Ratings1
Average rating3
Essential reading for students of Japanese society, An Introduction to Japanese Society now enters its third edition. Here, internationally renowned scholar, Yoshio Sugimoto, writes a sophisticated, yet highly readable and lucid text, using both English and Japanese sources to update and expand upon his original narrative. The book challenges the traditional notion that Japan comprises a uniform culture, and draws attention to its subcultural diversity and class competition. Covering all aspects of Japanese society, it includes chapters on class, geographical and generational variation, work, education, gender, minorities, popular culture and the establishment. This new edition features sections on: Japan's cultural capitalism; the decline of the conventional Japanese management model; the rise of the 'socially divided society' thesis; changes of government; the spread of manga, animation and Japan's popular culture overseas; and the expansion of civil society in Japan.
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1 released bookContemporary Japanese Society is a 1-book series first released in 1997 with contributions by Yoshio Sugimoto.
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This book only retained its three star rating because its content was genuinely interesting throughout, though the end of the book felt very stretched at times.
The author has to be aware of the fact that his book is doubtlessly mandatory in many non-English speaking university courses, read by students on a time limit, so I struggle to understand why he uses so many unnecessarily difficult words.
Most of the words I had to look up could have been replaced by easier alternatives, without altering the quality of the text, but instead the author opted to showcase his proficiency. I would understand if it were just terminology, but that wasn't the case.
Overall, it's a good book if you want to learn about Japanese society. Some of the topics and arguments could have been fleshed out more, but as it's an introduction, I can see why the author chooses to leave them out.