Fairs are a big thing in Germany. There's a fair for everything and the visitors are not only salesmen, shopkeepers and journalists but crowds of ordinary people staring at the sweating employees of the exhibitors locked in cardboard shacks for days. It's always the same - whether you visit a fair for erotic paraphernalia or the CannaBusiness (Slogan: "Do more business with Cannabis!") recently held in Castrop-Rauxel, Northrhine-Westphalia's flashy megalopolis - flocks of housewives, high school students and pensioners carrying plastic bags filled with the pamphlets, flyers and freebies they already collected.
Anyway the annual Frankfurt Book Fair is considered to be of special cultural importance in a country thinking of itself as the home of the poets and thinkers although one fifth of the persons questioned in a recent inquiry had to admit that they have never been inside a bookshop in their entire life. But what has been offered on Japan for those still willing and able to read books? Lots. Lots of the same old stuff you would no longer want to read however: Books for clueless economists looking for ideas, books like "The Resilience of Corporate Japan: New Competitive Strategies and Personnel Practices" or "Japanese Cost Management."
But not only on the economic front stagnation prevailed. While there
was almost nothing on contemporary Japanese culture you didn't face any
trouble feeding a backward-oriented mind. "Kendo: The Definitive Guide"
and "Circles of the East: Quilt Designs from Ancient Japanese Family Crests"
are only two samples of the never-ending series of books dealing with all
aspects of a Japanese culture gone ages ago.
Hard times this October for those looking for some fresh prose fiction
novelwriting stuff from Japan. Only two of the 76 Japan-related books introduced
in Frankfurt fit into this category: "Dear Ken-chan" by Kazuko Winter and
"All She Was Worth" by Miyabe Miyuki.
Actually I still wonder why Jaroslaw Schmid's "Planes 1939-1945. Fighters
and Bombers of the USA" was spit out as Japan-related by the fair organizer's
electronic catalogue. You might be forced to retreat into the realms of
"The Silver Drum" by Princess Chichibu.
In spite of the fact that all major Japanese publishing houses from
A.D.A. Edita Tokyo Co.Ltd. to Yushodo Co.Ltd. have been represented in
Frankfurt there hasn't been much interesting news. The only one I'd really
recommend is "Die Rebellion des Koerpers. Butoh - ein Tanz aus Japan" by
Kawai Sumie and Michael Haerdter published by Alexander Verlag, a small
Berlin-based German publisher. Maybe the most interesting stuff just isn't
translated. When I went through the comics at Duesseldorf's Japanese bookstore
recently I discovered "Monster" an amazing series by Urasawa Naoki published
by Big Comics. The action takes place in Germany, Frankfurt, Berlin, even
Duesseldorf. Given the fact that there's a manga boom in Germany at the
moment, wouldn't a translation be a good idea to bring about intercultural
communication? The representatives of the Kodansha empire to which Big
Comics belongs as far as I've been told obviously didn't think so. Well,
"Monster" is about a German neonazi gang trying to make its leader Johann
another Adolf Hitler. Funny indeed? It reminded me of the way Hitler is
portrayed in the Gakken childrens' series "Nihon no rekishi": an angry-looking
dwarf kicking ass in Europe while the Japanese advance to liberate Asia.
A translation of the survival guides for Japanese sararimen doing time
in Duesseldorf isn't recommended either. Respect is something to be shown
by both sides in an intercultural dialogue and you shouldn't overestimate
the difficulties the other side might have in translating the nasty bits
any longer.
