Although Alex Kerr addresses serious issues in his book like the rise and perpetuation of the construction state (doken kokka) and various flaws in Japan's economical, educational and political system, he overshoots his goal by making his plea too emotional. His frustration with the way Japan is (not) dealing with (very real and pending) problems sometimes gets the better of him and he lashes out with harsh unfunded and over-the-top statements.
You can tell this by the fact that he omitted statements like "No country in the world could have been a more fertile ground for totalitarianism" (p.283) in the Japanese version. He also makes a very big problem out of the fact that Japan doesn't bury it's power cables. So what? Japan is 90% mountain and rock. It would be very costly and almost impossible to bury all the power cables outside of cities. (In most cities the cables are buried underground). By adding these non-issues to his plaint it sometimes looks like he is searching for a stick to beat Japan with, rather than handing out fair criticism. Another thing what struck me is the fact that he states that other Japanologists are afraid or reluctant to give Japan raw criticism, but then he himself 'cleans up' his book (removing the most harsh statements) before publishing it in Japan. Another thing I was hoping to read somewhere in this book were solutions to the problems addressed. For someone this occupied with Japan's well being, you would expect at least some kind of advice on how to turn things around. But sadly this is nowhere to be found. Lastly, I would like to say that I do admire Kerr's passion for Japan and his courage to sketch this (much needed) other portrait of Japan. He has received a lot of hollow criticism from so called Japanologists who didn't even bother to read his book. Like 'The Price of of Egypt' was from Dreamworks not Disney'. As if that has anything to do with the validity of his statements regarding Japan in his book. Most of what he says is true about the way things are in present day Japan, although not everything is as big as a problem as he poses it to be. It is a good book to learn things about Japan shunted by other authors but it has to be read with a firm dose of relativism.
