"Dogs and Demons: Tales from the Dark Side of Japan" was one of the most honest and illuminating dissection into the failing economy of Japan. Alex Kerr, who has lived in Kyoto for 23 years, does a beautiful job here exposing the strange paradoxes of the Japanese mind. Since, I myself might be labelled as a Japanese, I feel his reporting is quite good. We know the Japanese as efficient and highly-organized, yet they have created the largest economic loss in World history- at a staggering 120 trillion Yen... and each year the country is falling in greater debt. Kerr never comes out and says why Japan's economic system bungled- it is perhaps too obvious to point these things out.

The really most important fact remains, Japan is the most polluted economic country in the world, and the pension fund will soon collapse. Since, they will be the leader in technology (strange considering their Universtiy R&D infrastructure is archaic) - we can only wonder- why is it possible to be so advanced technologically and be so backwards?

Spartan's system of raising children and their war-time economy is cited by Kerr- although not a direct parallel with Japan, we can see that draconian means of controlling and creating a docile sheep-like population, is not a successful means in generating prosperity.

And even more titillating are the TV shows they produce in Japan. In these documentary, the shows are fabricated and hyperbole is injected. ..e.g. a show was done on Tibet, and they said look how much drought there is etc. but during the shoot- it rained twice...futhermore, famous Japanese executives came on t.v. displaying their wives and homes- later we find out these women were paid prostitutes.

Of course these are sordid stories, and Alex Kerr does not hold back- he goes into the economic scandals which rocked Japan to its knees- explaining how 3 of the largest banks in the world went out of business.

Will Japan arise like the Phoenix? I think not.