Rating: 
Summary: Hackneyed, Pompous and Pretentious
Review: The chapters on Kansai are original and by far the most enjoyable elements in this book - but, overall, give me Alan Booth any day for a fresh and insightful view of Japan. Kerr's book is a very personal (and not unsympathetic)account written, it might seem, to counter criticism he received as a student of Japanese. The book is littered with name-dropping to no apparent end and the very title (in Japanese) which draws parallels with Proust, is ludicrous. The fact that it won a Japanese literary prize is enormously revealing about the Japanese public in itself (and not very flattering). Kerr is undoubtedly very knowledgeable but I'd rather not have this rammed down my throat!
Rating: 
Summary: sweet pleasure from a closely fashioned collection of essays
Review: There's a great deal going on in this book - yet it comes in an easily-handled paperback - the writing is careful and considerate - and charming - guiding the reader through what is really an awesome love letter and critique of both the state of the traditional arts and the art of living in Japan. Alex Kerr has a great eye. The book is fun and informative and sentimental without being syrupy.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting but Incomplete Cultural Criticism
Review: This book had an unusual origin. The author is an expatriate American and long-time resident of Japan, and this book was written originally in Japanese for a Japanese audience. It was translated subsequently into English, but not by the author, who apparently found it difficult to reformulate his book in English. The theme of the book is the decay of traditional Japan. Kerr is an aesthete, and both devoted and clearly knowledgeable about many aspects of Japanese culture. He is also a man who worked for almost a decade for a large American corporation and became knowledgeable about business. He came to Japan in the early 70s, just as the final remnants of traditional rural Japan were being swept away by development. He explores his theme from a number of angles. Each chapter is devoted to an aspect of traditional Japanese culture that is vanishing or under siege; Kabuki, traditional urban architecture, rural beauty, Zen temples, the city of Kyoto; the traditional rambunctiousness of Osaka. These topics are explored in the form of brief memoirs of Kerr's initial encounters with each aspect of Japanese life and/or travels in Japan. Kerr is a good writer and each chapter is both well constructed and contains interesting information. He does a very good job of conveying the unique features of traditional Japanese culture and the rather bland, pseudo-Western culture that has replaced it. He is not entirely pessimistic either; he clearly views Japanese society as possessing considerable capacity for responding creatively to external challenges and internal decline. What this book lacks is a really good analysis of what causes this phenomenon. He identifies the conformist nature of Japanese society as a major culprit but this is an incomplete answer. Homogenization of culture is a worldwide phenomenon, perhaps more obvious in Japan because of the very distinctive nature of Japanese culture. While the loss of traditional culture is regrettable, to some extent it is an inevitable consequence of marked rises in the standard of living and the erosion of a largely authoritarian, defence based society. These are not phenomena unique to Japan though the speed of the transition is very rapid.
Rating:
Summary: unique & revelatory
Review: This book is more or less a collection of loosely connected essays about Japan and its culture based on the author's own experiences living in Japan as an art collector and business person. Having lived in Japan for several years myself, I found the book extremely interesting and full of insight. You won't run into too many expatriates who have hung around backstage at kabuki, restored a Japanese thatched-roof farmhouse, became an asian art collector, lived on the precincts of a temple as well as took part in the heady bubble-era as a business person. I feel grateful that these unique experiences were written down for all to see.
Rating: 
Summary: A passionate, but reactionary book
Review: This book, written from an experience of living in Japan for 30 years, highlights many of the experiences the author has taken. It is however quite self indulgent in it's content.Contrast Alex Kerr's description of Kabuki, with Dave Barry's "Somebody stab him again." Alex has entered a private world that few are able to enter,and as such is dying from it's own asphyxiation. There is beauty to be seen here, and is being lost in Japan but Alex's description of it comes across as a reactionary rant. That said though, sometimes it takes an outsider to point out what is wrong with the inside. This book, written in 1996 also serves as a prequel to Dogs and Demons, which is a much better, more detailed and objective look at the problems besetting Japan.
Rating:
Summary: A Very Enjoyable Read
Review: This is a highly intelligent and especially thoughtful book that kept my interest from beginning to end. Having studied about, and recently returned from, Japan, I very much enjoyed it. The author explains and lauds certain aspects of Japanese culture where warranted, but also takes Japan to task in certain important respects - especially its destruction of the rural landscape - rather than subscribing wholesale to "Japan awe". I am impressed with the fact that Japan awarded the book an important literary prize (the first given to a non-Japanese author) and can see why they did so. The author is not self-absorbed, as a few reviewers suggest. He is a genuinely accomplished and interesting fellow, and refers only to his own experiences to illustrate and advance the particular topic he is writing about. All in all, a very enjoyable read.
Rating:
Summary: You will love this book if you have actually lived in Japan
Review: This was one of most superb books I have ever read on Japan. Having lived in Western Japan for two years, I found Kerr's insights right on. I have read and kept up on a number of Japanese analysts and Kerr's assessment of the beauty and losses of Japan is subtle and genuine. Ignore the readers on this page who gave it 1-star. This book is best for those who have actually lived in Japan for a significant amount of time, have studied various works on Japan, and better yet, have been to the Kansai region. I have lived in Kyoto and I absolutely LOVED the chapter "Kyoto hates Kyoto." No one who has ever been to that historical city can deny that glass-box architecture-loving Japanese-futurists promoted the 'uglification' of the most important city in Japan. I didn't find Kerr elitist; he is interested in different art forms than many regular citizens in Japan, but I urge anyone who loves and has lived in Japan to consider this book. Awesome.
Rating: 
Summary: Forget it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: Well, having studied and indulged myself in Japan, country, culture and people, what a let down the book "Lost Japan" was to read. Why do people, who seek to bridge the "gap" of understanding between the Japan of old and new, and the outside world, always set out to justify their own position as "heir apparent" know it all's. Kerr's opinionated accounts of his "exploits" in around and use of Japan, are really to be read with dismay. To the point, the only thing "Lost" in Kerr's book is himself. Don't waste your money.
Far better to acquire Alan Brown's recent novel, "Audrey Hepburn's Neck", which is simply superb!!!
Particularly for those who wish to understand, appreciate and enjoy, the "Secret Kingdom".
Rating:
Summary: Insightful and beautiful, but overwhelmingly elitist
Review: When Alex Kerr talks about "Lost Japan," it is clearly his own personal Japan that is being lost. He speaks fondly of the "literati" of old Japan, a group of well-off leisure class who whistled their days away creating art and appreciating beauty, free of toil or earthly constraints. Oxford and Yale educated, coming from money, Kerr firmly sees himself as the last vanguard of the literati, and his lifestyle is leaving him. The lifestyle of the educated elite. Composed of a series of unrelated articles, the book tells the tale of Kerr's life, of things that happen to capture his fancy, and of the intersecting lives of wealthy art dealers, artists and artisans. Everyone in the book is a genius. Everyone, the last embodiment of their vanishing breed. The world has become too cold to appreciate them. This is the Japan that is lost. The book is incredibly well-written, and Kerr sees with the eyes of an artist. He has insights into parts of Japanese culture that would normally be closed, such as the back stage scene of Kabuki theater. His writing is strong enough to make you long for that vanishing Japan. Secret places and unappreciated nooks will appear as interesting as the most famous temple in Kyoto. Worth reading and enjoyable, but ultimately a grain of salt is needed. Kerr's elitism leaves him blind to anything modern, any new artistic innovation or art form. He sees only the past, and wants to capture Japan like a photograph, and preserve it forever.
Rating:
Summary: Insightful and beautiful, but overwhelmingly elitist
Review: When Alex Kerr talks about "Lost Japan," it is clearly his own personal Japan that is being lost. He speaks fondly of the "literati" of old Japan, a group of well-off leisure class who whistled their days away creating art and appreciating beauty, free of toil or earthly constraints. Oxford and Yale educated, coming from money, Kerr firmly sees himself as the last vanguard of the literati, and his lifestyle is leaving him. The lifestyle of the educated elite. Composed of a series of unrelated articles, the book tells the tale of Kerr's life, of things that happen to capture his fancy, and of the intersecting lives of wealthy art dealers, artists and artisans. Everyone in the book is a genius. Everyone, the last embodiment of their vanishing breed. The world has become too cold to appreciate them. This is the Japan that is lost. The book is incredibly well-written, and Kerr sees with the eyes of an artist. He has insights into parts of Japanese culture that would normally be closed, such as the back stage scene of Kabuki theater. His writing is strong enough to make you long for that vanishing Japan. Secret places and unappreciated nooks will appear as interesting as the most famous temple in Kyoto. Worth reading and enjoyable, but ultimately a grain of salt is needed. Kerr's elitism leaves him blind to anything modern, any new artistic innovation or art form. He sees only the past, and wants to capture Japan like a photograph, and preserve it forever.
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