Janet Ashby - The Japan Times

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Feb 9, 2003

One welcome exception to the gloomy news in Japan last year was the unexpected awarding of a Nobel Prize in chemistry to an apparently ordinary company worker. Koichi Tanaka's steadfastness, lack of personal ambition and open, nice-guy persona were a refreshing throwback to a less cynical age, and his success gave new hope to Japan's beleaguered middle-aged salarymen.

COMMUNITY

Jan 19, 2003

A new year in Japanese books

In a time of change and uncertainty, Japanese readers continue to seek comfort and practical advice in their reading. In particular, best sellers last year reflected the concerns of middle-aged and older individuals, with the top 10 sellers including two books on how to age gracefully, two on the Japanese language, and two on using English.

COMMUNITY

Dec 8, 2002

Mothers under pressure

Recently much media attention has been paid to the rise in depression and suicide among middle-aged men threatened by layoffs. The Yomiuri Weekly, however, reports that stress-related illness is actually more prevalent among housewives (Nov. 24).

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Nov 17, 2002

Sit up and beg, there's a good boy

The fatal stabbing of an independent-minded Diet member by an unbalanced ultrarightist last month raised the specter of the kind of political terrorism seen in pre-World War II Japan. If the global economy should worsen, could Japan once again fall into ultranationalism?

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Oct 13, 2002

You're never too old to read a good self-help book

The best-seller list currently features three volumes on living and aging well: "Oite Koso Jinsei" (Nothing Is More Human Than Aging), by novelist/politician Shintaro Ishihara; "Unmei no Ashioto" (The Footsteps of Approaching Fate), by novelist Hiroyuki Itsuki; and "Ikikata Jozu" (How to Live Well), by Shigeaki Hinohara. The last has been particularly successful, selling 1.2 million copies since its publication last December and bringing many other titles by Hinohara to bookstores.

CULTURE / Books

Sep 8, 2002

Is life but a walk in the park?

The latest winner of the prestigious Akutagawa Prize for promising new writers of literary fiction, Shu'ichi Yoshida (born 1968), is being lauded for his light touch in portraying the loneliness and isolation of urban life today. At the Akutagawa Prize press conference, Yoshida said that he wanted to portray the gap between the speed of changes in society and in people during the past five years; in particular he wants to capture the moment just before something starts.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Aug 11, 2002

Book industry cries murder

Although everyone agrees that the Japanese publishing industry is in trouble, there is less consensus as to the causes. Book and magazine sales have been declining for five years and book revenues for last year were at roughly the same level as a decade earlier; indeed, some say that if it were not for the Harry Potter series sales would have fallen over 30 percent from the previous 30 years.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Jul 14, 2002

Living outside the box

The days of Japan as the No. 1 business model for the world are long gone, but a new and perhaps more interesting model combining Japanese and Western elements seems to be developing. Unfortunately, the transition from a system based on lifelong employment, seniority and unthinking loyalty to one's company to one with more mobility, meritocracy and a "cooler" work ethic is, according to recent media reports, being achieved at terrible human cost.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Jun 9, 2002

In publishing, the modern girls have it

World Cup fever may have taken over the Japanese media, but the bookstores are full of books on language and education. The sales of books for learning English are perhaps connected to spring and its association in Japan with the beginning of the academic year and the hiring of new employees by the corporate world. A fun-to-read grammar book, "Big Fat Cat no sekai ichi kantan na eigo no hon" (Big Fat Cat's World's Easiest English Book) has sold over 1.5 million copies, while a book on keeping a diary in English and a colloquial phrase book from Pia, "Bera Bera Book," have also become best sellers.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

May 12, 2002

When in doubt, just say 'wakarimasen'

Violent antisocial crimes by teenagers have sent shockwaves through Japan in recent years, hinting ominously at cracks in the very foundations of modern Japanese society. On a more mundane level, older Japanese often find themselves puzzled and annoyed by the everyday behavior of young people, who often seem like aliens suddenly dropped in their midst. A recent article in Aera (April 1) reports on the new "Wakarimasen-zoku" ("I don't know tribe") among today's younger generation. Even those just a few years older are irritated by university students or young coworkers who seem to have no opinion of their own and only answer "wakarimasen" when asked what they would like to major in or if they would like to go out drinking after work. In one prominent example, after Hayato Terahara was drafted by the Daiei baseball team last fall he was asked at a press conference if he hadn't really wanted to go to the Giants and, rather than "No comment" or the like, replied "wakarimasen."

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Apr 14, 2002

Desperate times call for innovative measures

No quick recovery is on the horizon for the slumping Japanese book business. That is the consensus of commentator Kazuhiro Kobayashi, writing in Shuppan News (January), and of three experts discussing the matter in Tsukuru (March) -- Yasuo Ueda, Yoshiaki Kiyota and Hiroyuki Shinoda. Unit sales, revenues taken in, sales of books, monthly magazines, weekly magazines, all were down last year for the fifth year in a row of overall decline. In terms of units sold, business has fallen back to the level of 1986 and, in terms of revenues, to 1991.

LIFE / Lifestyle

Mar 17, 2002

The global village: small, but not always beautiful

The current No. 1 best seller in Japan is the cheery picture book "Sekai ga moshi hyakunin no mura dattara" ("If the World Were a Village of 100 People"; Magazine House), a retelling of a bit of "Netlore." Several years ago, the environmentalist Donella Meadows wrote a newspaper column on the global division and consumption of resources, using a village of 1,000 people to represent the world's population of some 6 billion. Her piece struck a chord and in the course of being forwarded from person to person on the Internet, the analogy was simplified to 100 people.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Feb 10, 2002

Love in a time of decline for homegrown literature

Is there a future for Japanese literature? That is the question posed by an article in the February issue of Bungakukai. Writer Akira Nagae visited various bookstores and publishers in search of an answer. The manager of a bookstore near an arts university in Tokyo feels authors and publishers are deceiving themselves into believing that literary books still enjoy a high prestige in Japan. He dates their becoming just another consumer product from the late 1970s, when Jiro Akagawa started turning out a new mystery every month.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Jan 13, 2002

No recovery in sight for Japanese book publishing industry

One often sees references in the Japanese media to the "lost decade" that followed the burst of the speculative bubble in the early 1990s, but the publishing world has only suffered a half decade of negative growth. After five consecutive years of falling sales, however, it can no longer ignore systemic problems.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Dec 16, 2001

Young Japanese struggle to find their way

As another year comes to an end, the Japanese media continue to wonder at the new generation at school and at work. The term "shinjinrui" (new species) seems to have fallen out of use but the prevailing attitude is still one of bemusement and even dismay.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Nov 11, 2001

In praise of Japan's 'Greatest Generation'

Perhaps as a reaction against the excesses of an age of material prosperity and greed, America in recent years has seen a spate of books and movies extolling the so-called Greatest Generation, the quiet men who went off to fight in World War II. Similarly, Japan now has "Project X," a popular NHK-TV show and best-selling book heralding the anonymous men of the postwar period who started from zero and "made the impossible possible."

CULTURE / Books

Oct 14, 2001

Kenzaburo Oe: Bridging the generation gap

In the wake of the terrorist attacks in America, large bookstores have put together special displays on Islam and terrorism, while the cult idolization of the prime minister continues with the publication of a coffee-table book of Koizumi photos (Jun-chan lounging in a robe!). However, as always in recent years, the best-seller list is dominated by life-advice and entertainment titles. The latest life-advice best-seller comes from the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Kenzaburo Oe.

CULTURE / Books

Sep 9, 2001

This is the season of our national discontent

Last week's edition of Aera (Sept. 3) looked at the current "Age of Discontent," while Bungei Shunju published a special issue in August on ways to find happiness. Both themes currently feature on the shelves of Japanese bookstores as well.

CULTURE / Books

Aug 12, 2001

Til death or demographics do us part: the changing face of family life in Japan

At the end of each year, NHK has a ritual contest of male singers vs. female singers, but signs have been emerging of more serious gender conflict on the horizon in Japan. The diverging interests of men and women are evident in a recent book on changing attitudes toward having children and an article on new marriage patterns.

CULTURE / Books

Jul 15, 2001

Controversial textbooks are big sellers for Fusosha

The latest best seller, oddly enough, is a junior high school history textbook. After going on sale on June 1, "Atarashii Rekishi Kyokasho" has been at or near the top of the best-seller list and the related social studies text "Atarashii Komin Kyokasho" in the top 10. Already 500,000 copies of the history text are in print and 150,000 of the social studies text.

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