'Japan lost the war, and Bushido [the samurai spirit] perished. But then the human being was born for the first time in the womb of truth called decadence."

That is what radical novelist and essayist Ango Sakaguchi wrote in his famous essay in Shincho magazine in April 1946, titled "On Decadence." This month marks the centenary of his birth in northerly Niigata Prefecture, and it affords a good opportunity to crosscheck the wisdom of his words with today's Japanese reality.

Though the two eras could hardly be more dissimilar, Japan is noiselessly sliding into a phase not unlike the one that Ango lived through. (Ango, like many famous authors in Japan, is referred to by his given name.) In "On Decadence" -- which soon after its publication became the emblematic contemporary analysis of the Japanese national character -- Ango first debunked and then rejected the two mythical excuses dished out to the Japanese to make them compliant to the will of their fascist leaders: the samurai spirit and the sanctity of the Emperor.