodansha books, they're also bilingual so as my level of Japanese improves and I learn more kanji, I can use them to build my vocab around these subject areas so that I can then talk to my Japanese friends about these issues and see what THEY think--y'know, horse's mouth kinda stuff.

[Eva Pilot]

Anything of Haruki Murakami. I am really getting into a few of his books lately.