It’s a blustery, rainy day here – very Vancouver-in-October-esque – and so, besides a trip to the store to get coffee, I’m staying home. I’ve been reading Dogs and Demons, a non-fictional account of the state of affairs in modern Japan, and this picture that author Alex Kerr paints of this nation does not match the peaceful, traditional, serene picture that one typically imagines.
Japan is slightly smaller than the state of California, but is home to more than three times Canada’s entire population. This number – 33.5 million – is still smaller than the number of people living in Metropolitan Tokyo, the most populous metropolitan economic area in the world. Japan is made up over over 3000 islands, but most of the population lives on one of the four main islands (from north to south): Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. Mount Fuji is the highest mountain of a very mountainous country at 3,776m, and is, along with at least 107 other Japanese bruisers, an active volcano. Japan is the only country in the world with an Emporer; Akihito, “his imperial majesty”, is the 125th person to hold such a post. What does an emporer do, you might ask? (I ask!) Besides having a list (I’m sure) of constitutional duties, he receives awards, visits countries and monuments and expresses remorse for bad-deeds-once-done by Nippon, and researches and writes about marine biology and history. Last facts: the Prime Minister of Japan is the newly elected Yukio Hatoyama of the Democratic Party of Japan, and Tokyo’s winters are much like Vancouver’s – though with less rain, and almost no snow.
Anyways! Facts schmacts. My initial impressions with Japan and Japanese culture are: the people are respectful, friendly and willing to help you (and will often go out of their way to do so); people work hard (too hard), and public transportation systems are incredible, busy and often packed to the gills; infrastructure is good, and the city, roads and sidewalks are clean and functional. I image the countryside to be idyllic and peaceful – an escape from the megalomania that is the living breathing heaving city of Tokyo. According to Alex Kerr, however, I am wrong – about a lot of things Japanese.
His POV provides a bit of a harsh look at life here, I have to say. Traditional culture is either treated with uncompromising respect, or is trashed and obliterated, and the emphasis on modernity, progress and structure seems to govern development and overrule reason. There are countless examples in the book of how small villages and historic buildings were razed so that roads and bridges could be built, or how traditional huts or inns were destroyed because they weren’t modern or new. Bureaucratic rules and regulations haven’t been changed in 50-plus years, including regulations on pollution, food safety, hazardous waste removal (and dumping), freedom of information, and much more.
Two of Kerr's main points are these:
Systems and government programs (and their rules) are archaic and mismanaged, and the policy of stating the tatemae (“official position”) instead of the honne (“real intent”) (to maintain a solid, confident front is vital to success) is misleading and damaging. (As is the policy of following something through, from beginning to end, even if destructive or unwanted, no matter what.)
Since Japan opened its doors to the world in 1868, it has been going full speed ahead with a policy of Wakon Yosai, “Japanese spirit, Western mentality”; this, according to Kerr, is the root of Japan’s problems. There are no brakes – there is no way of slowing the progress, the full-steam-ahead, no-looking-back drive for modernity, progress and the future.
The author is very thorough in his critique of Japan – he’s aggressive in his analysis of each and every aspect of life: education, medicine, government, industry, social norms and social life, the arts, the environment and sport and activity. His tone is so acerbic that I find it almost offensive, and it’s not even my country! I suppose that he’s just being blunt and to the point, but even so, I’d have enjoyed the book (and learning about these issues) a little more if he’d been more constructive and a less nitty-gritty and doomsday with his criticisms. Let’s just say that I’m glad to be done with the book, and am looking forward to visiting the library just down the street at the fabulous community centre. Nothing to complain about here!!
1 comment:
Hey Heather! I read Dogs and Demons too, and it changed my impressions a lot...mostly it made me notice how much concrete there is in Japan! The structure of the government, to me, is just an indication of how the culture functions in general, as a communal, organized whole. And it's true, a lot of the countryside is completely developed, but if you go up into the mountains you will see some more idyllic sights.
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