Salaryman in Japan

By Jake Adelstein

You wouldn’t expect The Japan Travel Bureau to put out the finest sociological treatise about the pathology and isolation of modern life in Japan, but here it is. It’s a hilarious and disturbingly accurate read about the daily life of Japan’s favorite workhorse — the company man. Now an endangered species as the younger generation drinks less, and lifetime employment keeps vanishing, they were the foundation of modern Japan.

The book has gone through several editions and each one reflects the time period in which it was written. The ever-updated, ever-relevant Japanese version of The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit.

Though you can find a thousand dry, ponderous tomes that try to explain the why behind the fact that many Japanese workers’ lives are confined, boring, and oppressive, few will just tell you the way that it is. The dysfunctional households, the absentee father, the pains of having to play golf.

Who cares about the why? It’s the how and the now (that was) that are interesting.

In any case, explanations would take away from the space alloted for the amazing illustrations. Don’t waste your time taking Japanese studies at Harvard, just buy this book — in the space of an hour, you’ll be a Japan expert! Okay, more like a modern Japanese history expert, but you’ll still understand more than half of the Japan pundits out there.