Straitjacket
Society (An Insider's Irreverent View of Bureaucratic Japan) -
Masao Miyamoto, M.D.
A non-fictional book you wish was fictional. When we
lament the "bureaucracy" everywhere, we can read this book and
thank God that we do not have the kind of bureaucracy in Japan.
Funny, yet at the same time tragic, in this book, you will see
how messed up the all-pervasive bureaucracy is in Japan. And
within it, is a microcosm of the Japanese culture and psyche.
Where people stay in the office to insane hours of the night even
when they do not have anything to do. Where watching TV on
the job is an accepted part of working. And more... simply
because the one rule in the office is: do not rock the boat.
The author was a Japanese expatriate who returned to Japan and
found himself facing all kinds of hardships in his workplace,
simply because he wants to work during office hours and go home
after. He finds that in Japan, there is no difference between
office hours and personal time, and that the Japanese people are,
in his words, unable to function without their roles and would be
lost and unable to control or face anything outside the ordinary
themselves without extreme behaviour.
An eye-opener of a book, which serves also as a warning to all
about not looking further than the surface, 4 out of 5.