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[guest of Japan]

I'm posting this because I've seen several references to it in other posts and these posts are usually bashing Japan in some way. I've read this book. I found it informative, and cynical. It was certainly designed to sell copies and stir up contraversy. While I admit that it is worthy of reading and can be helpful to understanding Japanese culture and society, I must say that nobody should call it a "must read" on modern Japan.

I find the book to be thoroughly cynical and depressing and not at all helpful in learning to adapt to living in Japan. The book is through the eyes of a long term resident foreigner. As the foreigner wrote the book he was staring starry eyed at the American bubble economy. He made no pretense to even begin to analyze the Japanese value system. To say that Japanese people like cute things and clean cut edges doesn't even begin to analyze the Japanese psychology. He romanticizes the traditional love of nature while bashing the modern construction state. He fails to take notice that in the examples he uses to emphasize the traditional love of nature mirror the construction state. I'm speaking of traditional gardens and Banzai trees. In both of these examples the beautiful nature must be strictly controlled by man.

He talks of how the construction state is destroying the once pristine nature of Japan as if it is some beaurocritic monolith of Tokyo folk out pave the trees and paint the grass in every untouched rural nook and cranny. What he fails to realize is that this is a problem that results from voter districts not representing the modern populace. The constructions state is a result of rural politicians have more power than they would if the voter districts were redrawn. Rural Japan has suffered an exodus of population and the only jobs that remain are in the construction industry. The only way to preserve the economies of those rural places is to keep the construction industry financed and busy. This is not a unique problem to Japan. Go look at the coal mining industry in Northern England or the constuction industry in America in places like Ohio and Pennsylvania. Or farming subsidies in the mid-west of America which don't actually reach the family farmers.

What I'm trying to say in my own rambling way is that "Dogs and Demons" provides an interesting look at modern Japan, but that it is an incomplete look. I don't recommend that people should read it until they've been in Japan for more than a year because it is too easy to take the assumptions of Mr. Kerr to heart without actually wondering about things on your own first. In addition, if you do choose to read it you should also think about the situations in your native country. No country is anywhere near perfect. Japan isn't. America isn't. Canada isn't. England isn't. Etc.

If you want a fascinating book to read about Japanese culture then I recommend "Japanese Business Expressions." Sorry, I've forgotten the author. The book provides a unique insight into Japanese culture without making opinions in favor or against.

Thanks for reading my rant. Mark

[Aqua78]

Thanks for the review, Mark. I'll look for Japanese Business Expressions.

Does anyone have other books to recommend? I haven't been to Japan before, and I'm leaving for the JET Program in a few months.

Thanks!

[Glenski]

The Roads to Sata (Alan Booth; somewhat dated, but it gives you a look at some of the small town attitudes he faced when he walked the length of Japan)
Hokkaido Highway Blues (Will Ferguson; more recent account of a man who hitchhiked the length of Japan)
Making It In Japan. Work, Life, Leisure and Beyond (Mark Gauthier; also somewhat dated, but a "must read" if you plan to live & work here)
What's What in Japanese Restaurants. A Guide to Ordering, Eating, and Enjoying (Robb Satterwhite)

[cafebleu]

Sorry, I can`t agree with the topic poster`s assessment of Dogs and Demons. Anybody who is familiar with other books and articles of the author will recognise his love of Japan and commitment to encouraging dialogue about those aspects of Japan that have soul destroying effects on Japanese society and people today.

I find your bubble economy comment misguided. The author is writing authoritively about different topics with a genuinely open mind and the expertise of somebody who has lived in Japan for a long time but is not Japanese. What makes you so afraid of his opinions that you recommend the book only be read after one year in Japan?

Hmm - it seems that guest of Japan is so eager to be non-critical of Japan that he or she is buying into the myths that the Japanese authorities want to perpetrate about Japan, one of which is that any outside critical assessment of Japan`s woes or any inside critical assessment of Japan`s woes is hostile and needs to be suppressed.

Do you actually know any Japanese person who is willing to share an honest opinion with you about some aspects of Japanese life and society that are not all positive, and all `we Japanese` and all face and no honest substance? Maybe not. The author has friends who are Japanese and who urged him to write the book as they said those things need to be stated. I know Japanese people who can be similarly honest.

For example, irrespective of whether or not the construction industry has positive benefits (indeed it does help stagnating economies in the countryside), the other side of the coin needs to be shown in its dark aspects. The author does that. He also demonstrates through numerous examples - please read the book to find out, the knowledge won`t hurt you but enlighten you - that it is difficult to stop the Japanese bureaucrats from implementing destructive courses of action and following these to their logical conclusion.

In a number of other countries the people or concerned politicians will halt the madness of the bureaucrats. Not in Japan. The system is designed to be inherently anti-democratic and unaccountable. If you talk to Japanese people who like to share some of their real feelings with a foreigner, they will tell you that is one of the reasons they don`t vote. They feel so alienated from the system and understand that it is gorging itself on them and their hard saved money.

One outstanding example of bureaucratic madness is the advertising whereby a cartoon figure drinks a glass of radioactive water and says it is refreshing. The author is not making that up - a Japanese person I know told me about that before I read the book. Their comment - `There is an insanity in our system that is frightening.`

I urge everybody who loves Japan but also wants to think about its system to read `Dogs and Demons`. It is a superb book and gives you information that all the glossy travel, tourist, propoganda books, many of which are by westerners, wouldn`t and couldn`t. Never be afraid of knowledge.

[guest of Japan]

If a person comes to my house and askes for a glass of water, and I tell the person that the water has a bitter metal taste, the guest will probably think so too.

If a person comes to my house everyday for a year and has a glass of water every visit his opinion about the water will probably not be tainted by me commenting about the taste of the water. By that time he knows whether or not the water has a bitter metal taste. I will either be reinforcing his opinion or he will discard my comment.

My point in recommending that the book be read after spending a year here is meant to encourage people to formulate their own opinions about Japan rather than to take Mr. Kerr's book as dogma and spend their entire stay in Japan thinking how right about everything Mr. Kerr is, and how messed up Japan is. I make this point because if you are continuously bashing Japan then you are never going to enjoy yourself here.

Cafe Bleau, I do hope you realize that people who have foreigner friends, and speak negatively about Japan are not typical Japanese. You wouldn't assume that Americans, Canadians or English people all share the same opinions about their native countries, so how can you assume that all Japanese people share the same frustrations about their society based on such a limited spectrum of people. Just maybe the people you are talking to have an affinity for individualism and meritocracy. These are traits of many Western people and many young Japanese people identify with these traits as they are young individuals struggling to find their way within the conformist corporate culture of Japan. If you ask a person who is in their 40's or 50's about meritocracy and individualism they will staunchly defend the Japanese way because it represents security.

So I stand by my point. Dogs and Demons is not a "must read" book. It is a pretty good book. It is full of insight about cultural dimensions that cannot be garnered in a short period of time. It has not helped me in any way to acclimate myself to living in Japan except to give me something interesting to talk about when hanging out in a bar with a bunch of disgruntled expats.

[cafebleu]

Guest of japan, I don`t like to oppose you as by your posts it is clear that you are somebody who has my basic philosophy - if one is prepared to live in a foreign country for a while, one should accept that country`s culture and social norms or otherwise depart. I have lived in Japan for a while and I get along well here because I accept that this is not my home country and it is up to me to adjust. It is obvious you have that outlook too so I hope you are not going to be offended by my viewpoint.

I haven`t fallen into the habit some foreigners have here of going the other way - that is, defending Japan to the point where one sounds like one of those unnacountable bureaucrats who can justify anything, whether it is stonewalling Japanese seeking justice (met any burakumin, guest of japan - I don`t think you have), or refusing to make teachers who have assaulted students in schools face the consequences of their actions. I enjoy my life here and don`t rock the boat but I am also aware that books such as Dogs and Demons tell the truth that the Japanese authorities don`t want told.

Information is censored here - when is the last time you picked up a newspaper, guest of japan, and read about how AIDS victims are shipped out to places in Europe so nobody in Japan will have to deal with such realities as people with AIDS? When was the last time you talked to a burakumin, a person who is completely Japanese but happens to be descended from somebody whose job was to clean corpses or collect trash hundreds of years ago and therefore still suffers discrimination? There are still registers of burakumin names so people can look up who has that ancestry.

Japan is not an open society and that fact hurts its people. I can`t understand how guest of japan can presume to tell me what kind of Japanese people I talk to. They don`t have axes to grind but they are people who think about things, and they trust me enough to tell me what they are thinking about some social/economic/political issues. Your way of expressing yourself when you referred to the Japanese I know was arrogant without meaning to be. Sure, feel comfortable around people who only put on a good face for you. But don`t belittle those of us who can interact with the Japanese in a deeper way.

Constructive dialogue and discussion about topics that are freely discussed in genuinely open societies is not Japan bashing. I think you are a little too eager to fit in without realising that you can be positive about Japan without being unrealistic about it. I think I have achieved that in my time here and that is why I want to live here longer.

[cafebleu]

Oh and the Japanese people I talk to are not young people as you thought. And what `staunch defending ` of the Japanese way? What Japanese way are you referring to?

There are many positive things in Japan but corruption, the stranglehold of the self-serving bureaucrats and censors, heirarchies and landowners and small in size but large in influence entrenched power groups are not.

I don`t think Japanese people like the way they are denied access to information and are treated by their government and heirarchies. But they don`t see a way out of those kind of situations.

[Sunpower]

OP - Sounds like a damn interesting person wrote a damn interesting book about Japan.

I've heard of this book.

I haven't read it yet but you got me interested and now I plan to read it.

Thks a lot.
Yrs. SP

[yattsukeshigoto]

[Lucy Snow]

guest of japan wrote:
"The only way to preserve the economies of those rural places is to
keep the construction industry financed and busy"

The construction industry has a disproportionate amount of power in Japan. And while it is true that it keeps the economies of the rural areas going, a result of this is that there is no real oversight. That's why so many Japanese live in such crap housing. There's no way the bureaucracies are going to rein them in and force them to make changes, and as long as the Japanese keep voting the LDP into power, it's not going to change. I think the government could find a way to keep the rural economies going without forcing their urban populations to live in substandard housing because it lacks the balls to force changes on the construction industry.

[cafebleu]

Good to see people other than guest of japan and myself commenting on the issues Alex Kerr raises in Dogs and Demons.

A point I didn`t make before to guest of japan - I NEVER hang out in bars with disgruntled expats and maybe that is why you have, to some extent it seems, bought into the myths Japan officially perpetuates about itself.

Your buying into the Japan myths seems to me to be a reaction to the sometimes childish objections some foreigners who cannot accept that Japan is not their country have about its customs, culture and daily life realities. I can understand your counter reaction which is to defend Japan, but you can appreciate and enjoy this country without being a mouthpiece for the standard Japanese way of dismissing any opinon which doesn`t follow the official line.

I am not criticising the way in which the Japanese prefer the group over the individual, but I think it is obvious that Japanese burakumin (whose crime is to have had ancestorswho performed work that the Japanese system considered unclean) criticising the system have much more validity than your superficial comments about young people in Japan who are more individualistic.

And Japanese people who are actually Japanese but whose grandfather or grandfather`s father was Korean, and who still cannot vote. That kind of enduring discrimination should not be tolerated as the Japanese way, even if it does give some Japanese `security` to feel superior to others. Note I say `some`, for given that so much information is witheld from the Japanese people, and given that the government does not want to talk about or change such situations, one can understand the average Japanese person not thinking about such issues. And that is what Dogs and Demons is about to a large extent.

[Lucy Snow]

I had a conversation with a middle-aged Japanese man about this issue. He had been very interested in hearing about all of the terrible things that the US has done to its minorities--blacks, Native Americans, etc. I admitted that the US's record in this respect was incredibly bad, but that there were people who were dedicated to righting the wrongs of the past.

Then I said, "But Japan has the same problems--the burakumin, the Koreans. Tell me about them."

Sharp intake of air. "I don't know very much about that."

"Well, what's your opinion, then?"

"I have never read anything about it."

"But Koreans and burakumin are descriminated against in Japan. It's the same thing that the US has done (and is still doing) to blacks."

"But it's different here. They're Korean." As if that explained everything.

I had variations of this conversation again and again while in Japan. Anytime someone would bring up the US's poor record in civil rights, I would try to get them to see the parallels to Japan. The people I met were either unwilling, or unable, to do this.

Of course, this is not to imply that Japan has the franchise on rednecks.

[Sunpower]

[Guest]

(intake of air through the teeth) muzakashi deshyou.

Yes, I'm also a victim of the sideways head tilt. If you want to communicate in Japanese you should take on the mannerisms too.

[guest of Japan]

I was hoping a few people would jump into this thread and I thank everyone for doing so.

I hope I can clear up a few things about my points.

I never accused Alex Kerr of Japan bashing. I accused him of writing an informative and cynical book. It is a good book.

I wouldn't accuse anyone who has written in on this thread of Japan bashing either. The things that have been written have been clearly thought out and are well informed. (I might accuse some of you of guest of Japan bashing, ha ha)

I also don't consider myself to be an apologist for Japan. I recommended that people think critically and comparatively when reading Dogs and Demons. Mr Nantoka shigoto: good point, I should have just used the words read critically. Maybe I'm a victim of overbelief in my own rhetoric.

Cafebleu: I think I spelled your name correctly this time. Sorry about that before. I was under some pretty heavy cold medicine. I don't think that I expressed myself very clearly to you, and I did not intend to come across as arrogant to you (I meant to be arrogant to genuinly underinformed Japan bashers.) What I meant about the people you are talking to is that they are probably very dynamic and insightful people and therefore not the norm of any country. Other than some also seemingly arrogant assumptions about me your take on Japanese society appears very sound. You're obviously a very clever person.

Lucy Snow: As I tried to express when I wrote about the archaic Japanese voter districts; the Japanese government does not represent urban people.
So, you will get substandard housing in Tokyo. In addition to that neighborhood political organizations are only common in rich neighborhoods, so there is no collective political power to protect you from substandard housing. I'm personally more apt to blame the landed elite which build the housed and apartments than the construction companies. I believe that the construction companies would be more than happy to build quality buildings if the owner payed for quality. Just a theory.

I still stand by my original post. I think it's pretty obvious that no one who has interceded so far applies to my words of caution. I wrote it because of some of the posts I've seen on Dave's and other forums and things I've heard from places, particulary from newbie's. The things I've heard and read tend to be bigoted and ill-informed and when the person is called on to back-up their statements the resounding support is: "Go read Dogs and Demons by Alex Kerr. That book tells you exactly how f**** up Japan is."

That's why I recommend trying to adapt a little to Japan before you try to create an image of its inferiority.

Maybe I've cleared nothing up, but my fingers are tired. Adios. Mark