Growing up in an American Navy family, Alex Kerr lived in many places including Italy, Hawaii and Washington DC.
But it was Kameoka in Japan, that he came to call home, and where a lifelong fascination with Japan began. He majored in Japanese studies at Yale University and later returned to Japan to live there full time.
Alex Kerr is a writer, and has been an art dealer, house restorer and translator.
In his latest book Hidden Japan, Alex Kerr takes readers outside of the hotspots of Tokyo and Kyoto to some of Japan's lesser known areas, and discusses the dilemma that tourism presents.