Right now I'm reading >Speed Tribes by Karl Taro Greenfeld, which is really some amazing journalism. It's about the dark side of the new generation of Japan after the collapse of the "bubble" economy. It's 10 years old by now but hasn't aged too poorly, probably due to the precision and accuracy of the portraiture (unlike most books like this that are written by slightly out-of-touch journalists about trends that are slightly behind the curve, then by the time they are completed and on the market, it's almost already too late to matter). Look for the book and Check some new Taro Greenfeld writing on new Japan on Salon.com