In going over my manuscript of the Yukio Mishima biography, my copy editor protested at one point, citing her "liberal Berkeley-influenced sensibilities." That was where I described Japan as a "backward nation." Let me explain.
In 1958, Mishima dictated an entire book in the somewhat pedagogic genre of bunshō tokuhon, in which an established writer tells the reader, with ample examples, what proper writing should be. Books in this genre may be comparable to H.W. Fowler's "A Dictionary of Modern English Usage" and William Strunk Jr.'s, "The Elements of Style," except that Japanese writers seldom get into grammatical or usage particulars.
Mishima resorted to dictation when a highbrow ladies magazine asked him to pen such a book because, at the time, he was in the midst of writing what he thought would be his magnum opus, "Kyoko's House."