In this haunting work of journalistic investigation, Haruki Murakami tells the story of the horrific terrorist attack on Japanese soil that shook the entire world. On a clear spring day in 1995, five members of a religious cult unleashed poison gas on the Tokyo subway system. In attempt to discover why, Haruki Murakmi talks to the people who lived through the catastrophe, and in so doing lays bare the Japanese psyche. As he discerns the fundamental issues that led to the attack, Murakami paints a clear vision of an event that could occur anytime, anywhere.

This book examines the haunting, sad, and lively depths of the Japanese soul by interpreting some of major themes in fairy tales. A Japanese Jungian psychologist credited with founding Japanese analytical and clinical psychology and a senior professor at Kyoto University, Hayao Kawai (1928-2007) addresses here such questions as why so many Japanese fairy tales end in a "Happily ever after" marriage, and why the female figure best expresses the culture's ego and the country's possible future. Throughout the book, Kawai delicately presents the multiple layers of the Japanese psyche.The American poet and essayist Gary Snyder, who lived for years in Japan, gaining familiarity with the soul of its culture and thought, introduces Kawai's book to the reader.

Dreams, Myths and Fairy Tales in Japan addresses Japanese culture insightfully, exploring the depths of the psyche from both Eastern and Western perspectives, an endeavor the author is uniquely suited to undertake. The present volume is based upon five lectures originally delivered at the prestigious round-table Eranos Conferences in Ascona, Switzerland. Readers interested in Japanese myth and religion, comparative cultural studies, depth psychology or clinical psychology will all find Professor Kawai’s offerings to be remarkably insightful while at the same time practical for their own daily work. From the contents: –Interpenetration: Dreams in Medieval Japan –Bodies in the Dream Diary of Myôe –Japanese Mythology: Balancing the Gods –Japanese Fairy Tales: The Aesthetic Solution –Torikaebaya: A Tale of Changing Sexual Roles

“Arguably the greatest living travel writer” (Outside magazine), Pico Iyer has called Japan home for more than three decades. But, as he is the first to admit, the country remains an enigma even to its long-term residents. In A Beginner’s Guide to Japan, Iyer draws on his years of experience—his travels, conversations, readings, and reflections—to craft a playful and profound book of surprising, brief, incisive glimpses into Japanese culture. He recounts his adventures and observations as he travels from a meditation hall to a love hotel, from West Point to Kyoto Station, and from dinner with Meryl Streep to an ill-fated call to the Apple service center in a series of provocations guaranteed to pique the interest and curiosity of those who don’t know Japan—and to remind those who do of its myriad fascinations.

"Slim, well-researched, and readable, this is not only a social history of an ethnic community but a gateway into the ancient psyche of the Japanese." --The San Francisco Review of Books "... straightforward... informative... " --Contemporary Sociology "The Japanese American Experience... will be used with profit by professors and students in sociology and ethnic studies courses, for it is the best general text on Japanese Americans currently in print."--The Journal of American History "... a succinct and insightful account of the community's early struggle for survival in a racist society... " --American Historical Review This concise history of three generations of Japanese Americans focuses on their collective response to the challenges of discrimination and to the strikingly different historical circumstances each generation has faced.

“A blistering and truly original work of reporting and analysis, uncovering America’s role in homogenizing how the world defines wellness and healing” (Po Bronson). In Crazy Like Us, Ethan Watters reveals that the most devastating consequence of the spread of American culture has not been our golden arches or our bomb craters but our bulldozing of the human psyche itself: We are in the process of homogenizing the way the world goes mad. It is well known that American culture is a dominant force at home and abroad; our exportation of everything from movies to junk food is a well-documented phenomenon. But is it possible America's most troubling impact on the globalizing world has yet to be accounted for? American-style depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and anorexia have begun to spread around the world like contagions, and the virus is us. Traveling from Hong Kong to Sri Lanka to Zanzibar to Japan, acclaimed journalist Ethan Watters witnesses firsthand how Western healers often steamroll indigenous expressions of mental health and madness and replace them with our own. In teaching the rest of the world to think like us, we have been homogenizing the way the world goes mad.

"This book addresses a fundamental question - the universality of human nature ... Drawing upon work with patients and therapists in both India and Japan, he describes the profound difference between the Western individualized self and the familial self so central to Asian culture ... Of particular value is Roland's sensitive treatment of the evolving identity of women in the two cultures, as well as his exploration of the deeply significant spiritual self, a topic that is largely neglected in Western theory and practice."--Choice.