Every Human Intention: Japan in the New Century

Outside the latest season of Terrace House on Netflix, North America’s access to stories from inside Japan can often feel stuck in the past. Richard attempts to close this gap with his first collection of essays that look at events in post-Fukushima Japan. The lengthy collection dives into three important policy matters often ignored by the outside world: immigration, population decline, and the nuclear industry. In the first third of the book, Richard follows Nigerian immigrants through the restrictive visa system. He then travels north to explore the dying cities in the sparsely populated island of Hokkaido. The book ends with an extremely detailed exposé on the politics behind Japan Atomic Power Company’s safety record. While the book presents a Japan that few foreigners ever see, the drama of Nigerian men managing two families on different continents gives way to what amounts to a forensics report on the politics and management of post-Fukushima power plants.