An Introduction to Japanese Society

Recently Alan Macfarlane in his Japan Through the Looking Glass (2007), rejecting cultural relativism, defined Japanese culture in terms of its differences and similarities with the West (How homogenous is the West really, I wonder?) Chapter 2 probes the tatemae that Japan is a society with a large...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAsian Studies Review Vol. 33; no. 2; p. 234
Main Author Bayari, Celal
Format Book Review
LanguageEnglish
Published Nathan Taylor & Francis Ltd 01.06.2009
Subjects
Culture
Foreign residents
Income inequality
Political parties
Society
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Summary:Recently Alan Macfarlane in his Japan Through the Looking Glass (2007), rejecting cultural relativism, defined Japanese culture in terms of its differences and similarities with the West (How homogenous is the West really, I wonder?) Chapter 2 probes the tatemae that Japan is a society with a large middle class and instead finds a worse class stratification than exists in other advanced capitalist countries as Japan has greater income inequality (p. 35). Chapter 7 discusses Japan's Korean community, Ainu people, increasing numbers of foreign workers (some of whom have Japanese ancestry) and "Japan literate" foreign residents who provide "a significant input to Japanese society" (p. 209).
ISSN:1035-7823
1467-8403