Alex Kerr Named As Yokoso! Ambassador

[Mulboyne]

[Captain Japan]

This isn't from the Onion?

[Behan]

Won't he just tell people not to come to Japan?

[Mike Oxlong]

I imagine the brothels set up for the occupation forces did more for Yokoso! Japan than any campaign before or since...

[Catoneinutica]

Won't he just tell people not to come to Japan?

He'll tell people that the only place to experience the real Japan is at his Destination Resort in Shikoku.

[Mulboyne]

The Yokoso! Japan 2008 campaign will run from today through to the end of February. Apparently major department stores and shopping malls will have special offers for foreign tourists while popular destinations like Nikko, Kyoto and Kinugawa will be putting on demonstrations of the tea ceremony and other aspects of traditional Japanese culture. (Source: Nikkei)

[gkanai]

I really like Kerr both as an author and as a person but I'm not sure if the Yokoso! Japan committee read Kerr's "Dogs & Demons" as it's not especially a great 'welcome mat' to Japan per se...

[dimwit]

I'm pretty sure they have read it and it is the philosophical underpinning for the Koizumi/Abe 'bring back the Edo period' policies. His influence is not unlike that of Houston Steward Chamberlain some previous century policy wonks.

[Taro Toporific]

[Mulboyne]

[quote="Alex Kerr wrote"]In fact, this year I’]

Sounds like all he needs to do is contact Shigeru Itou.

Brett Walker, chair of the Department of History and Philosophy at Montana State University, Bozeman, will also publish a book soon called “The Toxic Archipelago: Technological Risk, Environmental Pollution, and Human Pain in Japanese History.”