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Best book about Japan? - Transparent_Aluminium - 2010-01-13

I've been looking at those books on amazon:

The Japanese Mind: Understanding Contemporary Japanese Culture by Roger J. Davies
Permalink: http://amzn.com/0804832951

and

The Japanese Have a Word for It: The Complete Guide to Japanese Thought and Culture by Boye Lafayette De Mente
Permalink: http://amzn.com/0844283169

and also

An Introduction to Japanese Society, Second Edition by Yoshio Sugimoto
Permalink: http://amzn.com/0521529255

There's also this one which doesn't look quite as good:

Understanding Japanese Society (Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies) by Joy Hendry
Permalink: http://amzn.com/0415263832

I'm looking for an insightful book into Japan, not just a fluffy introduction for first time travelers. The Sugimoto book looks like the most serious one but I'm not sure if it deals with the more mundane topics present in the other books. I was thinking of maybe buying that one and the first book. Any suggestions?

Best book about Japan? - pm215 - 2010-01-13

I have the Hendry book; it's definitely not in the 'popular science' mould (read: rather dry academic text), but it does cover the topics. My 2nd ed. is a bit out of date on some of the more recent aspects (eg politics) but there seems to be a 3rd ed now. I got my copy second hand; I don't think I'd buy a full price copy. If I were you I'd be more inclined to try the Sugimoto (though I haven't read it myself).

Best book about Japan? - igomadness - 2010-01-13

Shogun - James Clavell Smile

Best book about Japan? - lagwagon555 - 2010-01-13

igomadness Wrote:Shogun - James Clavell Smile
Seconded!

Best book about Japan? - Transparent_Aluminium - 2010-01-13

igomadness Wrote:Shogun - James Clavell Smile
Sorry, that's too academic for me Wink

Best book about Japan? - liosama - 2010-01-13

Look I don't mean to ruin your enthusiasm, but just remember about 90% of the shit you see in those books is probably outdated crap that the first explorers of Japan probably noticed (yes, even if written by a Japanese dude). If you go there today and ask someone "do you guys do this and this" they probably won't know what you're talking about. This is but one of many reasons as to why I hate 'culture' books.

A friend of mine read some book on the Arabic 'people' and their 'culture' I wanted to shoot myself in the head after answering some questions she had after reading the book.

To be honest, my personal recommendation over useless culture books would be to read something both insightful and useful i.e history. It is at least much more tangible and gives you an idea as to how everything about Japan came about. Anyway - Just keep in mind what I said about the 90% thing~

Best book about Japan? - Smackle - 2010-01-13

Oh god no, not Shogun! Shogun is the most worthless book for you to read if you want to know about real life Japan. It's historical fiction, but keep in mind that historical fiction doesn't mean that it contains historical facts. It shows no educated insight into Japan, just an idealized one from a Westerner.

Shogun is bad as any type of reference. However, I will not call it a bad book. Whether or not it is a good book is up to the reader.

That being said, I don't know if it was recommended with sarcasm or not, but to any lurkers that read this thread, just beware.

Best book about Japan? - nest0r - 2010-01-13

Tell the truth, you just started this thread to show off your savvy short url know-how.

Best book about Japan? - coverup - 2010-01-13

liosama Wrote:Look I don't mean to ruin your enthusiasm, but just remember about 90% of the shit you see in those books is probably outdated crap that the first explorers of Japan probably noticed (yes, even if written by a Japanese dude). If you go there today and ask someone "do you guys do this and this" they probably won't know what you're talking about. This is but one of many reasons as to why I hate 'culture' books.
Agreed - for some reason, people who write books claiming to know about Japanese culture just really miss the mark by being grossly outdated or exaggerating the importance of certain aspects of formality. It's an ironic endeavor to begin with - you want to generalize 180 million people so you can start fitting them into some western scholar's conceptual box from the bubble era?

Gotta especially watch out for the tourism pamphlet-esque stuff that says 'Japan is a fascinating mix of new and old," as if Geishas are giving birth to robots or something stupid like that. A lot of people don't even care about old stuff. They're just like you and me, except different Big Grin

The best thing to do is go and spend some time and see what you can pick up, and use your Japanese to ask real people what they think about certain things!

Best book about Japan? - kazelee - 2010-01-13

Naruto

Best book about Japan? - lagwagon555 - 2010-01-13

I never said Shogun was anything to do with modern Japanese life, or past, or anything. It's just the best book written about Japan Smile. Never said, or meant it had anything useful in it about Japanese society, culture or anything, it's just a great book, in my opinion. You'd be the first person I've met who wouldn't even say it's 'good'. I read it before I had any intention of learning the Japanese language.

I thought it was obvious I wasn't really giving (well, agreeing to) a serious, useful answer.

Best book about Japan? - igomadness - 2010-01-14

Shogun was an enjoyable book. Maybe it isn't an accurate cultural reference, but then again I doubt any book, or any 20 books could sum up a culture.

Best book about Japan? - MeNoSavvy - 2010-01-14

No offence intended but those books look like pretentious twaddle. I'm not convinced you will gain any startling insights from them, and in fact they may spectacularly miss the mark. In my opinion the reality of life in japan is quite different from how it is portrayed in those kind of books. While there are cultural differences I don't believe the Japanese are that different from people you find in most other countries. Also there may be a few cultural faux paus you might make normally the ones that will trip you up are not the obvious ones that are listed in these kinds of books. Also you will always be a foreigner so the way you are treated and the expectations they have of you will be completely different than if you were Japanese.

If you want to understand Japan really you have to live there and interact with Japanese.

If you want to read something, try reading some popular accounts from people who have lived and travelled in Japan, at least you can zip through them quickly and they will have more entertainment value.

What about
Tokyo Vice - Jake Adelstein (gruesome in parts)
Hokkaido Highway Blues - Will Ferguson (author is kind of full of himself, but book is fun in parts)
The Roads to Sata - Alan Booth (actually I haven't read it but people seem to like it)
Dogs and Demons - Alex Kerr

Actually to be honest I can't say I've ever read a book that remotely captures what I believe is an accurate picture of Japan. In fact from my perspective some of the books are almost laughable in the picture they present of Japan. If you have already read the above suggestions I would be interested in hearing your brief opinions and also if there are any other popular accounts that you recommend.

I'm also interested in suggestions from other people on this forum of insightful but readable and entertaining books on Japan.

Best book about Japan? - aphasiac - 2010-01-14

MeNoSavvy Wrote:While there are cultural differences I don't believe the Japanese are that different from people you find in most other countries.
Surely that's point of the books listed above? To explain the different aspects of Japanese culture that Westerners are not familiar with..

MeNoSavvy Wrote:If you want to understand Japan really you have to live there and interact with Japanese.
That's just silly. You don't have to experience everything first hand; it is possible to learn from other people's experiences.

MeNoSavvy Wrote:I'm also interested in suggestions from other people on this forum of insightful but readable and entertaining books on Japan.
I'll recommend:

Learning to Bow (An American Teacher enters the Japanese School system)
http://www.amazon.com/LEARNING-BOW-American-Teacher-Japanese/dp/039558521X

Angry White Pyjamas (An Oxford Poet Trains with the Tokyo Riot Police)
http://www.amazon.com/Angry-White-Pyjamas-Scrawny-Lessons/dp/0688175376

Bit outdated by now, but both are pretty entertaining.

Best book about Japan? - harhol - 2010-01-14

The Cambridge Companion to Modern Japanese Culture

Collection of 20 academic essays covering everything from family to school to work to technology to religion to music to manga. First published in 2009 so it's up to date, and as an added bonus it's edited by man of the moment Yoshio Sugimoto.

Ignore the people who say to ignore these types of books. Ever since Orientalism was published, Western thought has been far more open-minded. "All Japanese are the same"-type books are becoming increasingly rare and are no longer taken seriously by the majority of academics. More than half (11/20) of the essays in the book I mentioned are written by Japanese scholars anyway.

Best book about Japan? - amagiri - 2010-01-14

Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa

Edit: the Nippon foundation has published a pdf listing 100 books for understanding contemporary japan. I'll upload it somewhere when I get home.

Best book about Japan? - Gingerninja - 2010-01-14

I've read Angry White Pyjamas, but I'm an Aikidoka so it was more for that side than the culture aspect. It is a good book, but it was written late 80's I believe. Interesting if your into Martial arts, but don't expect any revelations on Japan or the people.

Best book about Japan? - Transparent_Aluminium - 2010-01-14

The Cambridge Companion to Modern Japanese Culture looks interesting and is more recent than the other book. To all those interested, you can read the introduction on Amazon which starts by mentioning that there is a paradigm shift undergoing in Japan towards a more diverse society. So, they definitely don't fall into the "all Japanese are the same" trap. And what's so special about that Sugimoto guy?

amagiri Wrote:Edit: the Nippon foundation has published a pdf listing 100 books for understanding contemporary japan. I'll upload it somewhere when I get home.
http://www.nippon-foundation.or.jp/eng/news/20091125BookDonationProjectEuropeDeadline.html

You can even get some of the books sent for free at your local library.

Best book about Japan? - Aijin - 2010-01-14

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anime
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninjas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sushi

Best book about Japan? - Siibillam - 2010-01-14

I recommend watching TV shows on Japan or some sitcoms, maybe some of those home dramas. I've been going on youtube every day and watching anything, really, in Japanese and I think I've learnt more from that than I would a book.

Best book about Japan? - yo6shi9 - 2010-01-14

I recommend Alex Kerr - Lost Japan .
ex
http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Japan-Alex-Kerr/dp/0864423705

Best book about Japan? - shirokuro - 2010-01-14

I liked Michael Zeilenziger's Shutting Out the Sun: How Japan Created its Own Lost Generation, but I wouldn't call it the "best book about Japan." It's still a good read, though.

Best book about Japan? - Transparent_Aluminium - 2010-01-14

Quote:I recommend Alex Kerr - Lost Japan .
And here is the original: http://dwarfurl.com/8e524

I'm tempted to order it. Quite amazing that he wrote it in Japanese.

Best book about Japan? - BlackMarsh - 2010-01-14

Transparent_Aluminium,

I will reiterate what others have already said about those types of books you mentioned - the behaviours and cultural norms written in them are often grossly exaggerated and stereotypical and will leave you with a warped sense of Japan. Likewise many novels written about Japan by foreigners, such as James Clavell's Shogun will leave you with a warped sense of reality. These tend to lean waaaay to much towards concepts such as honour, shame, nature and other stereotypical nonsense. I actually have a study on the misconceptions about Japan Shogun has created - given its popularity over the years many stereotypes around today can be directly attributed to stuff in Shogun.

Your best bet in my opinion is to read books by some of the most famous Japanese novelists over the past century. This will get you right to the source of some of Japan's best minds coming to grips with their own country. My recommendations include:

- Runaway Horses by Yukio Mishima: shocking look into Japanese extremism before WWII, ideas of logic and reason as told by a judge
- The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima: examination into obsession and beauty in a Kyoto Buddhist setting
- I Am a Cat by Natsume Soseki: satirical examination of the Westernisation of Japan as told by a cat. Soseki is one of the most famous Japanese in modern history, you see him on the 1000 yen note.
- The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away by Kenzaburo Oe, about emperor worship. Oe won the Nobel Prize for literature a few years back so anything by him will do.
- Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. A current day author, Norwegian Wood is his most popular English translation.
- Into the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami. A look at life in Japan today.

If you're going to read something written by a non-Japanese your best bet would be something from Alex Kerr (e.g. Dogs and Demons). Road to Sata by Alan booth is also very good. And for something very recent try Tokyo Vice, the life of a Jewish American working as a reporter for the Yomiuri newspaper. Lots of freaky stories about Japan's underworld. Notice none of these are novels.

As you can probably tell I've read a lot of books about Japan. Let me know if I can be of any more help.

Best book about Japan? - matthewmuller - 2010-01-14

Hey, a classic old chestnut is the Chrysanthemum and the Sword by Ruth Benedict.
also, The Chrysanthemum and the Bat, by Robert Whiting, about baseball. Also his You've gotta have Wa. Dave Barry Does Japan, by Dave Barry is funny if you like his style. I lived in Japan for two years and he only visited for a month but found more funny stuff to say than I could. I am totally dating myself and my time in Japan, but The movies, Tampopo and A Taxing Woman by Itami Juuzo give good funny glimpses of Japanese Life. Edwin O Reischauer also wrote some good books you can check out. I agree with a lot of the people here, though and say find good Japanese books and moves that entertain you. Two movies I recently got from the library that were fun are Ping Pong, and Lovely Complex, both about differnet types of high school students. Have fun, you'll find lots once you start digging.