Recently I went to a talk by Alex Kerr, a noted Japanologist and author of the book Dogs and Demons, at Temple University's Tokyo branch campus and was impressed with his presentation on some problems facing modern Japan today. I read his book, last year and felt that although it effectively addressed some pressing concerns for Japanese society, it ultimately left a bad taste in my mouth. It is always difficult to be an outsider looking on and criticizing a society from the outside. He had some good points to make, but it seemed like a one-sided attack, and perhaps this was intentional so as to highlight his concerns and criticisms. I found it a bit heavy handed and his tone was a bit arrogant and holier than thou.
That being said, I felt that his presentation in person was much stronger. First off, he came across less sever, but intelligent, reasonable, and personable, thus making the audience comfortable at the onset. He discussed his history and background in Japan, which is extensive. He seemed much more willing to give credit, where credit was due. He also had a slide presentation to highlight his concerns about what Japan is doing to itself.
The central metaphor of the book is that according to an old expression demons are easier to draw than dogs. The logic behind this is that imaginary things are easy to create since there are no examples in our midst, while the ordinary, everyday things like dogs and horses are difficult to get right since you hardly pay attention to the details of the ordinary. Thus, he makes a case for the way that Japan is destroying its countryside and culture through bureaucratic policies that may have made sense at on time, but have spiraled out of control while no one was really paying attention since it is the status quo.
The strongest part of the book is at the beginning where he illustrated the problem of over-construction, specifically the over use of concrete, with a multitude of well-researched facts. For example he points out that Japan, a country with the land mass of Montana, pours ten times the amount of concrete a year as the United States. This point was strengthened in his presentation by his slide show, which showed the ridiculous civil construction projects that result in unneeded dams, roads that go nowhere, senselessly ravaged roadsides, and massive unnecessary tetra pods that litter the seas sides. He cites this as one of the major examples of bureaucracy out of control.
He illustrates this by describing the unholy alliance of government and construction companies that work together awarding government contracts for kickbacks to politicians. In fact last year, a major politician from Nagano (Mueneo Suzuki) was indicted for accepting bribes on behalf of construction companies. The problems run deeper according to reports that construction companies drive up bidding prices on construction jobs by meeting before and setting the low bid.
He makes the valid point that less than 40 years ago Japan was in desperate need of infrastructure. He used a personal antecdote from his youth spent with his family in Yokohama, in which he describes the day his family took a special trip to Tokyo, which was special because it was by car on the new two-lane highway they had just built between two of Japan's biggest cities in 1964. This clearly illustrated the need for more infrastructures. However, it has skyrocketed out of control, as it became means for jobs, status in local communities as well as a form of rewarding those in politics.
One of his other major points was how these systematic bureaucratic decisions about building and urban planning were affecting the culture of cities, and in turn effecting tourism. Not long ago one of my students said that Tokyo was a "lovely" city and I had to correct. Tokyo may be "an exciting" city, "a lively city", but it is decidedly not a "lovely" city. Paris is a "lovely" city, Venice is a "lovely" city, Tokyo is something else altogether. It is poor urban planning combined with urban sprawl-where does Tokyo end and the suburbs begin? It's difficult to tell. Don't get me wrong there are some beautiful places in Tokyo (Shinjuku Gyoen, the Imperial Grounds, Yoyogi Park, etc...), but it is blighted by mismatched building styles, exposed telephone wires and aerial antennas.
In fact, I can look outside my window right now and get a wonderful view of a power transformerView image. The reason Japan doesn?t bury its cables and wires are related to the construction problem. The poles the support the wires and transformers are made by construction companies out of concrete, therefore eliminating them would affect the industry.
He takes this argument further and relates it the decision to forgo traditional designs or material when building public buildings like train stations or private enterprises like hotels. He rightly points out the rich tradition of architecture and art in Japan that gets overlooked for more bland or European influence design styles. As result Japan isn't presenting what it has that separates it from other countries. Japan is 49th in tourism behind Croatia and Tunisia.
Kerr has a project going in the Iya Valley on the island of Shikoku in which he is restoring an old style village. There are opportunities for people to come and volunteer in the restoration of some to he ancient houses that they are trying to preserve. You can check out his website as well. I recommend this thought-provoking book to anyone with an interest in modern Japan.
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