Dogs and Demons: Japanese Bureaucracy Reviewed

While I was in Japan in 2005 for my post-doc fellowship, I came across a list of books about Japan for gaijin wanting to understand Japan better. Dogs and Demons: Tales from the Dark Side of Japan by Alex Kerr was on that list. I wasn't able to find most of these books when I was in Japan, and what with moving and new jobs, I'm just now getting around to reading these books, as well as many others that I've put on lists of books to read over the past several years.

It took me several days to get through Dogs and Demons. It wasn't a quick read. And it was rather thought provoking, particularly since it made me see some of my experiences in Japan from a different perspective.

Japan, for the most part, is thought of as a highly advanced country. And in some respects, such as highly efficient mass transit with trains that arrive on time, it is. But in others, it's stuck in the 60s. When I went to get shinkansen tickets from Tokyo to Kyoto when my brother came to visit, I didn't just go online and put in when I wanted to go and get back a list of options to choose from like I would here in the US. Instead, I went to the JR office, and sat down with the ticket agent and explained that I wanted to go from Tokyo to Kyoto on a specific day, returning 2 days later. The ticket agent then looked up in a giant yellow pages type book the schedule of trains for those days. Then he filled in a paper form, then he entered some information into the computer. The original dates and times I wanted weren't available, so he had to repeat the experience with the yellow pages and the form. Finally, I ended up with two round trip tickets from Tokyo to Kyoto.

One of the key points of Dogs and Demons is the extreme amount of bureaucracy that exists in Japan -- the forms, the rules, the unwritten rules. And how unlikely change is to occur because of the bureaucracy that exists and that the people making up the bureaucracy have been brought up in an educational system that doesn't foster challenging the status quo, and while at one point in time, that bureaucracy was efficient, it hasn't kept up with the times. But unfortunately, the rest of the world has passed Japan in terms of efficiency in some ways. Now, if I want to take the train from Jacksonville to Washington, DC, all I have to do is go to Google, and find the right website, and purchase my tickets. But not in Japan.

One of the things I noticed while I was there was the inefficiency within offices -- tasks that have been automated here, such as direct deposit of paychecks, are still done by clerks that walk around and have people sign the register and receive their envelopes of cash. To create sets of copies, instead of having a fancy copy machine that collates and staples for you, each page is copied and then a team of people collate the sets.

Another point of this book was the fact that while Japan is seen as a nation that reveres its nature, its mountains and rivers, it is actually in the process of damming all the rivers, flattening all the mountains, and filling in all the bays -- leaving nothing natural. This reminded me of the view from the train window going from Tokyo to Kyoto - mile after mile of telephone wires, concrete structures, and odd shaped towering buildings. There's nothing attractive about a scene showing a jumble of buildings draped in wires.

For anyone who has spent any time in Japan, this is an eye opening book. While one review on amazon.com described the book as a spurned lover writing a tell-all, I felt that it was actually written by someone that loves Japan, but is simply disappointed in how things have been managed. The author also covers issues related to the environmental ministry and the fact that it doesn't regulate anything related to the environment; education and rote memorization and how people aren't able to question authority/bureaucracy; the failure of higher education to be a player on the international scene and provide scientific breakthroughs; and the continued fear of foreigners and how the Japanese continue to keep them at arm's length. This book was written around 2000/2001, just about the time the government was reorganizing the various ministries and their responsibilities. I would be curious to see an update to this book at some time in the future from the author.

While I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Japan, this book managed to put in words some of the feelings I had when deciding not to stay and apply for a position at a Japanese university.