What are people's life experiences in present-day Japan? This
timely volume addresses fundamental questions vital to under-
standing Japan in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Its
chapters collectively reveal a questioning of middle-class ideals
once considered the essence of Japaneseness. In the postwar model
household a man was expected to obtain a job at a major firm that
offered life-long employment; his counterpart, the professional
housewife, managed the domestic sphere and the children, who were
educated in a system that provided a path to mainstream success. In
the past twenty years, however, Japanese society has seen a sharp
increase in precarious forms of employment, higher divorce rates,
and a widening gap between haves and have-nots. Contributors draw
on rich, nuanced fieldwork data collected during the 2000s to
examine work, schooling, family and marital relations, child
rearing, entertainment, lifestyle choices, community support,
consumption and waste, material culture, well-being, aging, death
and memorial rites, and sexuality. The voices in these pages vary
widely: They include schoolchildren, teenagers, career women,
unmarried women, young mothers, people with disabilities, small
business owners, organic farmers, retirees, and the elderly.
General
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