Understanding Japanese Society (Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies)
Joy Hendry
Language: English
Pages: 256
ISBN: 0415679141
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
With the ever growing contact between Japan and the rest of the world comes an increasingly important need to understand a society that is fascinating but still often confusing to the outsider. In this brand new fourth edition of Understanding Japanese Society Joy Hendry brings the reader up to date both with recent changes as Japan hit the world headlines under the triple 2011 disasters, and with underlying continuities in ways of thinking that have matured over a long history of dealing with foreign influences and an unpredictable environment.
This welcome new edition of Hendry’s bestselling introductory textbook provides a clear, accessible and readable introduction to Japanese society which does not require any previous knowledge of the country. Fully updated, revised and expanded, the fourth edition contains new material on:
- the effects of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters of 2011
- a renewed interest in politics and popular participation
- increased frequency of local spiritual support as unemployment continues to grow, and marriage gets later and later
- the effects of a dramatic drop in the birth rate on Japan’s education system
- the continuing global success of Japanese animation, manga and computer games despite a turn away from international travel
- the cool new Ainu, the attraction of healing Okinawa, and changes among other Japanese minorities
- a new role for Japanese fathers in child-rearing
This book will be invaluable to all students studying Japan. It will also enlighten those travellers and business people wishing to gain an understanding of the Japanese people.
The History and Culture of Japanese Food
Race for Empire: Koreans as Japanese and Japanese as Americans during World War II
Folk Legends from Tono: Japan's Spirits, Deities, and Phantastic Creatures
Japanese Cinema: Film Style and National Character
experiences that I cannot possibly list everyone who has had a part to play, but I must single out a few names and places. For my initiation to Japanese society in 1971, I must first of all thank all my fellow residents at English House in Shibuya, and other friends made at that time, in particular those who have remained firm friends over the years since then and thus provided me with an intimate diachronic perspective. To them I dedicate the book. Professor Yoshida Teigo has been my
those expressing opposition to Narita airport, have been reported in the international press. More recently, however, students have become less and less interested in politics, and more interested in international travel as a means to dabble in freedom from the constraints of Japanese society. About one-third of the graduates from high school go on to higher education in Japan at present, but there is a big difference at this stage between the courses chosen by boys and by girls. Four-year degree
immediate action of a drastic kind, although certain less controversial aspects of the report are gradually being implemented. The discussion is vaguely reminiscent of that which surrounded ideas for reforming the family system in the Meiji period, and it may well run on for just as long. During visits to primary schools in 1994, I was told about innovations such as ‘team teaching’ and ‘streaming’ within classes. The teachers I met also used other English words to describe activities which they
journalist, Kamata Satoshi (1983), who posed as a seasonal worker for a period of six months to experience at first hand the life of an automobile factory, and subsequently published an account of his experience in diary form. An ethnography which successfully probes and penetrates the ideology of a large enterprise is Noguchi’s book (1990) about the National Railways which was mentioned in Chapter 2. He portrays the meaning of belonging to such a huge concern from the differing points of view of
to study them (see the next section). The iemoto system has survived better in some arts than in others, and O’Neill (1984:643) suggests that one of the factors affecting this is whether or not the art is a creative or developing one. If the emphasis is on the preservation of tradition, as in no and the tea ceremony, the iemoto system tends to be maintained, although factions may still develop and lead to divisions within groups. If the art is more open to innovation, like flower arranging, dance