Every Human Intention: Japan in the New Century

by Dreux Richard

A thoughtful, illuminating exploration of modern Japanese politics and culture through the eyes of an investigative reporter.

Dreux Richard presents post-Fukushima Japan in three illustrative parts, in areas where the consequences of national policy are felt: immigration, population decline, and the nuclear industry. First, he follows members of Japan's Nigerian community who have been affected by Japan's flawed and exploitative visa system. He then surveys the northernmost town in Japan, which is rapidly depopulating as its residents age and die. And, finally, he takes us into the offices of nuclear regulatory officials who cannot agree on the parameters of their own earthquake fault review, which will determine whether the nation's riskiest reactors will restart. Richard's perceptive and probing reporting establishes him as an authority on the subject matter, but he remains aware of his status as an outsider and translator, acting as the reader's expatriate guide. The personal elements of his subjects' stories and his own perspective afford us an understanding of today's Japan that goes far beyond politics, truisms, and sensational arguments.

Genres: Japan, Nonfiction, History, Contemporary, Journalism

432 pages, Hardcover

First published February 23, 2021

Reviews

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Richard worked as journalist in Japan, spending time in post-Fukushima Japan. This book is divided into three parts, immigration, population decline and nuclear regulation. Richard covered members of Japan’s Nigerian community and their struggles with a hostile immigration system. The same system that was built to fail and lead to the starvation death of a Nigerian immigrant in a Japanese detention center. Second, Richard reports on life in Japan’s northernmost city, documenting the nation’s record-breaking population decline. And to end this book of quiet despair Richard traces the bureaucracy and regulators actions as they evaluate the nuclear energy's cozy relationship and safety of restarting reactors threatened by earthquake faults after the Fukushima disaster.

Why I started this book: I pre-ordered this book as I was searching for new Japan titles for my library and my life. I need to start reading the book blurbs.

Why I finished it: This was not what I was expecting at all. It was fascinating, depressing and a window into three of the major challenges of Japanese society and state in the next century... immigration, an aging population and regulation of and for nuclear energy. But that window is the immensely personal lives of Richard's interview subjects. This shouldn't be the first book that you read about Japan... but add it to your list after you've read enough history, or lived here and want more context to the compromises and juxtapositions found in modern Japan.

[Chris Jaffe · Rating 2 out of 5]

I get what the author was trying to do here. He wanted ot humanize the points he was trying to make about Japan by focusing on individuals to tell stories about. This is a traditional narrative method - use one example to tell a wider tale of what's going on in the society. That way, it's not all dry facts and unrelatable information. Yeah, but the danger in this is if you're not careful, the story your telling is only about an individual, and the larger point or scope can be lost. That's the problem here. In the first 150-plus pages, Richard wants to tell us about Japan's immigration issues, and to that end he focuses on a Nigerian he knows named Prosper. We learn a lot about Prosper - so much that the book ceases to be about Japan and instead becomes about Prosper, which ....... really isn't what I'm looking for what I pick up a book subtitled, "Japan in the New Century."

One more problem: I just plain think Richard is a lousy writer. This is unexpected as he's a journalist. Usually, those guys can write. Not our man Richard. Early in his stories of Prosper, he kept referring to things and making elliptical observations. The point was, I assume, to tease the reader or to draw them in. But it just frustrated this reading. Tell me what you're trying to tell me, smart guy. I'm just getting references to things I don't know about as you tell me about this guy in Japan, where there's no broader point being made about Japan.

Mentally, I checked out within 100 pages. I skimmed the next 300 pages. Richard also has sections on Japan's coming population decline, and on the aftermath of the tsunami-caused nuclear reaction crisis. I really can't say much about those parts of the book. I think he did a better job discussing Japan there than in the first part (so, two starts, not one), but I was so thoroughly done with the book by then that I just didn't give a damn.

[Will Norton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather obscure reading if you want to know about Japanese culture. The book falls into three parts. Each is a personal story about the lives of those who reside in Japan. The narratives revolve around African immigrants in Japan and stories dealing with the 3/11 nuclear meltdown and tsunami. The book is very much like a memoir and not the type of analysis and larger perspective I usually enjoy reading. The author is somewhat of a minor journalist unfortunately and this book offers a minor perspective into Japan.

[Pankachu102 · Rating 1 out of 5]

So many tangents I felt like I was back in Calc II.

There were so many times that I was reading where I could not figure out the point of the book. Eventually, I re-read the back jacket and realized that the book was trying to give us a first hand perspective of Nigerian Immigrant in Japan, the aging population, and the bureaucratic chaos that followed Fukushima. Unfortunately, the book is so cluttered with seemingly irrelevant details, saying very little using the most words. Though I am sure the author does great as a journalist of short form content, the 419 page length could have been 200 and probably done a better job of keeping the readers interest and satisfying the objectives.

In reading the Acknowledgments section, it appears as though a main cause of the chaos may be due to the shear number of parties involved. With so many people, each with their own perspective, they may have wanted different details included; resulting in a lot of fluff and not a lot of substance.

[Vicente · Rating 2 out of 5]

Went on for much too long. Honestly, this felt like double the length it needed to be, to the point where by the last 100 pages, I found myself just itching to be done. This wasn't a remarkable book by any means, but it would be a fine read if were edited done to a suitable length. What we have instead is droning on and on that left a bad taste in my mouth about what I would have considered to be a generally okay book.

[Carman Chew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Japan from a different perspective