Customer Reviews

Dogs and Demons: Tales From the Dark Side of Modern Japan

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Given the slew of publications trying to deconstruct the socio-economic malaise of this mysterious little island, it seems almost de rigueur to have something negative to say about Japan and cite an example or two. Kerr's Dogs and Demons will equip you with a lot of such satisfying trivia. But where this book out stands out is in its focus on the vacuity of Japan's post-modern culture instead of the tired discussions about Japan-US trade frictions or the incompetence of domestic government and indigenous manufacturers. With a discussion that veers largely around the idiosynchratic construction industry in Japan (a key favorite among Japan bashers and perhaps deservedly so) Kerr argues that "culture" is the underlying source of Japan's malaise some hundred years after sociologist Max Weber first tried to explain away China's backwardness in a similar fashion.

As the author explains, "Dogs and Demons" (from a Chinese metaphor) paints the simple things of everyday life that the West has taken for granted (Dogs) but are seemingly difficult for Japan -- e.g., sign control, the planting and tending of trees, zoning, burial of electric wires, protection of historic neighborhoods, comfortable and attractive residential design, environmentally friendly resorts. The difficult things (Demons) are ostentatious and expensive surface statements, symbolic gestures rather than substantive commitments -- e.g., museums without artwork, monuments without honor, roads without destinations. 

Although somewhat wry, this is a well argued and a very readable tirade on what Kerr sees as Japan's dysfunctional value-system, a land fraught with contradictions and mis-spent opportunities -- "nature lovers" who concrete over their rivers and sea-shores, financial regulators who mismanage waning stock markets, technocrats who fail to warn against preventable disasters, and the world's largest creditor nation concealing a national debt approaching 150% of GDP. I found the keen observations and little-known facts that crop up along the way quite entertaining.

Some minor slip-ups are easily glossed over by the forgiving reader -- e.g., "The Prince of Egypt" was not from Disney but from Dreamworks. But sweeping generalizations are more troubling. For example, Mr. Kerr tells us "Japan is the world's only advanced country that does not bury telephone cables and electric lines." The idea is to show that Japan's city-planning lags behind practice in most Western cities. A little research will tell you that Tokyo's twenty three wards boast 90% of its transmission and 42% of its distribution cables buried under ground, while London only records about 43%. No mention also is made of the land here being earthquake prone which definitely has a big hand in the kind of construction that is undertaken.

In discussing how Japan's insular values have isolated its cinema, Mr. Kerr also declares that "there has never been a successful joint Western-Japanese or Asian-Japanese film, or any highly regarded Japanese film set in another country. But this is another example where hyperbole crowds out easily accessible information. "Tora! Tora! Tora!," a 1970 American and Japanese co-production that meticulously dramatizes the attack on Pearl Harbor, garnered an Academy Award for best visual effects in film and was voted one of the 10 best films of the year by the National Board of Review Awards. There have since been countless dubbed versions of anime movies (and I mean the Sen to Chihiro/Spirited Away genre) from Japan that have done well with international audiences. "Sukiyaki" (Ue o muite in Japanese) was among the several songs that garnered international recognition because of cross-border deals.

Indeed, the intriguing question that arises as one reads this book is if Mr. Kerr overdid his murky brush. It seems that for the longtime Japan resident and Oxford-educated businessman, it is not enough that Japan faces dire economic straits -- thanks in part to weak political institutions -- but the entire country has to be seen as "completely backwards, childish and incompetent". This tendency of thought is my main my gripe with this book and in fact with a lot of the current thinking on Japan, where "well-meaning" authors seeking to correct the faulty "Japan Inc." imagery of the past two decades counter with the opposite extreme.

Sooner or later, an astute reader is left wondering: How acceptable would a book portraying modern-day Argentina be if it only described "the culture" in terms of massive foreign-currency debts, supposed deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, AIDS, street children, authoritarianism, business fraud, polluted beaches and inland areas, male chauvinism, a patriarchal class system and latent racial discrimination? While each of these subjects offers us shades of the Argentinian mosaic, they hardly provide a full picture of the country.

So it is with "Dogs and Demons" -- a book that is definitely worth the buck (and I recommend it) because it is passionately entertaining and highly informative, but a slightly imbalanced read...

The trouble with being Japanaese is that your fellow Japanese won't understand what 'constructive criticism' means. Sadly, when someone points out what is wrong with today's Japan, it usually comes from non-Japanese writers, and this is yet another case in point. This book disappoints anyone who seeks root causes of Japan's ills today. Kerr is actually quite nice to the Japanese people by saying that it is Japan's inflated and constipated bureaucracy that is slow to adjust to modern society. People on the streets are largely spared of criticism. In fact, they are silently fuming over the stupidity of contructing worthless monuments and stadiums (Kerr should have waited for World Cup 2002, as Japan built dozens of useless football stadiums in the middle of nowhere). As Japanese myself, however, I would love to read something more about ordinary Japanese people, from whom the bureaucrats are recruited.

On the whole, however, this book elegantly sums up the reality of frustratingly inept public services in the coutry. I even wondered in the middle of reading this book whether Kerr is actually Japanese. His rather condescending American tone can easily be that of a typical Japanese rhetoric, pointing out how things are better in the (advanced) western countries (therefore we must change things in order to 'catch up' etc. etc.). However, Kerr is American obviously, and his criticism of modern Japanese architects shows his personal love for ancient Japan. It is this personal taste that is largely offended by 'Modern Japan' - he doesn't explore the possibility that Japan may be in transition from sharp focused modernisation/westenisation to creating something entirely new out of hitherto poorly executed east-west cultural mix. Doesn't any country pass an ugly cultural phase in its history? A lack of this kind of discussion undermines this book, even though I personally agree with what he is saying.

In fact, I can think of a large number of Japanese individuals who would heartly welcome Kerr's arguement. What is unfortunate is that this book reads more or less like cheap Japanese journalism, bashing lazy and selfish civil servants, who hold real power in Japan. Kerr has apparantely gone native.

Kerr's book is a fascinating if slightly driven examination of the social and economic state of modern Japan. As a long standing resident of Japan, who nevertheless cannot help but remain an outsider in a very important sense, his take on modern Japan is deeply detailed and often engrossing. I was fascinated by the details of the construction state he describes, and by the apparent incongruities in the Western depiction of the Japanese economic miracle.

The book is, sadly, over long, and often repeats much the same point (often using the same words) many times. The dogs and demons metaphor gets irritating after its fifth or sixth rendering, and his decision to resort to personal anecdotes in making his claims often weakens the thrust of his other arguments.

Despite these minor problems, the book itself uncovers extraordinary details about the current state of Japan. How the much praised bureaucracy really works (or doesn't work, in his view) and how the web of corruption within the bureaucracy and government conspire to keep properties value high at the expense of the economy is fascinating. Even more finely wrought details are instructive, and I have found myself repeating these facts to others on several occasions. All this makes the book a very worthy read.

I have lived in Japan for seven years and thought that I was finished with the famous love, disillusionment and acceptance phases that people go through when they come to Japan, but after reading Dogs and Demons: Tales From the Dark Side of Japan, I have found myself back in the severely disillusioned stage. When I read about how the bureaucracies are purposely destroying the environment by pouring millions of tons of concrete every year and how the government continually lies to the people about how unsafe their nuclear reactors are and refuses to punish corporate criminals who have knowingly killed or sickened thousands of people it made me angrier than I have ever been since I came to Japan.

In Dogs and Demons, Alex Kerr has found the courage to say explicitly something that has been at the back of my mind for years but which I found difficult to admit to myself: that Japan has been turned into the ugliest country in the world; how it has become a concrete wasteland with some of the laxest environmental and health regulations in the developed world. Kerr is angry not because of Japan's problems, but because of it's leadership's bloody-minded refusal to admit that problems exist, let alone do something to fix them. When he talks about how the government purposely waited until most of the people in the famous Minamata lead poisoning case were dead before they agreed to pay out a measly $30-80 000 per person, and refused to prosecute the companies responsible; the appalling lack of safety regulations and punishments for corporate criminals; the way the country has purposely mutilated its environment and the house of cards that Japan's banking and financial sectors have become with unbelievable debts, unrivalled corruption, and insane business practices it's hard to accept that these things are actually true, but they are.

This is a painful book to read, and sometimes I felt like I didn't want to turn the page, because I was dreading what horror story would be on the next page, but then I realised that if I put the book down, I would be just as guilty as the people who are running the country. This may be one of the most important books every written about Japan and I consider it a must read for everyone who lives in this country, Japanese or foreign.

Kerr writes an insightful book, with keen observation and understanding about the problems confronting Japan and the difficulty in solving them. Unfortunately, the content is somewhat repetitive and oversimplified, which detracts from the readability and credibility of the work.

Some of the observations that are right on:
1 - Japan debt is massively understated due to off the books borrowing.
2 - Japan's classical culture is in on the wane.
3 - Japan's construction industry is in bed with politicians, creating a co-dependant relationship that is harming the economy.
4 - The country's natural environment is suffering.

The book is off the mark on several areas, though.
1 - Although there is an excess of construction, much of the country really has kept it's pristine nature. The individuals also much more pro-environment than most Americans.
2 - Although the economy is in bad shape, Japan has found a rapid ability to turn around in the past. All is not lost.
3 - Some of the core culture is dying, but Japan has a long history of adapting on the surface, while keeping core values. This is not to be confused with an empty center that is tossing away history.

In summary, this is an important book about a complex subject. The Japan of reality is very different than the Japan of pop culture, and it's captured here. The book is worth reading, but repetitive parts should be skipped.

For people with experience of living in Japan and professing a love of the country, this book may confirm your worst fears, that despite efforts to convince yourself to the contrary, Japan is indeed a grim, ugly and disparaging environment in which to live.

It is a common phenomenon that, despite the reality around them, foreign residents of Japan believe they are living in the coffee-table-book vision of Japanese harmony and simplicity. Occasional glimpses of beauty in the form of a kimono, a beautifully wrapped present or a brightly coloured sushi bento box enable residents to reinforce this view and somehow shut-out the chaotic, claustrophobic, rabbit warren of neon-lit concrete and barrage of noise that surrounds them. Blinkering the obvious and magnifying the minute in order to deny their objectivity and justify their decisions to put off returning home for, just one more year.

These rare glimpses of the traditional Japan that people rightly admire and cherish are the last remnants of an aesthetic that is rapidly being buried beneath a shroud of concrete and Hello Kitty by Japan Inc. In "Dogs and Demons", Alex Kerr describes how this process has occurred and why. Those Japanophiles excited by the Japanese landscape as a symbol of an inevitable modernization, a futuristic prototype for all the world's cities will be disappointed to find that it isn't modernism that is responsible for the grim rubbish-tip quality of the Tokyo cityscape but a dated developing-world mentality and seemingly endless bureaucracy pocket lining.

The book offers startling statistic after frightening statistic detailing the environmental damage done, the millions of dollars being passed from old-boy palm to old-boy palm and the lemming-like inevitability of Japanfs slow march to the economic and environmental disaster that will eventually stop the rot.

Although awareness is rising, timing compounds the problem. Now that Japanfs economic growth has come to an end, funds wonft be available to beautify the cities, return the countryside to its original state, clean up the toxic waste or to build a decent stock of housing for people to live in.

All in all a pretty depressing book for anyone with a love of, or strong connection with, Japan. Despite Alex Kerrfs negativity in this book his criticism seems to stem from a love for the country in which he spent over 30 years, and with a bit of luck his next book may concentrate on more positive aspects to modern Japan, such a book could then act as an antidote to the depressive emotions generated while reading gDogs and Demonsh.

I've lived and worked in Japan for 8 years. I speak Japanese. I have a Japanese family. I watch the Japanense news every night. I know exactly what Kerr is talking about. He's dead on target.

If you have any interest in Japan at all, you must read the book. Please read the book, and learn what's going on here. Then spread the news. Help!

Although Kerr might be disillusioned, he certainly isn't writing about disillusionment. He's writing about facts. People who read this book need to understand that. If he misses a small detail here or there, well, by and far he's exceptionally accurate. I know, I've been here through much of what he discusses.

Everyone around me knows what Kerr writes about is true. There's nothing in his book you couldn't talk to the average Japanese salary man about, and get him to grudgingly agree with. The only problem would be he would probably end up saying "shikata ga nai ne." Which, unfortunately means , it can't be helped.

But I just don't believe that. The more this information becomes common knowledge, the better chance Japan has of changing. Why should Japan change? So that the people living here can be happier. Is that too much to ask for?

READ THE BOOK! Spread the word.

Dogs and Demons presents a scathing but poignant indictment of many facets of post-Meiji Japanese society, describing with a solemn but not disconsolate tone the two self-reinventions of modern Japan as maladaptations rather than true renaissances.

One of the central themes of the book is the Japanese tendency toward single-mindedness in pursuit of a goal. Though this is a common refrain in any study of Japanese history or culture, Kerr points out that this single-mindedness, inasmuch as an earnest, self-sacrificing populous is often marshaled by the occasional devious politician or bureaucrat, can lead to uncontrolled bureaucratic behemoths existing and acting purely for existence's or action's sake. Central to this argument is the idea of the Construction State, a massive section of the bureaucracy comprising over 10% of the nation's workforce, over 60% of national spending, and unstoppable in its quest for ever-greater civil engineering projects. Many sobering facts (all but three of Japan's rivers have been dammed, more than half its coastline has been overlaid in concrete, entire mountain ranges are being flattened and quarried in the interest of land-fill for artificial islands, etc), all well researched and their supporting documentation clearly cited, are introduced in support of Kerr's arguments.

Aside from meditations on the Construction State, Dogs and Demons takes a different perspective on many facets of modern Japanese life. From his lamentations of the pillaging of Japan's irreplaceable and unique milieus (the beauty of old Kyoto and the natural wonder of Mt. Fuji given as two prime examples) to the window dressing that all too often passes for "progress" in education and internationalization, Kerr offers a solemn warning to those who would embrace the future with little regard for the past.

Though Kerr's sharp-edged critiques are tempered somewhat by recent events both domestically and abroad (to be expected in such a fast-changing world), they nonetheless highlight unfortunate truisms of the modern Japanese bureaucracy and the society as a whole, acting as the bureaucracy's sometimes-unwitting base of support. Impeccably well documented and referenced, this book was certainly a disconcerting wake-up call to the Japanophile within me. The author quotes liberally from native Japanese (Masao Miyamoto, Miki Tanikawa, etc.) as well as long-term ex-pats and Japanologists (Dennis Richie, David Asher, etc). He reflects upon views expressed not only by like-minded thinkers, but by those with whom he disagrees, and expounds upon both as they relate to modern events.

The benefit of 20/20 hindsight allows the reader to take Kerr's indictment of Japan's lack of exploitation of the internet-boom with a grain of salt (the book was published in 2001). Yet it is this same hindsight that nets Kerr his authoritative description of what he views as a sword of Damocles dangling by a thread over the head of Japan's bureaucratic leadership. But rather than acting simply as a doomsayer, Kerr is sure to include with each perceived misstep musings on preventative or corrective measures to counteract the damage that has been done. The author makes certain to point out numerous times that a healthy, maintainable path of development is not yet beyond Japan's reach. He does point out, however, that the momentum carrying the country down its current path will present quite a challenge to those who would see it pursue a less ominous future.

As with any persuasive piece, certainly no one is expected to agree with Kerr's views on each and every point. Indeed, some (most notably those concerning the culture's modern artistic merits) seem entirely misguided. However, Dogs and Demons augments the reader's view of this mysterious island nation with many well-reasoned arguments that are seldom voiced either within or outside of Japan.

"The emperor of China once asked his court painter, "What's easy to paint and what's hard to paint?" the answer was, "Dogs are difficult, demons are easy. Quiet, low-key things like dogs in our immediate surroundings are hard to get right, but anyone can draw a demon."(10) Kerr insists Japan, especially its bureaucrats, are treating the countries problems as demons as opposed to dogs, solving critical problems with grand gestures that are purely for show as opposed to getting to the root of the problem.

Kerr takes a multi-faucet tour of contemporary Japan's short comings and its political train wreck syndrome. Japan, or the "Construction State", has an on ongoing war with Mother Nature. The annual Japanese public works bill is three-to-four times that of the US, which has twenty times the land area and twice the population. Road building takes a hefty chunk of that budget; massive highways criss-cross the country in a tangled web, leveling mountains and forests and often leading to irrelevant isolated locations. In addition to the land, water is also assaulted with dams and the concreting of river embankments that wreck havoc on the local ecology. Another water marvel is the use of concrete tetrapods (those jacks looking things) on the coast to prevent erosion. The practice was halted and reversed in the US when research showed that it caused far more harm than good. Yet Japan continues to fortify it's already fifty percent covered coast.

The continued destruction of nature through concretion, stems from the mismanagement of Japan's Bureaucracy. Stuck in the Post WWII "progress at all costs" thought of mind, Japan has not learnt when to say when. With ten percent of the Japanese work force being directly involved in the construction industry and billions of yen for higher-ups to skim off of, there is far too much money at stake to halt the construction train in its tracks. Change is unlikely with the oppressive control exerted by Japan's "elite bureaucrats". Numerous Departments issue an array of rules and legalities that are aimed at maintaining the status-quo at all cost.

New capitalists face daunting odds at starting out on their own. As was the case with an aerobics instructor who found jumping through hoops for the Department of Health, Sports, Business, and Finance, too taxing on her time and wallet. This suffocating grasp on business has forced companies and individuals to leave Japan in search of more hospitable conditions in the U.S. and Asian neighbors. Lack of change is also contributed to the Japanese lack of effort, a direct result of its education system that instills a progress-hindering-group mentality.

Its coast is not the only thing facing erosion; Japan's cultural downslide is evident when Ikebana shows consist mostly of glittered vinyl shapes stapled to pipe cleaners as opposed to real flowers. Kyoto's old city has been literally thrown out and replaced with cement and aluminum monstrosities. Cherry Blossom Trees are hacked down and replaced with concrete tributes to them. Manga and massive monuments are vicariously strewn about, in a city's ambiance nightmare. All while the film industry's only international hit is the story of a hamster-like-animal with a lightning bolt tail. Infant-like-Pokemon-loving-adults destroying their environment and culture, dependent on a money and power hungry bureaucracy and too close-minded to seek foreign answers--this is Kerr's portrait of present-day Japan.

Alex Kerr came to Japan as a child when his father was stationed at Yokohama from 1964 to 1966, eventually moving back to Tokyo in 1977. Currently, he has residencies in both Kyoto and Bangkok. He was educated at Yale, Oxford, and Keio Universities in Japanese and Chinese Studies, and is the author of many monographs and articles in both Japanese and English. He practices and teaches traditional Japanese art with the Shinto organization Oomoto Foundation. His previous book, Lost Japan, won the coveted Shincho Gakugei Literary Prize; he is the first foreigner to do so.

With credentials like these, I find it somewhat difficult to criticize Dogs and Demons, having lived in Okinawa for only three years. Conveniently enough, Kerr doesn't leave me with much to complain about. The book is elegantly written in a colorful and progressive way, which made it a compelling book that I had no problem finding time to read. His uses of examples are plentiful, clearly state his case, and are delivered through numbers and statistics as well as testimony from Japan's intellects.

Kerr's book covers a wide spectrum of modern day Japan. Chapters were given names like The Land, Environment, Bureaucracy, and Education; these topics can not be discussed completely independent from one another. So if you feel a small case of deja-vu while reading, it is only out of necessity. A more legitimate complaint would be the author's dramatization. He makes many comparisons to Japan's Asian neighbors, how their cities are more in balance with cultural heritage and modernization as well as buildings being nicer and homes bigger. I have been to places Kerr uses in his comparisons and examples. His claiming that Okinawa's coast was littered with cement tetrapods seemed a bit of an overstatement. The praise he gave Bangkok for being a collage of culture and modernity did not remind me of the place I visited only months ago and, other Japan bashings could have been just as easily directed at any other modern nation including the U.S.

The author's validity does suffer some during these dramatizations, but I feel he doesn't participate in this drama solely for literary overindulgence. Instead I think it comes from a true passion for his adopted nation and the trouble it has found itself in. These problems are delivered convincingly enough to draw comparisons to the troubled times of Commodore Perry's arrival and the aftermath of WWII, and even agree with Kerr's thoughts that a third revolution is in order.

Finally someone has written about Japan as it is, rather than as it tries to be.

Alex Kerr has written a book that the expats in the "gaijin ghettos" of Roppongi and Hiroo, or the diplomats in their dunghills of Azabu should read. He is not frightened of losing a business contract, or an invitation to an exclusive club. The apologists for Japan will take umbrage as the book will undoubteldy upset their sterile, isolated opinions of their temporary host country, but as a long-term resident of this place, and a business owner here myself, I can vouch that he is telling the real story.

The excesses of the construction industry, pollution, flawed education system, corruption, rigid rules, feudal system, children with no dreams, are all detailed and explained. The worthless banks and useless finance system are described, though there is no clear comparison of the 100yen/$ international economy, dominated by Sony, Honda, Toyota etc, and the heavily subsidised 200Yen/$ economy ruled by couriers, railroad companies, Japan Agriculture and local corporations.

Although there was no mention of Universal Studios new site in Osaka, built on Sumitomo's heavily contaminated land with dubious co-operation from Osaka politicians, the Kansai International Airport fiasco, and little on the bullet-trains lines to nowhere, or a massive station built for an ageing mother; the concrete coast-line was explained well, and the dependence of politicians and local businesses on construction, to the detriment of the local environment.

The world of sokaiya and shareholders, the lip-service to dividends and long-term planning, not short term gains, was notably absence, as were the myths of life -time employment, and the benevolent employer, but I suppose Mr. Kerr cannot be an expert on everything.

The successes of Sony and Toyota were not touched upon, but would probably have been out of place in a book like this. The small consumer associations and feeble protest groups were also barely mentioned, as they were in the 1992 book, Japanese Working for a Better World, curiously published in Hawaii, not Japan!

The sacred rice farming and dominance by JA - Japan Agriculture - was also not included, the rice weakened over the years with the heavy use of subsidised chemicals, whose factories they also own, and again the ties with local political parties.

Miyamoto Masao's book Straitjacket Society was quoted often, and he seems to have a small circle of writers that he draws his material from, but they are all well aware of the real nature of Japan today, and the almost total acceptance of bureaucratic rules. The hidden world of bars, clubs, brothels and imported Asian entertainers held hostage by gangsters was also ignored, but that has been covered in detail in other books.

Endure is the keyword, not enjoy.

There is hope for the country, as he recalls encounters with a few people who can see the problems, and wish to solve them, but they are also resigned to no change for a few hundered years.

This is a "must read" for anyone wanting to understand Japan, its current problems, and also some of its neighbouring Asian countries who blindly adopted the Japanese model, and have fallen into the same traps.

Many will say that Mr. Kerr is severe, but more will say his is the first, accurate view of Japan. I think he could have been much more comprehensive, and a lot more severe!

I look forward to seeing a Japanese version, and wonder what the Japanese will think of his views and opinions.