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scheu's review against another edition
4.0
Kerr is perfect for people who want a realistic look at Japan, as opposed to the majority of available books which paint a rosy yet idealized picture. Thank goodness I read this before I made it to Japan expecting wall-to-wall shrines and stands of bamboo. This is not to say that I won't still seek them out, but I'll understand why the bamboo stands are cedar and the shrine is surrounded by concrete on all sides.
tucholsky's review against another edition
4.0
Japan is the Mike Yarwood of countries. Huge in the mid 70s the british impressionist Mike Yarwood played a stellar cast of actors, singers, politicians, sports commentators (yeah it was Britain in the 70s). He looked like all of them but rarely sounded like any of them....and so Japan. Looking the picture but the debt, corruption, class and status conscious, cluelessness and aping of the west rather than understanding and challenging ir, reality is a very different story. A harsh reality from which it comes to an agreement with itself that it must never mention, must hide, bury under insane social ettiquettes and believing its own myth. A harsh reality that Alex Kerr describes very lucidly with good supporting examples that demonstrate the malaise is not one off examples but deeply ingrained and passed on from generation to generation as surely as they hated the social mores when they were younger but now need them to subjugate those who would overtake them.
Yarwood eventually slipped into the same obscurity of most of his characters and younger more professional and detrrmined impressionists with greater versatility took over. And so, Japan, i hope the Alex Kerrs of the modern era can still describe the country they love but find unfathomable in its rejection of real progress and reform
Yarwood eventually slipped into the same obscurity of most of his characters and younger more professional and detrrmined impressionists with greater versatility took over. And so, Japan, i hope the Alex Kerrs of the modern era can still describe the country they love but find unfathomable in its rejection of real progress and reform
ac130j's review against another edition
5.0
God this was interesting. Explained many cultural curiosities and tied early 21st century Japan to the attitudes of the Meiji Reformation, Taisho Renaissance, and MacArthur's destruction of the military/robber baron system of the second world war. Particularly fascinating were the descriptions of construction programs and the strange marriage of excess and stagnation which marks the ministries and popular culture.
Kerr did a great job with this. The book is honest and heartfelt, if a bit outdated by now. He conveys an understanding of Japan as a deliberately hyper-bureaucratic state, and my only critique is that he perhaps does not see how much of that intent was imposed upon Japan by western powers after the war - even if it was received willingly by the Japanese government.
Kerr did a great job with this. The book is honest and heartfelt, if a bit outdated by now. He conveys an understanding of Japan as a deliberately hyper-bureaucratic state, and my only critique is that he perhaps does not see how much of that intent was imposed upon Japan by western powers after the war - even if it was received willingly by the Japanese government.
rhywia's review against another edition
1.0
This book, introduces eye-opening points in the first 20 pages, and then repeats it for 385 pages. Not interesting after the first 20 pages. Stopped halfway and skimmed the rest.
colleen27's review against another edition
3.0
Kerr presents a very different view of Japan than one usually sees in Western literature, and one that I found both fascinating and horrifying. At times, it felt like he stretched the statistics and facts to suit his position, but he raised some incisive points about the impact of bureaucracies and rigid social norms on innovation and expression.
peachiepeachie's review
The book was originally published in 2001 so quite a lot has changed since it was written. Its extremely out of date when it mentions Japan's lack of a tourist trade and how this is unlikely to ever develop... When cities like Kyoto are now overwhelmed by tourists. Seemed a but pointless to pursue while wondering how true the points made now are.
jeeleongkoh's review
4.0
Alex Kerr's Dogs and Demons (published in 2001) is a polemic against the wrong direction that Japan has taken in the closing decades of the last century. The charge sheet looks serious. Excessive construction is destroying the environment. Bureaucrats are enriching themselves at the expense of national interest. The country is piling up its national debt but losing its technological edge. Schools are teaching rote-learning and social conformity. Culture has degenerated into manga and anime, plastic flower-arrangement and context-less architecture. The unremittingly bleak picture makes me doubt that I visited the same country last summer that the author is describing. Still, I remember things in retrospect that fit with Kerr's picture. The Kamo River in Kyoto was barricaded on both sides by concrete embankment. Pachinko parlors contributed to the noise pollution in Shinjuku in Tokyo, where we stayed. Manga took up more than half of the shelves of the bookshop in one train station. The culture of cute, or kawaii, was evident everywhere. But I went to Japan to launch the Japanese translation of my Pillow Book, my homage to Sei Shonagon. The launch was well-attended by a youngish crowd, who listened appreciatively to my Singaporean re-working of this Japanese classic. Afterwards, a young woman approached me and asked me shyly why I called a verse a tanka when it does not have the traditional five lines. She shared that she was studying medieval literature at school. In that hip, artistic crowd, there was at least one person who looked back to Japan's past for enjoyment and education. She couldn't have been the only one.