17 MAY 1957, Page 23

Picture of Japan, by Cohn Simpson (Angus and Robertson, 2

Is.): Australian professional

writer goes to Japan to write a plain middlebrow guide to Japanese life today with an anti- Japanese audience in mind and Australian terms of reference and comparison all through. A roufine job, but conscientious and lively, with Japan's exotic, blossomy self coming through the rather lumpish writing—an interesting, appalling chapter on Hiroshima; an excursion among the charming Filipinos, surely among the world's handsomest people; and excellent photographs, imaginatively arranged.