Job Discussion Forums

[Lucy Snow]

" I believe that the construction companies would be more than happy to build quality buildings if the owner payed for quality. Just a theory."




A friend of ours contacted several construction companies about building a house for him. He asked for double the usual amount of insulation in the walls, and double-paned glass in the windows, because he's very succeptible to cold. He was told point-blank that it wasn't possible, even though our friend was willing to pay whatever extra costs would be involved.

A few years ago, there was some talk about how unregulated the building industry is. There was one home owner whose house slid off its foundation a few years after it was built. The construction company never had to pay any sort of compensation to the owner because consumer protection laws in Japan are laughable.

The construction industry in Japan is basically self-regulated, and they take full advantage of that. I find your theory about how the construction companies would build better homes if they could touching, but not really realistic.

[Vince]

I agree that Kerr seemed to indulge his hard feelings at a few points, but we all have our pet peeves. I got the impression that a few parts of Dogs and Demons were his way of getting his peeves off of his back before going to Thailand. But overall it was a good book and shouldn't be on any control lists.

I recognized many of the ailments Kerr discusses long before I read Dogs and Demons, but I enjoyed reading his detailed analyses. The bit about modern Japanese houses being ugly was nitpicky (but I agree), but his analyses of construction, education, and government were important and accurate.

He says in the beginning of the book that his Japanese friends encouraged him to write it, because voicing themselves in this manner is difficult for them. This is where Kerr misses the next step: if the Japanese can't discuss Japan's problems, they -- the only people who can do anything about Japan's problems -- aren't going to take action. Still, it's an important book. I'd recommend it to a newcomer because it helps to dispell the tatemae and unspoken that are such an integral part of Japan.

[guest of Japan]

Lucy Snow; I stand humbled and corrected. Thank you for the examples to support your stance.

On a side note:

"Japan has great customer service." Have fun with this one people. Mark

[Brooks]

I think the Outnation is a better book than Dogs and Demons.

Kerr, I think, may end up like Lafcadio Hearn, who became a bitter and disillusioned man. Kerr`s previous book, Lost in Japan, is about traditional culture, which is dying and I think it bothers him. There are many ironies
in Japan. Nature and quiet are good things, but you have to go out of your way to find them.
Kerr had lived in Japan for so long. He studied Japanese and shodo.
He knows more about Japan than any of us.

I prefer reading Kerr than an apologist like Rieschauer.
Japan has problems. I am American and I don`t care if people criticize the US.

Brooks

[Brooks]

a couple other books I think worth reading are Japan: a reinterpretation by Patrick Smith and the Enigma of Japanese Power by Van Wolfren.

Brooks

[ESLMaster]

I think all of these post are interesting!!!

SOME people (they know who they are ) "must say that nobody should call (Dogs and Demons) a "must read" on modern Japan," but I think that many people here brought out some good points about some of our wannabe Japanese "experts" out there.

I'm NO expert, but in my opinion, some foreigners get here and after a few years think that they really KNOW this place. They start to get really arrogant about being able to adapt to Japanese life.
I guess they forget what it may feel like to "not be Japanese."
(whether one is a wide-eyed newcomer with plenty of genuine opinions or long term residents with the ability to form realistic comparisons between Japan and other countries/cultures.)

Well "bravo" to you great few out there. As for the rest of us, living in Japan is a challenge, one that we gladly accept, but we aren't going to imagine this place to be any more ideal than what our own empirical truths tell us. I'm sure we'd rather be REALISTIC.

haha!
But to you "experts," don't take it personal...
I mean, it's all "relative", right!
haha!

[cafebleu]

Hi guest of japan - I rushed in a bit on some of your points and maybe sounded too strong. I am glad that this is an informative thread with everybody bringing up good points, and even while we may disagree on some points there is constructive dialogue.

Dogs and Demons is, as Kerr wrote, about the dark side of Japan. I think at times it is useful to read books on those kind of topics and I maintain it is not going to hurt newcomers to read those kind of books, too. Knowledge is power and I have lived long enough in Japan to be concerned by the lack of knowledge that is shared around - and this is quite deliberate on the part of the authorities. That is why I think nobody even need be afraid of knowledge even if what it reveals is unpalatable.

Foreigners should be able to handle this kind of knowledge even if many Japanese could not. One reason why I like Kerr is because he has an inquiring mind and the ability to critique without doing so for its own sake or because he is a foreigner who can feel free to do so.

Has anybody ever read TR Reid`s `Confucious Lives Here`? I was amazed when I read it back in 2,000 as it already seemed so dated. It was fine to write a book about Japan and do so positively - I could list so many positive things I find here were this the appropriate forum.

But that book was plainly propoganda in a number of parts, particularly where Reid exalts the lack of single mothers in Japan - without referring to the fact that the scarcity of single mothers is down to the thriving abortion industry (which gives little or no counselling to these women). I am not going to discuss the issues of abortion - I am simply pointing out that Reid quite deliberately in my opinion, omits vital information in his book in order to make incomplete, rosy pictures of Japan.

Another laughable part of his book is where he reproduces his wise gentlemanly neighbour`s sermon on how the Japanese don`t steal bicycles as they would feel ashamed. Right - long before Reid`s book was published there were people in Japan who steal bicycles, sometimes simply because if you are a salaryman who has missed the last bus then that bicycle sitting there represents a quick and free way to get home.
I lived in Japan before Reid`s book was published and I used to see any number of bicycles abandoned by thieves on the roadside, not simply by people who didn`t want to put their bicycles in the gomi.

Those are just two points but I could devote a whole thread to such a deliberately misinforming book. That book is one of the reasons I like Dogs and Demons so much.

[guest of Japan]

Cafebleu; That other book sounds hysterical. Are you sure it wasn't meant to be a comedy and just filed in the wrong spot by the folks in retail?

ESL Master: What is relative to what? And why isn't your name EFL Master? Inquiring wannabe experts want to know?

[ESLMaster]

[Lucy Snow]

Quite frankly, ESLMaster, I find your attempts at "humor" and your overuse of emoticons more irritating than any of the "experts" on this forum.

[David W]

[ESLMaster]

Hmm....
Sounds like somone is taking it personally...
Ha-ha!



Well Lucy Snow and David W,
"humor" is relative too...
So deal or find another forum...


Hahaha!

Sigh... small world... so many jerks....

Since this is a forum on Japan, Try this...
1) Read, 2) Add something useful, and 3) Move on...

Like this:

For all of you meat lovers out there, there are at least 6 confirmed cases of Mad Cow found in Japanese livestock (CNN.COM)... more than any other country in recent months. (Just came across the article dated in Feb)

So please be careful (although I can think of at least 2 people who I would like to treat to a steak dinner ...haha! )

How's that for the emoticons...???

MOVE ON, as I am....

[Lucy Snow]

Sorry, sensei, but you take things a lot more personally than anyone else does.

[buffy]

Master, if you are in Japan, you better get out quick!
You seem bitter and disillusioned. Probably one of those people who only hang out in gaijin joints complaining all of the time.

But you are the Emotocon KING!

[ajarn]

An interesting thread and quite timely for me as I just bought myself a copy of "Dogs and Demons" a few days ago. I don`t want to make a judgement on the accuracy of the book or the intentions of the author as firstly I haven`t finished reading it yet and secondly I`ve only been living in Japan for a little over a month (sorry guest of Japan I couldn`t wait a year).

What I would like to share are observations of expats, having spent an extended period of time living in Thailand. They seem to fall into 3 broad catergories:

Those that criticise everything, those that feel the need to defend their chosen country of residence on every issue and those that have realised that living in a foreign country isn`t utopia but have accepted for what it is. Unfortunately the last group seems to have the smallest amount of members.

As expats we have a unique view of a different culture and society and the way it operates. However most of us exist on the very fringes of that society and will never even come close to being fully able to participate. It is extremely easy to criticise a society when you are on the outside looking in. It`s a lot tougher when you are a part of it and your livelihood and family`s well being depend on it. Look at the millions of people in our own countries who can`t recognise the things wrong in their societies or simply choose not to acknwledge them because to do so would call into question and threaten everything they stand for.

At the other extreme there are those who have adopted the postion of the defenders of their host nation. This comes dangerously close to ideology. Something they can identify and cling to which must be defended at all costs.

That doesn`t mean those left in the middle have reached some type of expat nirvana. They recognise faults and problems of the society they live in. They even like to discuss and debate such issues but ultimately they realise that the people who need to fix or address such issues are the native inhabitants.

"Knight in shining armour" is a term used in Thailand for gaijin (farang as they are known in that country) who feel the need to rescue a poor country girl from her poverty by providing her with a new life (money, opportunity). This term can also be applied to the expat who feels it is his/her duty to right the wrongs and change a system of a country that they reside in. ie, he or she is going to rescue the entire populous from itself. For the most part there is no doubt they have good intentions however ultimately they will be judged by their actions. Call me an existentialist if you will. If these people are full of such ideas why can`t they apply them to their country of origin first?

I have read Alex Kerr`s previous book "Lost in Japan" for which he won the Shincho Gakugei Literary Prize, the first foreigner to do so. He seems to be one of the very few that has been able to penetrate Japanese society and be to a large extent accepted as part of that society. I don`t think he can be dismissed as an angry expat. I look forward to an
interesting read.