He draws upon both ancient and modern Japan to paint a picture of a country without zoning or sign control, pollution regulation, a country which has destroyed its forest, rivers, and sea coast. Kerr's account is poignant, incisive, brutal and beautiful at the same time. To the contrary, he argues - with style and wit - that Japan is floundering precisely because it has failed to adapt, both technologically and socially, to the demands of the "modern" world." >Īlex Kerr's Dogs and Demons is a seminal study of how the combination of bureaucrats, politicians and business interest can use self-interest to destroy the future of a country. Mr Kerr does not blame Japan's economic and cultural malaise on its attempts to "catch up to the West".
''Dogs and Demons'' (from an inaccessible Chinese metaphor) will not be welcomed > As his subtitle indicates, he goes out of his way to catalog the dysfunctions that dominate an unhappy and declining country. >Īlex Kerr has given us a remarkable portrait of modern Japan, virtually no part of which is flattering. Or, to put it more plainly, it is difficult to focus on the mundane and familiar, but quite easy to envision the grand, the colorful and the unique. Just like many Germans for whom the Berlin wall has quickly receded into history and taken on a fairy-tale quality, >Īn ancient Chinese tale holds that dogs are difficult to draw because they are ubiquitous demons are easy to create because they spring from the artist's imagination. REMEMBER THE DAYS WHEN Japan seemed all-powerful? If your memory is a bit hazy, it's hardly surprising. The subtitle of Alex Kerr's new book is, appropriately, "Tales From the Dark Side of Japan." The latest effort from the author of the award-winning "Lost Japan" provides keen insight into the unique causes and disastrous results of the once heralded > The facts, anecdotes, and revelations will strike most readers as fresh and new. While reading it, I was struck both by material that was very fresh and by themes that were very familiar. Thanks for joining this exchange, and thanks for writing the book. James Fallows Atlantic, 2001 Jun 21~Jul 6 Kerr's account is poignant, incisive, brutal and beautiful at the same time., In 2002, I did a Japanese translation, Inu to Oni, which was published by Kodansha.Ĭhristopher Moore's blog, Dogs & Demons, 2007 Jan 24Īlex Kerr's Dogs and Demons is a seminal study of how the combination of bureaucrats, politicians and business interest can use self-interest to destroy the future of a country. Hill & Wang published Dogs and Demons in America in 2001 the international edition (usually available in Japan) is published by Penguin UK. This book gives voice to these Japanese commentators who have so far not been heard above the chorus of Western praise for Japan's postwar successes. This and other issues underlie what I - and many Japanese - see as profound cultural trouble. I found that my instincts were not skew, that Japan has in fact not done what other advanced nations have done, that, for example, the construction industry is a scale of magnitude larger than it is elsewhere.
Wasn't this what every advanced country did in order to grow economically? Aware that I needed to better understand what was going on, I set out to research - and, with help from my collaborator Bodhi Fishman, it took six years before Dogs and Demons finally came out. When I completed writing Lost Japan in 1993, I was left with a kimochi (a feeling) that Japan's concrete shrouded mountains and seashores felt very wrong. It combines a study of the financial world, the bureaucracy, and culture, to get at the roots of Japan's modern troubles. This book tells the tale of Japan's malaise since 1990. Tales from the Dark Side of Japan (Hill and Wang)
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