Alone in Japan

A journey to the future...

In the early 1990s, when Tom Feiling first arrived in Tokyo as a student, Japan seemed to embody the future. The country stood at the height of its global prestige: an economic powerhouse whose corporations dominated world markets, a technological innovator shaping the devices and systems of modern life, and a society admired for its efficiency, civility, and prosperity. To many observers at the time, Japan appeared to offer a model for the twenty-first century, a vision of what advanced modern societies might soon become.

More than two decades later, Feiling returned. The neon lights of Tokyo still glowed, the bullet trains still ran with clockwork precision, and the streets remained strikingly safe and orderly. On the surface, Japan’s success story seemed intact. Yet as he began to look more closely, Feiling realized something profound had changed. Japan was still a sign of things to come, but it was no longer simply a beacon of progress. Instead, it had begun to resemble a warning: a glimpse of social and demographic challenges that many developed nations may soon face.

His book, Alone in Japan, offers a deeply reported and intimate portrait of contemporary Japanese life. Traveling across the country, from remote mountain villages and aging farming communities to the restless energy of vast metropolitan centers, Feiling encounters a society undergoing a quiet but far-reaching transformation. The Japan he observes is still peaceful, prosperous, and technologically advanced. But beneath this stability lies a demographic shift of historic scale.

Japan’s population is shrinking, and doing so at a remarkable pace. If current trends continue, each new generation could be roughly a third smaller than the one before it. The consequences ripple through every corner of society: schools closing in rural areas, entire villages populated mostly by the elderly, and cities where more people than ever are living alone.

Through journeys that take him from ancient shrines and neighborhood bars to rice paddies, mango farms, coffee shops, and retirement homes, Feiling meets the individuals whose lives illustrate these changes. Young professionals navigating demanding work cultures, middle-aged men and women who never married, elderly couples living in nearly empty towns, and entrepreneurs building new forms of community in an increasingly solitary society, all contribute their voices to the story.

Drawing on extensive research and countless interviews, Feiling explores a central question: why are so many people in Japan no longer pairing off and having children? His investigation reveals a complex interplay of forces: economic insecurity, changing gender roles, demanding workplace expectations, shifting cultural attitudes toward marriage, and evolving ideas about intimacy and independence. Sexual behaviors and romantic expectations, he suggests, are both shaped by the modern economy and, in turn, reshaping it.

Alone in Japan is not merely a story of decline. It also considers the possibilities emerging from this new social landscape. As solo living becomes more common, new forms of community, creativity, and personal freedom are appearing alongside the challenges of loneliness and demographic contraction.

The result is a vivid, thought-provoking portrait of modern Japan; a nation confronting profound questions about love, work, family, and the meaning of connection in the twenty-first century. This book is simultaneously a work of travel writing, social investigation, and cultural reflection, it examines how the forces reshaping Japan today may soon influence societies around the world.

Clear-eyed, surprising, and deeply human, Alone in Japan offers a powerful exploration of love, sex, aging, and mortality in contemporary Japan, an electrifying account of a nation standing at a demographic crossroads, written by one of today’s most perceptive reporters.

I couldn’t put it down.

Please buy your copy from The Honnomushi Cat Bookshop and claim your 20% discount by using the code WABISABI20