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 Its extremely out of date when it mentions Japan's lack of a tourist trade and how this is unlikely to ever develop...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.
jameseckman's review
4.0
While this book getting a bit long in tooth, I suspect the main point, bureaucracy is strangling Japan, is still a valid one.
The nightmare of big construction and government is still going on and foreign builders and architects don't play much of a role in Japan. For one older, well written example of this, see [b:The Battle for the Life and Beauty of the Earth: A Struggle Between Two World-Systems|13690365|The Battle for the Life and Beauty of the Earth A Struggle Between Two World-Systems|Christopher W. Alexander|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1352103601s/13690365.jpg|19311070]. Also Japan doesn't have zoning as practiced in most of the US (excepting Texas), when I watch Japanese building/remodeling shows, it's fairly common for the building to be very different from its neighbors and bit out of place. This may not be a bad thing, but it can be if everyone mixes it up too much. Having been to Kyoto, I was disappointed on how much of the old city was torn down, but the US has done this as well.
As for education and access to information, I'm not up on what's current, but I'm sure that there's a some changes from when this book was written. However the economy is still in the dumps and Fukushima was just a horrible continuation of issues covered in this book.
A depressing read, if there are brighter sides to current Japan, I'd like to read about those as well.
The nightmare of big construction and government is still going on and foreign builders and architects don't play much of a role in Japan. For one older, well written example of this, see [b:The Battle for the Life and Beauty of the Earth: A Struggle Between Two World-Systems|13690365|The Battle for the Life and Beauty of the Earth A Struggle Between Two World-Systems|Christopher W. Alexander|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1352103601s/13690365.jpg|19311070]. Also Japan doesn't have zoning as practiced in most of the US (excepting Texas), when I watch Japanese building/remodeling shows, it's fairly common for the building to be very different from its neighbors and bit out of place. This may not be a bad thing, but it can be if everyone mixes it up too much. Having been to Kyoto, I was disappointed on how much of the old city was torn down, but the US has done this as well.
As for education and access to information, I'm not up on what's current, but I'm sure that there's a some changes from when this book was written. However the economy is still in the dumps and Fukushima was just a horrible continuation of issues covered in this book.
A depressing read, if there are brighter sides to current Japan, I'd like to read about those as well.
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