Homo Japonicus - Muriel Jolivet

This is a book by Muriel Jolivet that was published in 2000. It is a long series of very personal and revealing interviews with Japanese men about all manner of pressing issues in their lives. I have been living in Japan for a while now, enough to wear that well known complacent frown that has "this place holds no secrets for me anymore" written all over it, yet when I picked this book up and began reading I was slapped and punched back into humble order - thank god! I have been acquainted with a few Japanese men over time whether through work, or at social events but the conversations were never went below the surface of things. Jolivet dares and succeeds in taking us far below to the depths of these men's lives and it what we find is usually contrary to expectations. If I met Muriel Jolivet in person, I would like to ask how she managed to persuade so many men to speak so open-heartedly to her, a stranger and a foreigner. In speculation, perhaps it was a type of 'therapy' for these men, and the neutrality of her position in relationship to their lives may have been reason enough for them to confide.