An introduction to Japanese society / Yoshio Sugimoto.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sugimoto, Yoshio, 1939- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

National characteristics, Japanese.

Japan--Social conditions--1945-.

Japan.

Social conditions.

Japan--Social life and customs.

Manners and customs.

Physical Description:

xv, 396 pages : illustrations, map ; 25 cm

Edition:

Fifth edition.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2021.

Summary:

An Introduction to Japanese Society provides a highly readable introduction to Japanese society by internationally renowned scholar Yoshio Sugimoto. Taking a sociological approach, the text examines the multifaceted nature of contemporary Japanese society with chapters covering class, geographical and generational variation, work, education, gender, ethnicity, religion, popular culture, and the establishment. This edition begins with a new historical introduction placing the sociological analysis of contemporary Japan in context, and includes a new chapter on religion and belief systems. Comprehensively revised to include current research and statistics, the text covers changes to the labor market, evolving conceptions of family and gender, demographic shifts in an aging society, and the emergence of new social movements. Each chapter now contains illustrative case examples, research questions, recommended further readings and useful online resources. Written in a lively and engaging style, An Introduction to Japanese Society remains essential reading for all students of Japanese society.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: ch. 1 Historical backdrop: disintegration and restoration

I. Introduction

II. Japan as a variable

1. Japan's external boundaries

2. Internal rivalry

III. Ancient times up to the Nara period

IV. Heian period: rise and fall of the nobility

V. The ascent of the samurai class and the duality of power

VI. Disintegration: the Warring States period

1. The ascendancy of daimyo

2. Recentralization and external expansionism

VII. Tokugawa: sweeping centralization and national closure

1. Centralization

2. National seclusion

3. Demography and status classification

4. Commoners' culture

5. Modernity in late Tokugawa Japan

VIII. The Meiji Restoration

1. Alliance of strong peripheral domains in the west and the south

2. The end of power duality: the establishment of Tokyo as the capital

3. Rapid catch-up programs from above

4. Land tax reform and the `parasite' landlord class

5. Expansionism and colonization

IX. Taisho democracy

X. The Fifteen Years' War

1. The Manchurian Incident

2. The Second Sino-Japanese War

3. The Pacific War

XI. Looking ahead

XII. Conclusion

Research questions

Further readings

ch. 2 The Japan phenomenon: analysis and understanding

II. Sampling and visibility

III. Four models for understanding Japan

1. Monocultural model: group orientation and homogeneity

2. Multiethnic model: minority issues

3. Multiclass model: social stratification and inequality

4. Multicultural model

IV. Control of ideological capital

V. Seven phases of Japan analysis

VI. Three areas of deliberation

1. Convergence debate

2. Cultural relativism

3. Legitimation of dual codes

VII. Conclusion

Online resources

ch. 3 Class: stratification and disparity

II. From middle-class society to disparity society

III. Classification of classes and segments

1. Hashimoto's model

2. Kikkawa's model: eight-segment analysis

3. Status inconsistency

4. Postmodernity and upper goods

IV. Reproduction of inequality

1. Inheritance of financial and property assets

2. Socialization and marriage

V. Debate and caution about the kakusa shakai thesis

VI. Japanese emic concepts of class

ch. 4 Generations and geography: variations in an aging society

II. A rapidly aging society

1. Prolonged life expectancy

2. Declining birth rate

3. Pressure on the welfare structure

III. Generational variations

1. The wartime generation

2. The postwar generation

3. The prosperity generation

4. The global generation

IV. Geographical variations

1. Japan as a conglomerate of subnations

2. Eastern versus western Japan

3. Center versus periphery

4. Ideological centralization

V. Conclusion

ch. 5 Work: `Japanese-style' management and cultural capitalism

II. Small businesses: evolving bedrock of the economy

1. Small businesses as numerical majority

2. Plurality of small businesses

III. Large companies: `Japanese-style' management in transition

1. Firm-based internal labor markets

2. Manipulative definition of employee ability

3. The family metaphor as a socialization device

IV. Social costs of `Japanese' work style

1. Excessive hours of work

2. Karoshi

3. Tanshin funin

V. Job market rationalization

1. Casualization of labor

2. Performance-based model

VI. Cultural capitalism: an emerging megatrend

VII. Enterprise unionism and labor movements

1. Decline and skewing in union membership

2. Capital-labor cooperation

VIII. Conclusion

ch. 6 Education: diversity and unity

II. Demography and stratification uy

1. Two paths of schooling: academic and vocational

2. The ideology of educational credentialism

3. The commercialization of education

4. School-business interactions

5. Articulation of class lines

III. State control of education

1. Textbook authorization

2. Curriculum guidelines

3. Conformist patterns of socialization

IV. Regimentation and its costs

1. Excessive teacher control

2. Costs of regulatory education

V. Continuity and change in university life

VI. English: means of status attainment?

VII. Competing educational orientations

1. Market-oriented neoliberals

2. Regulatory pluralists

3. Anti-government democrats

4. Developmental conservatives

ch. 7 Gender and family: challenges to ideology

II. The household registration system and ie ideology

1. Household head

2. Children born out of wedlock

3. Deterrence to divorce

4. Surname after marriage

5. Family tomb

6. Seki and ie

III. The labor market and women's employment profiles

1. The flattening M-shaped curve

2. The two-tier structure of the internal market

3. Four types of married women

IV. Control of the female body

1. Contraception and abortion

2. Domestic violence

3. Sexual harassment

V. Marriage and divorce

VI. Types of households

1. Spread of single-person households

2. Nuclear family patterns

3. Decline in extended families

4. Schematic summary of the family

VII. Gender and sexual diversity

ch. 8 Ethnicity and Japaneseness: defining the nation

II. Japanese ethnocentrism

III. Indigenous Ainu

IV. Buraku liberation issues

V. Zainichi Koreans

1. Nationality and name issues

2. Generational change and internal diversity

3. Advancement and backlash

VI. Immigrant workers

VII. Deconstructing the Japanese

VIII. Problems and pitfalls

IX. Japan beyond Japan

X. Conclusion

ch. 9 The establishment: competition and collusion

II. The three-way deadlock

III. The dominance of the public bureaucracy

1. Regulatory control

2. Amakudari

3. Administrative guidance

IV. Two competing political economies

1. The business community's push for deregulation

2. Privatization of public enterprises

3. Globalism versus nationalism

V. Interest groups in support of the LDP

VI. The challenges of reforming political culture

1. Heavy reliance on the bureaucracy

2. Money politics and its social basis

3. Local politics against the national bureaucracy

VII. The case of Fukushima: collusive center and civil defiance

1. TEPCO and the nuclear village

2. Manipulation of hardship on the periphery

3. Division in the business and civil communities

VIII. The history war

IX. The media establishment

1. A high degree of centralization

2. Similarities with other large corporations

3. Institutional linkage with the establishment

X. Five rifts in the elite structure

XI. Conclusion

ch. 10 Religion: belief and secularization

II. Traditional religions

1. Shinto

2. Buddhism

3. Christianity

III. New religions

1. The expansion of new religions

2. Spirituality movements

IV. Aspects of this-worldliness

1. Worshippers' earthly expectations

2. Religion as business

3. Religion and the state

V. Revitalization amid secularization

VI. Conclusion

ch. 11 Culture: the popular and the cool

II. The two dualities of Japanese culture

1. Elite versus popular culture

2. Traditional versus imported culture

III. Mass culture

1. Entertainment media

2. Cost-effective diversions

3. Cross-status cultural consumption

IV. Folk culture

1. Local festivals as occasions of hare

2. Regional variation of folk culture

3. Marginal art

V. Alternative culture

1. Mini-communication media and online papers

2. Countercultural events and performances

3. Communes and the natural economy

VI. The political economy of Cool Japan

1. Manga: groundwork for Cool Japan

2. Cool Japan as commercial market

3. Cool Japan abroad

4. Producers and consumers

5. Promise or illusion?

6. Counterculture or postmodern Nihonjinron?

ch. 12 Civil society: activism and friendly authoritarianism

II. The fragmentation of social relations

III. Post-Fukushima protest movements

1. Demonstrations on the streets

2. Characteristics of participants

3. Social segment effects

IV. Volunteers, NPOs, NGOs, and resident movements

1. Volunteers

2. NPOs and NGOs

3. The prevalence of resident movements

4. Three-dimensional typology

Contents note continued: 5. Interest groups

V. Seikatsusha as an emic concept of citizens

VI. Friendly authoritarianism

1. Mutual surveillance within small groups

2. Visible and tangible power

3. Manipulation of ambiguity

4. Moralizing and mind correctness

Online resources.

Notes:

Previous edition: 2014.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781108724746

1108724744

OCLC:

1197760918