Japan's curious passion for the business novel

I would say a lot of fiction operates as an outlet for our suppressed day-to-day desires. By anecdote alone, there's likely an inverse relationship between the level of emotional self-expression allowed in society and the degree of escapism in that society's stories.

Japanese anime and manga comes to mind. Although not all of the medium panders, the shonen, shojo, josei, seinen and other mainstream categories tend to have highly dynamic, energetic, characters who speak and act in all sorts of absolute ways: stories too unbelievable normally to occur in real Japanese society.

We certainly have our own unbelievable, fulfillment stories in America, especially in comic books. But where Batman, Superman, The Avengers have become a hit around in international markets besides America, Japan non-cute stories have yet to achieve that kind of universal appeal.

I will admit to some bias here since I grew up on Japanese culture, and like anything else, I've come to, incorrectly, associate it with childishness.

I wonder what the Japanese Salaryman would make of Floyd Kemske's work:

http://www.catbirdpress.com/authorpages/kemske.htm

I hope they finally pick up Richard Morgans "Market Forces" for cinema. Asian film art would fit perfectly.